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Matchbox Models of Yesteryear Y7-1 1918 Leyland 4 ton van

The 4 ton Leyland van was released in 1957, It was painted brown and shades vary from dark brown to a lighter brown and a reddish brown on the later issues, The first run had a white roof and all later ones had a cream roof, The radiator grille and grille shell were trimmed with silver but this was omitted on the later issues, The wheels were a plain disc type wheel which the dies probably wore out before the final run had been completed so it was fitted with black plastic wheels borrowed from the 1-75 series. Like the other models released so far it had crimped axles on the early issues and rounded axle ends on the later issues.
Fitted to each side of the van were decals for Jacobs Biscuits, Two unusual versions were found to have been released in Kenya and in Spain where the decal had the middle line of text missing, No satisfactory reason has been found for these odd decals but they have been found in two distinct types, One has a full size decal with just the text missing while the other type has had the text removed by cutting the line of text from the decal and the two remaining halves applied to the van, This is of course very easy to fake so be sure the model has not been tampered with before paying out a lot of money for it.
The roof of the van is rarely found in good shape due to it either being poorly cast or the roof itself is corroding causing the paint to bubble up. The Leyland was deleted in 1961 after just 4 years in production.


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The ones to look for, Models with the middle line of text missing or those fitted with black plastic wheels are both very rare