L
Lamborghini
Ferruccio Lamborghini produced his first car in 1963, concentrating on large, fairly exclusive, sports cars. The Lamborghini Countach has been widely modelled.

Land Rover
See Rover.

Lange
The German company of H. Lange produced various toy vehicles, a Buick ambulance and Dodge trucks, until an agreement was established with Tekno, following which Lange production was sold under the Tekno brand name (see Tekno).

Langley Miniature Models
White metal producers, based in Crawley in Sussex, which offer a wide range of model railway accessories, including kits for vehicles in both N and OO gauges.

LBS
A company started by Louis Surber in France in the 1950s. His company produced toys as a sub-contractor, but in 1974 he received a commission from Berliet to produce a 1/43rd scale promotional version of one of their trucks. This led to a series of commercial vehicles from LBS.

In more recent years LBS has continued with 1/43rd scale trucks, and has also included in its range the Eligor products.

Legal lettering
Inscriptions that appear on public transport vehicles that give the official name and address of the operator. Also provided is the weight, maximum speed limit, and often the passenger capacity of the vehicle.

Lego
While noted for the building brick system, Lego at one time produced wooden motor vehicles, and some small plastic vehicles for use with its building bricks.

Lesney
The company Lesney Products & Co was started in 1947 by Leslie Smith and Rodney Smith, who had been school friends but were unrelated. As Lesney they produced a number of toys, starting with a road roller, and including a surprising selection, such as a cement mixer, horse-drawn milk cart, a rag and bone merchant's cart, a soap box racer, caterpillar tractor, bulldozer, a prime mover with trailer, a Massey Harris tractor, a covered wagon, and more unusually Jumbo, the Walking Elephant and Muffin Junior (based on the television puppet Muffin the Mule).

The company's real claim to fame, however, is its versions of the Coronation Coach, which led to the development of the Matchbox Series (see Matchbox).

Leyland
One of the best known names in the truck and bus industry, with a large number of the vehicles being available as toys or models. Indeed, most British ranges include an example of a Leyland vehicle.

The name Leyland Motors Limited was adopted in 1907, although the company had actually started in 1896 as The Lancashire Steam Motor Company: it was based at Leyland in Lancashire.

Throughout its life, Leyland acquired Albion Motors (1951), Scammell (1955) and AEC (1962). In 1968 it merged with British Motor Holdings to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation.

It is noted for the LAD cabs (LAD standing for Leyland/Albion/Dodge) and the Ergomatic cabs (used for Leyland, AEC and Albion).

It did try to enter the car market, with the Leyland Eight in the 1920s, but the cost was too high, and only 14 were ever built.

Leyland was taken over in the late 1980s by the Dutch company, DAF, and hence more recent products are known as Leyland/DAF.

Lines Bros
(See Tri-ang.)

Lion Cars (Toys)
A Dutch manufacturer, which produced some 1/42nd scale cars, but later concentrated on 1/50th scale trucks, particularly of the DAF marque.

Lionel
Joshua Lionel Cowen started producing model railways in 1901 when he produced as a window display a small wagon which was powered from the track. The company went on to be a leader in producing model railways in the United States.

Lledo
Jack Odell had already endeared himself to the model collector by introducing the Models of Yesteryear range while at Matchbox. However, after he left Matchbox, that company went into receivership. Jack was able to buy some of the die-casting machinery from the receivers, and thereby established his own company which he called Lledo.

Lledo is Odell spelt backwards, and was Jack's radio call sign during the war.

The first products from Lledo were released in 1983 and were branded as 'Models of Days Gone', and of the initial six releases, five were horse-drawn, plus a Model T Ford. Three of the horse-drawn were a reminder of Matchbox days: a milk float had been included in the '1 - 75' Series, while a bus and fire engine were featured as 'Yesteryears'.

One of the key points which endeared Lledo to collectors was the fact that the products were made in England: until the end of 1999 most had been produced at Enfield, and it was only in the latter years that part was moved to the Far East.

However, demand for the 'Models of Days Gone' from enthusiasts was over estimated, and so the company was pleased when its started receiving requests for 'commissioned' models and those of a promotional nature, such as 'on-pack' offers.

Unfortunately, this created its own problems, because so many items were being produced, and not all were readily available to collectors. Lledo decided to split its products into two categories. 'Models of Days Gone' were on general sale. However, the 'Days Gone' dies could also be used for commissioned models, separately branded as 'Promotionals' (later the brand name 'ProMotors' was adopted).

Some of the 'Days Gone' range were specially packaged for sale through the Tesco supermarket chain, and appeared under the name of 'Auto Club'.

A series of more toy-like vehicles was attempted called Marathons, but these did not prove popular.

Jack Odell was always a firm believer that the key to his products was that they should fit a standard box and be sold at a uniform, reasonable price. He was not bothered about scale, and not over concerned about total accuracy. Pressure was brought to bear to produce scale models, albeit Jack was not in agreement.

At first certain of the 'Days Gone' range were classified as Vanguards, being more accurate models of more recent (1950s and 1960s) vehicles, until a separate 'Vanguards' brand was launched in 1996. This was of models to constant scales: 1/43rd for cars and light commercials, and, unusually for the British market, 1/64th for large commercials.

Entering into a highly competitive area of the market, it was necessary to move production of some of the Vanguards to the Far East in order to keep the price acceptable.

Away from its main ranges, the company was particularly successful with models of Land Speed Record cars, including a series produced for an on-pack promotion. The cars so produced have included Thrust SSC.

Jack Odell decided the time had come to sell Lledo: the buyer was the HCG Group (Hobbies, Collectables, Gifts) in March 1996, but after a while this group went into receivership. Nevertheless, the bank continued production of the Lledo ranges, while seeking a buyer for the operation. Unfortunately, no buyer came along, and so Lledo itself was put into receivership, with Corgi buying the brand names and dies at the end of 1999. Thus both 'Models of Days Gone' and 'Vanguards' continue, albeit Corgi has moved all production to the Far East, and no further manufacturing is undertaken at Enfield.

London Transport
A model of bus used by London Transport is certain to sell. For many overseas tourists, the epitome of public transport in the United Kingdom is the red London bus (linked with the black taxi cab).

For years, however, the toy and souvenir buses tended to be generic rather than based on accuracy. The distinctive shape of the London Routemaster tended to change the situation and many replicas of the Routemaster have been produced over the years, but most have been fairly crude, and only a handful can be regarded as anywhere near accurate models.

However, the development of the die-cast 1/76th scale model bus market has seen a growth in those as operated in London. It is now possible to amass a large fleet of buses operating within both inner and outer London, especially of the post-war period. The demand is satisfied by such companies as EFE, Creative Master Northcord, BritBus and OOC (Corgi) in the ready-built market, and by several white metal kits from companies such as Pirate Models.

Lone Star
The brand name used by DCMT. Lone Star products have been mainly associated with the souvenir market, and include a London Transport Routemaster, albeit rather crude.

The brand name was used for several ranges of cars: 1/50th scale for such as a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud I and Ford Sunliner; 1/43rd scale for Buick coupé and Ford Prefect (also seen as River Series or Gamda); 1/35th scale for a Ford Thunderbird, Daimler Conquest and MG TF and four veteran cars (these were introduced in 1956 and known as Lone Star Roadmasters).

In the mid-1950s the name was used for a series of five aircraft produced to 1/250th scale, and appropriately known as the TWO-FIVE-O series. The aircraft modelled were the Bristol Britannia, Boeing 707, Caravelle, Comet 4 and Vickers Viscount.

In 1960 a further range of 'Roadmasters' appeared, including four American cars originally produced by DCMT for Tootsietoys in America, but subsequently marketed by Lone Star alone. The scale was 1/50th. Further models were subsequently added, mainly based on American cars, although a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud was also included, as was a Citroën DS19.

While not a 'Roadmaster', Lone Star also produced a 1/50th scale model of a London FX4 taxi.

There was also a 1/60th scale range called 'Impy' launched in 1966 involving a wide range of toys. These were produced to meet the challenge from other toy ranges, and included as many operating features as possible.

Many of the cars from the 'Impy' range were re-launched in 1969 as 'Flyers' with the 'speed' form of wheels, again to meet a challenge, this time from Mattel's 'Hot Wheels'.

The commercial vehicles retained the standard wheels and in 1968 became known as 'Lone Star Commercials'. Additions were made to this 'commercial' series.

The 'Flyers' and 'Commercials' were discontinued in 1976 to be replaced by a poorer quality range again called 'Impy'.

Lotus
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman began car production in 1947, based on the Austin Seven, but his first car was launched in 1952 as a kit car, the Lotus 6. Among the classic Lotus cars is the Super Seven.

 

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, Y, Z.