YOU ARE HERE: LAT HomeCollections  Leslie Smith, 87; Helped
Create Matchbox Toy Cars, Now Collectibles   June 07, 2005|Myrna
Oliver | Times Staff Writer  Leslie Smith, co-founder of the
company that made Britain's beloved Matchbox toy cars, which are
still on the market and have become prized collectibles, has
died. He was 87.  Smith died of cancer May 26 at his London
home.  Matchbox vehicles were introduced in 1953 with a tiny
gilded coach memorializing the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
The early miniature vehicles sold for 49 cents. Now manufactured
by Mattel, they cost about a dollar. Some early models, however,
have sold for several thousand dollars each.  Born in Enfield,
England, Smith was an export buyer before serving in the Royal
Navy during World War II. After the war, he worked for a carpet
firm and launched a small die-casting company with a boyhood
friend, Rodney Smith.  The unrelated Smiths called their firm
Lesney Products, a combination of their first names, and set up
shop in an abandon