The Top 25 Coolest Matchbox Cars of All Time

Throughout the first half of the previous century, pocket-sized toy cars were few and far between. That changed in 1953 when the British manufacturing firm Lesney Products introduced its first Matchbox vehicles. The idea came about because one of Lesney’s owners, Jack Odell, wanted to make a road roller that his daughter could bring to school, but the adults in charge at said school said all toys and other personal items had to be small enough to fit inside a matchbox. Thus the name, the initial product lineup (with that very same model of road roller), and an iconic toy brand that has served as the gateway drug for untold millions of gearheads around the world was born.

Naturally, with 62 years of history in its rearview mirror, the Matchbox brand (which has been owned by America’s Mattel – maker of erstwhile arch-nemesis Hot Wheels – since 1997) has a back catalog consisting of hundreds upon hundreds of models, and most of those hundreds upon hundreds have at least a couple of variations. So when it came time to anoint the 25 coolest Matchbox cars of all time (not counting planes, trains, slot cars, special car lines like Connectables and other oddities), we had a truly daunting task on our hands. Luckily for you studs, we persevered and manage to come up with the following class of two-dozen-plus-one.