Jack Odell

Jack Odell, MBE ( born March 19, 1920 in London, † July 8, 2007 in Barnet, Hertfordshire ) was a British engineer and co-inventor of Matchbox toy cars.

Odell's daughter brought him in 1952 to reinvent the Matchbox toy car, as they only allowed to take something to school, which fit into a matchbox (English Matchbox ). His daughter Anne had hitherto always taken spiders to class, which did not please all classmates. Just one year later recognized Odell and his partner Leslie Smith that they could make a business out of the little toy cars and started with a number of other models.

A Matchbox model of the coronation carriage to the throne of Queen Elizabeth II sold more than a million times.

In 1960 Matchbox went public and in 1968, Odell and his partner Leslie Smith, who also died at the age of 87 years in 2005, membership in the Order of the British Empire were awarded. While Smith took over the business matters of the company, Odell was still responsible for the models and product development. In 1969 there were more than a dozen factories in London with more than 6000 employees.

In 1973, Odell retired. The company then ran into financial difficulties and Odell came in 1980 back to the company, but was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1982 and was renamed Matchbox Toys Ltd. and sold to Universal Toys in Hong Kong. The production was moved immediately to Macao.

1983 Odell bought back some of its old factories and launched a new company, called Lledo. This again produced Matchbox toy cars, called Days Gone. These toy cars were directed to the old models, especially to collectors. After initial economic difficulties, he managed to success here. However, he also sold this company in 1996.