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 Euclid Quarry Truck overall length Lesney
Proposed year of release: 1955
Size: 27.5 cm x 9.5 cm wide and 6 cm high
Proposed retail price: ?1.5.9d (129.5p)
To be manufactured at: The Shacklewell Lane factory
In the ?Matchbox? Series: compare to No. 6a and 6b
All you had to do is to know where to look. The owner is a very well known Matchbox collector of many years now in Japan and if you seriously want this model then I suggest you arrange the mortgage on the house now.
I have just posted this on Moyboyz with guesses as to what price it will go at. Now if you could only find that mockup of the 3rd model (the Road Roller) shown in the old UK Matchbox mag with the other half a dozen dumpers you would have found the Holy Grail in the Matchbox world. Compared to dumpers this one was rare as only one was made (believed to be)
Mick Flack
Auditcomm Pty Ltd
----- Original Message -----
From: GGWorkwise@aol.com
To: 1@1ll.de ; mcflack@iinet.net.au ; RogersMoko@aol.com ; robert.newson@btinternet.com
Sent: Monday, November 02, 2009 6:22 AM
Subject: Fwd: Early Lesney Toy: Large Dumper Truck
Hi All
this is the worst information I could ever have in the toy world,,
I have been asking about this toy, for several years, knowing it was last owned by a guy in Japan
I have even tried reading thru websites in Japanese
Hardy Ristau was telling me he knew who had it last year, and that there are really serious people
that would do far more than me to track a toy down
If this comes up for sale next year, it means I have no chance to get anywhere near acquiring it
whatever I bid could easily be overtaken by a lot of other big time collectors,,
what with everything else, I think I might resort to the elephant gun !!!
what a xxxxxxxxx
THE LARGE LESNEY DUMPER TRUCK: PROBABLY THE RAREST OF ALL MATCHBOX TOYS
Proposed year of release: 1955
Size: 27.5 cm x 9.5 cm wide and 6 cm high
Proposed retail price: ?1.5.9d (129.5p)
To be manufactured at: The Shacklewell Lane factory
In the ?Matchbox? Series: compare to No. 6a and 6b
Following the success of their Massey Harris Tractor, (marketed in the Scale Model Series) with sales
of over 300,000 units, the two Lesney Matchbox owners, Les Smith and Jack Odell, pencilled in a
large Aveling-Barford Road Roller to be the No.1 and the Euclid Rear Dump Truck to be the No.2 in
the proposed Lesney ?Major Scale? Series.
The Massey Tractor and prototypes of the Road Roller and the Euclid Truck were shown in 1954 at
the Earl?s Court Toy Fair and in 1955 at the British Industries Fair.
Les Smith, ?We did the Euclid Lorry because when we saw the tractor we thought we had better go
for that size- it looked right to us?.
Jack Odell was also quoted in 1989, ?Yes, the Quarry Truck had two wheels at the front and four at
the back. I only made three or four Quarry Trucks?? These are most likely the ones seen in the
photograph with the young Duke of Gloucester.
Les Smith again, ?I can still see the one we had filled up with rubbish and paint?we had an awful job
to get the axle right as it was so large and it bent so easily. It was a super model, but we realised
when we got the ?Matchbox? Series going that they took up too much space??
THE ONLY KNOWN SURVIVING EXAMPLE
Ray Bush, editor of the Matchbox UK Club 1976 to 1984, who often visited the Lesney/Matchbox
offices and factories in the 1970s, obtained what is believed to be the only surviving example from
the chief Lesney model maker, Ken Wetton.
When Bush reviewed the model in his club journal (Volume 1 #5 in July 1977), he wrote, ??This is
undoubtedly a superb model but please do not add it to your WANTS List, for we repeat, it is unique
and only this one prototype was ever manufactured.?
Graham Ward a leading Matchbox collector and retailer was quoted in 1989 as saying , "One
certainly does exist ? one was offered to me for several thousand pounds and I know that it went to
an overseas collector, three or four years ago.?
With the demise of the Matchbox UK Club in 1984, Bush sold his Euclid Quarry Truck to a dedicated
Matchbox toys collector in Japan, Takuo Yoshise. Unlike the ones on show at Earl?s Court that were
painted in either yellow or red and yellow, the only known surviving truck is decorated with ?Laing?
and ?Euclid? transfers. It certainly appears that Lesney were taking inspiration from their Meccano
Dinky rival?s pale yellow #965 Euclid Dump Truck that was released in 1955!
THE LEGENDARY LESNEY LARGE DUMP TRUCK IS BACK!
And now Takuo Yoshise wants ?to transfer the Large Dump to another good collector. I 'm
feeling it is almost time to say "good bye" to the treasure, because I'm now 74 years old. As you
know it has been some 25 or more years since I bought it from Mr. Ray Bush. I hope to find a
suitable new owner for this treasure??
THE SEARCH IS ON FOR A NEW OWNER?COULD IT BE YOU?
The Lesney Dump Truck is to be offered to the world as lot 22 in an auction to be held at the 25th
MICA/Matchbox Club Convention over the weekend 26/28 March 2010.
Early Lesney (BCM M.Y. Dart) Space Outlaw Atomic Pistol. Believed to be one of Lesneys earliest forays into toy making, Lesney were approached by M.Y. Dart to produce the mechanism for this toy in the late 1940s.
Lesney were clearly proud of their work, shown here a photograph taken at the 1955 British Industries fair with one on display at the front of their stand. Also shown in the photo is a prototype large scale road roller & five of those incredibly rare large scale Euclid’s. The little boy in the picture is no less than the Duke of Gloucester (Prince Richard).
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© Dream-Tintoys by Moko-Man [2024]
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