Lesney Matchbox is here once more. Today we examine Lesney Matchbox 46b, the Guy Pickford's Removals Van. This casting entered the range in 1960, remaining until 1968, is a model of a brand likely unknown to diecast makers outside of the UK:
Guy was an independent maker of commercial vehicles, which was absorbed into Jaguar and via that into BL, the brand ceasing to exist by the 1980s. The Matchbox version of this Pickfords-liveried moving box van shows where Matchbox was in 1960. There is plenty of fine line casting detail, but no modern amenities such as glazing or interior - however, there is an advanced feature. The Pickford's decals have survived the past 60+ years in fine style. Scale is hard to determine as I am unsure how big this van was in real life, but as it was a tall vehicle I have no doubt scale is smaller than standard small scale, maybe in the 1:70s. From all angles, one can imagine this box van moving goods all over town and country:
Front and rear have plenty of detail, with the mask painted silver detail at front being a nice touch:
The advanced feature is a retractable opening rear door, which was really something in 1960:
The base contains maker and model data and shows off the grey plastic wheels - this model being in dark blue with grey wheels makes it scarce, these are much more common in green with black wheels:
This model is fortunate to live its clean original Type B5 "New Model" box, indicating production in 1960:
The box wears its original price tag:
I'm quite happy to have this model in my collection, this variant is fairly scarce and has some visual appeal. Pictured with an old dime for scale:
Image of a similarly liveried van, maybe as a tribute to the Matchbox model, from tractors.fandom.com:
No rivets! Looks like it is tabbed together at the front and back. Great model.