Lesney Products & Co. Ltd. was a British manufacturer of diecast toys and models distributed under the “Matchbox” name. Company was founded in 1947 by Leslie Smith and Rodney Smith, who were not related to each other. The company name is the combination of the first names of founders. In 1982 Lesney went bankrupt. The Matchbox brand as well as Lesney’s tooling were bought by and became a division of Universal Holdings/Universal Toys, where the company re-formed as “Matchbox International Ltd.” Production were moved to Macau. Since 1996, the Matchbox brand has been owned by Mattel.
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