Replica model car History

Die cast model cars, or toys were first produced in the UK early twentieth Century by a manufacturer by the name of Meccano

In 1947 a company by the name of Lesney began making die cast toys. They were also known for there production of the die cast ‘matchbox'. The name matchbox was given as the packaging was designed to look like those suitable for matches. Eventually the name became so popular matchbox was then widely used generically as any die cast model or toy car.

Collectibles such as these started to become popular by the ‘50s, by then the quality of the die cast models had become second to non. As a result other competition arrived including the likes of Corgi, which was a brand produced by Mettoy appearing in 1956.

Matchbox wasn't really pressed for competition until the arrival of Hot Wheels in 1968. Hot wheels derived from Mattel which was based in the US . They eventually got a hold of an important niche in the die-cast to market and became one of the worlds top sellers.

Since then Corgi had been acquired by the likes of US based Mattel. Matchbox also bought the ‘Dinky toys' name.

After the bankruptcy of Matchbox, Llledo was formed, a company that was formed by Jack Odell who was a former Matchbox partner. Jack Odell was confident that collectable replica toy cars was still a profitable market in England .
From there factory in Enfield they first introduced their models of ‘Models of Days Gone' die cast vehicles in the 1983. The first series of Days gone models included remakes of the Matchbox Models of yesteryear range.
As predicted Lledo proved to be remarkably popular model cars to collect in the 80s, unfortunately by the ‘90s they were eclipsed by other car replica brands and by 2002 went broke.

Die-Casting Replica cars

Die casting is the technique, or process of forcing molten metal under very high pressure into the cavities of steel mould. These moulds are referred to as dies. Dies vary in complexities to end up producing non-ferrous metal parts. Obviously this may be making toy car replicas to components of machinery, giving your replica models long life and quality.

Metals that are used mostly in die casting range from zinc and aluminum, not pure metals as you'll agree, but alloys that can have better physical attributes.

Before the process of die casting can be set in place, the die must be installed into the die casting machine once that's done it can be brought up to temperatures. The set up stage can take up to 2 hours although the actual cycle of die casting may only take a few minutes at most.

The 4 Steps to Die Casting.

 

1. The mould is sprayed with a lubricant. This will help control the temperature of the die and rid any unwanted casting.
2. Molten metal is injected at high pressure; this will ensure the mould to be smooth with very accurate precision.
3. Once the cavity is filled a high pressure is maintained until the casting become solid.
4. Casting is ejected as the die is opened