Collectors’ Corner

The Matchbox name describes a size before it describes a vehicle. In Mattel’s account of the brand’s beginnings, Jack Odell made a tiny die-cast road roller for his daughter because her school allowed toys only if they fitted inside a matchbox. The brand dates its beginning to 1953. The tiny vehicles soon had a miniature world around them. Mattel’s anniversary history records the first accessory pack in 1956: a fuel…