[REVIEW] Lesney Matchbox Aveling Barford Road Roller

It’s Sunday, been awhile since we’ve seen a Lesney. Today we examine Matchbox 1a, the Aveling Barford Road Roller. Yes, this is 1a, not just the first model in the 1-75 series, but the first casting. This model was introduced in 1953, and remained in production until 1956. This isn’t the first Lesney toy - as they made a handful of larger scale items pre-Matchbox, but this is from the infancy of the Matchbox line. Even then, the detail was noticeable:

This is fairly small, I’d guesstimate roughly HO scale, maybe 1:85-1:90. For the era, it is nicely done. This isn’t the first casting variety, and probably dates from around 1955 production. The front wheel turns, and that’s all you get for luxuries. But it worked, as this helped put Matchbox on the map:

Front and rear have detail - it’s not a wide vehicle compared to height:

Base has minimal detail, typical of early Matchbox:

Even the box is kind of primitive, but at 60 years old, it is doing well:

Another little gem. These aren’t terribly expensive, relative to their historical significance. I am glad I have some of these early models:

A 1:1 example: