- Lledo
Lledo was a brand of
die cast toy s, founded in1982 by Matchbox co-founder Jack Odell and Burt Russell. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6282258.stm BBC NEWS | Business | Co-founder of Matchbox Toys dies ] ]Lledo was a reversal of Odell's own
surname , which set out to specialise in replicating early Matchbox series styles. Odell and Russell bought machinery from the Universal company ofHong Kong , who had brought and shipped the Matchbox manufacturing plant to Hong Kong. Odell and Russell re-shipped the machinery back to a factory inEnfield ,England where in April 1983 a new range called "Days Gone" was launched.The favourite model of collectors of the company's products was a
Ford Model T van, which then became the basis for the start of a series of limited edition models for gifts, product launches and special promotions; most commonly produced in limited edition runs of 500 or 1000 models. [ [http://www.ygrainger.freeserve.co.uk/die_cast.htm Lledo Collection at Masham Rally ] ] The company later launched the "Vanguards" range, which specialised in replica classic cars. [ [http://www.anglia-models.co.uk/lledo.htm Lledo Models of the Ford Anglia ] ]Although shipping high volumes of product, the company could not compete against low cost producers from both Hong Kong and
China , who also entered the special promotions market with high quality products. As a result, Lledo wentbankrupt in1999 , and the naming right and model range bought byCorgi . Corgi continued producing the range of models in China until 2005, when the remaining models were merged into the Corgi Classics range.Jack Odell died on
8 July 2007 at the age of 87. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6282258.stm BBC NEWS | Business | Co-founder of Matchbox Toys dies ] ]ee also
*
Airfix
*Corgi Classics Limited
* Dinky
*Hot Wheels
* Husky
*Jada Toys
* Matchbox
*Mettoy-Corgi
*Revell References
External links
* [http://www.lledomodels.com/about_lledo.asp History of Lledo]
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