Mr. Jack Odell - Mr. HotWheels. R.I.P.

[Brock Samson]

                                                         


  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/world/europe/17odell.html


  (courtesy autoexreamist)

Jack Odell. The engineering brains behind Matchbox, Jack Odell, died last Saturday at the age of 87. The miniature die-cast toys, which became popular with children all over the world in the 1950s and 1960s, owed much to Odell, who, even though he was untrained in the field, became a self-taught expert in die-casting and was widely regarded as a genius engineer. At its peak, Matchbox employed 6,000 people and sold 300 million cars annually, 2 million a week alone in the U.S. "In my obituary," Odell declared in 1969, "I want it said I was a damn good engineer." He certainly was.


   

[Todd Wilson]

Toyota just thinks they sell lots of cars! HAHA!


Todd

[BMOTOXSTAR]

 

[Charger_Fan]

I think I'll give my Matchboxes a hug today.

[TruckDriver]

Toyota just thinks they sell lots of cars! HAHA!


Todd

R.I.P. Mr. Odell.

[Old Moparz]

Always loved Matchbox cars, & still have every single one from when I was a kid. I have most of the ones in the photo Brock posted, too.

Sad to hear about Odell.   

[Todd Wilson]

Always loved Matchbox cars, & still have every single one from when I was a kid. I have most of the ones in the photo Brock posted, too.

Sad to hear about Odell.   

Me too! I got 99% of my old matchbox and hot wheels. I got a few in that picture myself. What I liked about Matchbox was they did some different things compared to Hotwheels. As a kid I enjoyed more common and construction type cars and trucks. Heck Matchbox made a Street Cleaner and I have it!!! HotWheels always seems to have to hotrod stuff up instead of just making some plain jane stock type of vehicles.


Todd

[Old Moparz]

Me too! I got 99% of my old matchbox and hot wheels. I got a few in that picture myself. What I liked about Matchbox was they did some different things compared to Hotwheels. As a kid I enjoyed more common and construction type cars and trucks. Heck Matchbox made a Street Cleaner and I have it!!! HotWheels always seems to have to hotrod stuff up instead of just making some plain jane stock type of vehicles.


Todd

I liked Matchbox the best for the same reason, they were more realistic to me than the others. There were some really cool Hot Wheels & Johnny Lightning back then, but having construction equipment, a bus, police cars, moving van, TV repair van, & more were the best.   

I'd say Matchbox were made better back then too.

[Brock Samson]

i remember when i was a kid mom bought me both the red ferrari and the Green lotus F-1 cars and i was in heaven.