Matchbox Cars

Buses, fire engines, delivery trucks, and bulldozers! Matchbox gave you everyday vehicles small enough to fit in your pocket.

Matchbox cars weren’t all just sports cars. There were buses, fire engines, delivery trucks, and construction vehicles, enough to build a whole town. Hot Wheels gave you mostly muscle cars you could race - Matchbox was more like everyday vehicles you would come across around town.

Lesney Products launched the British Matchbox brand in 1953. Its origin story involves engineer Jack Odell, whose daughter’s school allowed toys to be brought in if they didn’t take up much space - i.e., they were small enough to fit inside a matchbox (good luck finding a matchbox these days). So, he made her the first Matchbox toy - a tiny steam roller - and the brand took off from there.

The small size made them easy to take along anywhere, and the realistic designs gave each vehicle something specific to do. Park the cars, send the delivery truck around, move the construction equipment to wherever you decided you needed something built. Choosing another vehicle was part of the fun of collecting them, because you could actually use them for something besides racing.

My Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars got used interchangeably - I would race the Matchbox cars along with my Hot Wheels on the old yellow track, and drive the Hot Wheels cars through the town I was building with my Matchbox construction vehicles.

When Hot Wheels introduced its faster-rolling cars, Matchbox responded with its own Superfast range. Today both brands are owned by Mattel, and Matchbox still offers realistic miniature cars, trucks, and construction vehicles.