John William Odell, OBE (19 March 1920 – 7 July 2007) was the English inventor of Matchbox toys and the engineer responsible for their unique design.
[2] The company initially made small products for cars such as dashboards and doorhandles.
[3] The first 3 vehicles were a road roller, Muir Hill dumper and a cement mixer.
Odell retired in 1973 but returned in 1981 when Lesney ran into financial problems.
[1] He founded Lledo, a small vehicle model manufacturing company, and was active in that business until 1999 when he retired.