Match Pine Box

Jack Odell, inventor of the Matchbox car, has died at the age of 87. His daughter’s school only allowed toys small enough to fit in a matchbox. Instead, she would bring in matchboxes full of spiders, prompting the self-trained engineer to invent a tiny steamroller as a substitute, the first of more than 12,000 models the company would eventually produce. The toys became a hit in London and later the U.S., and by 1962 more than a million were produced a week, more than all the world’s automakers combined. Although they were usurped by Mattel’s Hot Wheels in the States, Matchbox cars were always the more finely crafted toys, precise in detail, with some models consisting of more than 100 die-cast parts.