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Large Coronation Coach. Issued in 1952. This came in 2 versions, one with the King and Queen and later the Queen only.
Small Coronation Coach. Issued in 1953. This came in Gold or Silver.
Caterpillar Tractor. Issued in 1948. Came in various colours including orange, green and yellow.
Caterpillar Bulldozer. Issued in 1948. Many different colours for this one including light and dark green, yellow with red blade, red and orange.
Site Mixer or Cement Mixer. Issued in 1948. These came in "Trade boxes" of 6 per box. They were then sold individually by the retailer. Many different colour combinations.
Prime Mover and Trailer with Caterpillar Bulldozer. Issued in 1950. Again different colour combinations including orange prime mover with orange trailer, orange prime mover with blue trailer and orange prime mover with brown trailer. Caterpillar Bulldozer could be either yellow and red or green.
Bread Bait Press. Issued in 1954. Shown here is the trade box they came in. There were 12 to the box with each one individually packaged in the smaller boxes.
Farmette Treasure Chest Series Farm Cart and Horse. Nice box designed like a treasure chest.
Farmette Treasure Chest Series Water Cart and Horse.
Farmette Treasure Chest Series Miller's Cart and Horse with 3 "bags" of flour.
Moko die cast tractor complete with box. Driver is missing from this one.
Moko Hay Rake complete with box. This was design to be pulled behind the tractor above. A metal person sat on the seat (see box artwork).
Builders Crane. Great toy where the hook could be wound up and down. Artwork on box is sensational! Came in at least 2 colours, blue and green.
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Moko Lesney History Moko is a brand name that was associated with Matchbox Toys and Lesney Products from 1947–1959 after which, Lesney Products bought out Moko Toys. Moko Toys was originally started by Moses Kohnstram in 1875, based in Furth, near Nuremberg in Germany. By 1890 Moko had branches in Milan, Brussels and East London. Moses Kohnstram was a wholesaler who specialised in packaging, storing and distributing toys, and the financial backing of small toy manufacturers. He also sold the toys using his own brand name, Moko. After the death of Moses in 1912, Julius Kohnstam, one of Moses's sons, took over the business until the late 1940's when Richard Kohnstram, Julius's nephew assumed control. Moko became a well known name in toys when Richard took on the role of marketing agent for Lesney Products (later better known as Matchbox Toys). Many different toys were sold under the Moko name. Lesney Products manufactured a lot of die cast toys for Moko. There were also many die cast horse drawn models sold by Moko, some made by Lesney Products and some by others companies like Benbros, owned by Jack and Nathan Bennenson in East London . Many of these horse drawn vehicles were sold as the “Farmette Treasure Chest” Series. The boxes were cardboard and made to look like a treasure chest. The models were tiny, some only 4 cm long. Others sold under the umbrella of Moko were die cast toys in a larger size. These include the Bulldozer, Diesel Road Roller, Hand Cement Mixer, Massey Harris Tractor, Prime Mover and Trailer, Horse Drawn Milk Cart, Rag and Bone Cart, Large Coronation Coach, Small Coronation Coach, Covered Wagon, Muffin the Mule and Jumbo the Elephant plus a lot more. This was a fascinating era for both Moko and Lesney Products and these early toys resulted in the birth of the world famous Matchbox Toy. I have never seen a complete list of Moko toys made by Lesney, or for that matter a comprehensive list of toys sold by Moko. The reason for this is possibly that no one knows exactly who made what! Below is a list of Moko Toys that are known to be made by Lesney:
Following are some toys distributed by Moko from different manufacturers possibly including Lesney. Die cast toys included:
Farmette Treasure Chest series included:
Farmette Series included:
other toys included:
Plus I am sure there are lots more! If you have any Moko toys not listed here I would like to hear from you. Please send your photos and any details you may have and I will list them here and give you credit.
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Horse Drawn Milk Cart. Issued in 1949. Shown here with it's original box. Came in 2 colours, orange or blue.
Horse Drawn Covered Wagon. Issued in1955. Came in 2 versions. One with barrels on the side of the wagon and one without barrels. Box art work in awesome!
Aveling Barford Road Roller. Issued in 1948.This came with and without the driver and with or without a flywheel on the left side. Many different colour variations and combinations.
Soapbox Racer. Issued in 1949. This is perhaps the most sort after Moko Lesney toy. It is very cute and quite delicate.
Rag and Bone Merchants Cart. Issued in 1949. Came complete with junk including a bicycle frame, bed head, bath, bucket and toilet cistern!
Massey Harris Tractor. Issued in 1954. Shown here complete with it's original box.
Ruston Bucyrus Excavator. Issued in 1950. Shown here with it's original very colourful box.
Jumbo the Walking Elephant. Issued in 1950. Made from tinplate. Wind the key and old Jumbo went for a stroll! Box had great artwork.
Muffin the Mule. Issued in 1951. Finger puppet. Muffin was a TV star! Came with string and rings that went on your fingers, so you could make Muffin do all sorts of tricks!
Drummer. This was a tinplate toy with clockwork operation.
Dolls House. Circa 1920. Made for Moko in Germany from wood.
Farmette Series Farm Wagon and 2 Horses. |
© 2008 Moko Lesney Matchbox |
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