It was a simple idea but one which served Matchbox toys for twenty years or so. They made miniature diecast model vehicles, so why not a play roadway for children to run their toys around? So they came up with large card sheet printed with roads, junctions and landscape features, plus a few cut out and assemble extra items – buildings, bridges, etc. These were punched out of a card sheet, which along with the folded roadway, was sold inside a wrap around paper sleeve with sales details on. I certainly got through a few of these as a kid, so they are instant nostalgia for me, but either way the graphics and illustrations are very evocative of their time. I notice that the earlier ones from the late 1950s sold for 1s 11d, about 10p.
There is of course a catch. Because most kids threw away the wrapper and got all the pieces out, intact and complete sets have become increasingly rare. I was lucky and managed to get most of them some years ago but they can fetch quite high prices for what was really quite a simple toy.
I thought I would scan the packets anyhow, as they look great together. This first set was put out with a colour illustration as seen below. This is quite early as it features the name of their product distributor Moko alongside the Lesney firm. This was then withdrawn and replaced by a new set.
There were four in the second set, three of which are show below. Two were of London landmarks, I’m not sure why, while the fourth set was a nice race track. The one I’m missing is just a triangular road junction with car park, cut out buildings etc. which replaced the original set above.
The original roadway layout was updated a third time in the early 1960s to incorporate the newer style design which adorned the boxes of the model toys themselves, and is shown below.
I suspect the two London layouts were dropped from the range as they were a bit strange for most children. But set 4, the racetrack, was revised and reissued twice. I only have the third version shown below. The one in between featured models which had been discontinued.
Finally in the late 1960s the series was fully updated with new artwork. Matchbox also took to shrink-wrapping these (a technology not previously available), so they can survive in quite nice condition. There were three roadway sets as follows.
The building site and farm were new, and designed to give play value to some of the newer toys Matchbox had introduced. Needless to say all the vehicles shown on the covers were from their range of models. The R2 construction set was then revised but I do not have a decent scan of that.
The sets were shown in the catalogues which Matchbox issued annually (difficult to explain the anticipation felt for those as a kid, as they would show new models), and I found a couple of those pages on the web:
If anybody has any models not shown do let me have details. For the sake of completeness here are the missing sets from poor versions seen on ebay etc.
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