Category:Lledo

Lledo

1982 - 1999

Lledo Toys, by Edward Force [image info]

1986: Lledo pack lineart, models 1-19 [image info]

Lledo pack lineart, models 1-30 [image info]

1991: LLedo stock clearout [image info]

Lledo was founded by Jack Odell, arguably one of the three original founders of Matchbox Toys. Although the leading "double-L" might suggest that the name is Welsh, in fact the company name was simply Odell's surname spelled backwards. The brand is now technically a sub-brand of Corgi (Hornby Hobbies), but seems to have been retired – the "Days Gone" and "Vanguard" product lines are now Corgi sub-brands.

Days Gone

After Matchbox got into financial trouble, Odell came out or retirement, bought some of the older mouldings, and started his own company, LLedo, selling a range of nostalgic-looking pre-war styled toy vehicles reminiscent of the Matchbox "Models of Yesteryear" Series, but called "Days Gone". Some packaging refers the the range as "Models of Days Gone", which further increases confusion with the earlier Matchbox "Models of Yesteryear"

Since these were mostly commercial vans (with space on the side for company logos and branding), Lledo's initial business model was to maximise flexibility and return on investment by producing only a very limited number of basic designs, but to then expand this into a huge range by using different liveries and logos.

Lledo became experts in producing limited-run promotional diecast vehicles – if a company wanted a batch of toy vehicles produced in their company's colours showing the company logo, Lledo could offer a range of basic vehicle types, and then finish them to the customer's specifications.

The decision to model archaic commercial vehicles rather than modern domestic cars also helped with a major cost-cutting aspect of the range: they had plastic interiors, but no plastic windows. Since the windowing on older commercial vehicles was limited (and in some cases with horse-drawn vehicles, where the driver sits outside, non-existent), the absence of transparent window-material was much less obvious then it would have been with most modern cars, where most of the upper front and sides are transparent glass.

At this point Lledo probably seemed like a niche "promotional" diecast toy company, but they kept expanding the range year after year until it contained 75 models, just like Odell's previous "Matchbox 1-75" range.

Promotional models

Lledo's art department appear to have worked flat-out, not just creating alternative (often fictitious) liveries for brands, but also creating custom packaging designs for promotional models, with the Lledo name secondary to be client's

Castrol GTX packaging]]
Persil packaging
Hamleys packaging]]

Extras: Paintable people

For some of the models, LLedo "enhanced" their offering by including a set of roadside figures, unpainted and still on the sprue. Some of these figures wee actually surprisingly well sculpted and well moulded.

However, most of these were probably never used by buyers, as painting figures this small required a certain amount of determination – small children who were given the vehicles after their parents had picked them up at a petrol station would be unlikely to be as committed to model-painting, collectors who were buying the models to "Keep them good" obviously wouldn't want to ruin their factory-fresh status by removing the figures from their sprues, and people who were committed modellers would tend to turn their noses up at a product range that was based on vehicles with fictitious and historically-wrong liveries.

Collectability (or not)

While many classic diecast toy ranges aimed at children became highly collectable, the Days Gone range, aimed at adult collectors, paradoxically didn't. With children's toy's, most of the examples produced were played with, lost, damaged, or badly stored, and had their boxes discarded almost immediately, meaning that rare surviving examples in pristine condition with new-looking boxes occasionally command exorbitant prices.

With the Lledo "Days Gone" range, almost none of them were properly played with, and almost all of them were hoarded by collectors in their original boxes. The vast number of variations on just a few basic models also meant that trying to assemble a complete collection is fairly futile and rather repetitive. As a result, these toys can be found almost anywhere that old toys are sold, new and boxed, for a few pounds.

A typical promotional election (Hamleys)

A range of Lledo promotional vehicles (in this case for Hamleys)
Hamleys Coach (Lledo)
Hamleys Van (Lledo)
Hamleys Horse-drawn Bus (Lledo)
Hamleys Horse-drawn Delivery Van
Hamleys Double-Decker Bus (Lledo)
Hamleys van (Lledo)

"Days Gone" base models:

1983:

1 – Horse-Drawn Tram
2 – Horse Drawn Milk Float
3 – Horse Drawn Delivery Van
4 – Horse Drawn Omnibus
5 – Shand-Mason Horse Drawn Fire Engine
6 – Model T Ford Van

1984:

7 – 1934 Model A Ford Woody Wagon
8 – Model T Ford Tanker
9 – Model A Ford Car
10 – Albion Single Decker Coach
11 – Horse Drawn Removal Van
12 – Dennis 1934 Fire Engine
13 – Model A Ford 1934 Van

1985:

14 – Model A Ford 1934 Tourer, top up
15 – AEC Double Decker Bus
16 – Dennis 1934 Parcels Van
17 – Half Cab Single Decker Bus
18 – Packard Van
19 – Rolls-Royce 1931 Phantom II

1986:

20 – Ford Stake Truck
21 – Chevrolet 1934 Van
22 – Packard 1933 Town Van

1987:

23 – Scenicruiser 1954
24 – Rolls-Royce 1934 Playboy
25 – Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost 1925
26 – Chevrolet 1934 Bottle Truck
27 – Mack 1934 Breakdown Truck

1988:

28 – Mack 1934 Canvas Back Truck
29 – Dodge 4x4 1942
31 – Horse Drawn Brewer's Dray
32 – Rolls-Royce 1907 Silver Ghost

1989:

30 – Chevrolet 1939 Panel Van
33 – Model T Ford 1920
34 – Dennis 1932 Delivery Van
35 – Dennis 1932 Limousine
36 – Chevrolet 1938 Pick-Up Truck
38 – Rolls-Royce 1925 Silver Ghost Saloon
39 – Mack 1934 Open Truck

1990:

37 – Model A Ford 1930 Panel Van
40 – Mack 1934 Crane Truck
41 – Karrier 1928 E6 Trolley Bus
42 – Mack Tank Truck
43 – Morris 1931 Van
44 – Scammell 1937 Six-Wheeler
46 – Bentley 1930 4.5 litre "Blower"

1991:

45 – Rolls-Royce 1908 Silver Ghost Coupe
47 – Austin 1933 Taxi
48 – Chevrolet 1939 car
49 – AEC Renown 1931 Double Deck Bus

1992:

50 – Morris 1926 Bull Nose Van
51 – Chevrolet 1928 Box Van
52 – Morris 1935 Parcels Van
53 – Rolls-Royce 1926 Landaulet

1993:

54 – Rolls-Royce 1929 D-Back
55 – Horse-Drawn Tanker
56 – Model A Ford 1930 Raised-Roof Van
57 – Ford 1939 Tank Truck
58 – Morris 1950 Z Van
59 – Bedford 1950 30 cwt Truck
60 – Dennis F8 1955 Fire Engine
61 – Pontiac 1953 Delivery Van

1994:

62 – Ford 1935 Articulated Tanker
63 – Bedford 1950 30 cwt Delivery Van
64 – Bedford 1950 Ambulance
65 – Morris 1960 Traveller
66 – Dennis 1926 Delivery Van
67 – Ford 3-Ton Articulated Truck
68 – Open-Top Bus

1995:

69 – Morris Minor 1960 Van
70 – Ford 1939 Canvas Back Truck
71 – Morris 1959 LD 150 Van
72 – Volkswagen 1952 Beetle
73 – Volkswagen 1955 Kombi Van
74 – Austin 7 1959 Mini
75 – Bristol 1957 Lodekka Bus

Vanguards

Lotus Cortina MkII Police Car, "Vanguards" series [image info]

In around ~1996 Lledo launched another range of classically distinctive British cars, Vanguards but this time based on post-war models, and without the previous emphasis on models that could also be used for promotional tieins.

1999: Corgi

The Lledo brand and tooling were acquired in 1999 by Corgi, which was itself acquired by Hornby Hobbies in 2008. The "Days Gone" range is now part of the Corgi Classics range.

"Days Gone" model 43, 1931 Morris Van in Bassett-Lowke livery, Corgi DG043048 – by this time, Corgi had also acquired the Bassett-Lowke brandname

Corgi initially continued to produce the Days Gone range under the "Lledo" name, but later dropped in in favour of their own. The existence of Matchbox "Models of Yesteryear", Lledo "Days Gone" and Corgi "Days Gone", along with variations on Days Gone packaging, can cause a certain amount of confusion over branding.

Addresses

Lledo (London) Ltd. Enfield EN3 4LE
Lledo Colectibles, Park House, Meridian East, Meridian Business Park, Leicester LE3 2WZ (~2004)
Corgi Classics Ltd., Leicester, LE19 1RL

In the museum (shop)

Lledo's date-range lies outside our normal focus, and due to the circumstances in which it was made and sold, there still seem to be vast quantities of Lledo toy vehicles still out there, new and boxed. So although we don't have a Lledo section in the museum, we almost always have stocks of LLedo vehicles available for sale in the Collector's Market in Arch One, with prices starting at a few pounds.