Part of the 1979 “Days Gone” Budweiser Series
| Year | 1979 |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Lledo |
| Model | |
| Gauge | 1:64 |
| Era | |
| Brand | |
| Collection |
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”.
Since these were mostly commercial vans, 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.
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.
