Matchbox was making tiny die-cast cars more than a decade before Hot Wheels rolled onto the scene. It might be even more surprising to learn the first one was made for a girl, not a boy.  In 1947, Englishmen and Royal Navy war buddies Leslie Smith and Rodney Smith (no relation), along with business partner Jack Odell, formed Lesney Products, an industrial die-casting company. While they didn’t start off making tiny die-cast toys, they soon received an order to make parts for a toy gun. The following year (1948), they
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