Matchbox Collector Blue

An illustration of a car inside a yellow box. The yellow box has text inside it, red text on top and yellow/black text below. The yellow box is on a blue background with white text above and below the box. 

This button commemorates the Moko Lensey Matchbox collector.  The image on the button depicts the Moko Lensey first ever die cast toy, a “road roller,” in the Matchbox series.  The company made the toy between 1955 and 1957.  Moko Lensey was founded in 1948.  The unique name of the company is a portmanteau and made from a combination of its three earliest partners.  Moko is a shortening of Moses (Mo) Kohnstam (ko) and Lesney was a combination of Lesley Smith (Les) and Rodney Smith (ney).  By the early 1950s, the company began to use the less confusing name Matchbox.  The toy brand continues to be a leader among die cast toy manufacturers.