Lone Star Toys
Lone Star Products Ltd. was the brand name used by the British company Die Cast Machine Tools Ltd for its toy products. DCMT was based in Welham Green, Hertfordshire, north of London.
Company history
Starting as early as 1939, DCMT manufactured die cast toys for children. The 'Lone Star' name was chosen because of a demand at the time for toy guns and rifles popular in the Western films in cinemas all over Britain. Eventually, the company also made tie-in toy guns licensed from the James Bond films and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series.Toy soldiers
Harry Eagles, one of the sons of Henry George Eagles who co-founded Crescent Toys had been known by the nickname of Harvey. When Crescent moved to South Wales in 1949, Eagles remained in London where he started the Harvey Toy Company, producing figures in hollowcast metal. Eagles sold his trade name and designs to Lone Star where a variety of plastic soldiers were sold from 1955 to 1976,Vehicles
Competition with Dinky and Corgi
Interpreting the base of a Lone Star vehicle can be difficult. Some of Impy Toys read: "Lone Star Road-Master Impy Super Cars".To keep up with competitors such as Corgi and Dinky, Lone Star began producing Corgi-sized diecast toy vehicles in 1956 with its Road-Master series. Castings on the earlier vehicles, though handsome, were a bit cruder than the competition. For example, the double-deck bus had its casting line, for its two halves, right down the centre of the roof. Also, most earlier Lone Stars have simpler bumper, grille and body detail than Corgi or Dinky.
The Impy Series
Much changed with the introduction of the Impy line in 1966. Bright new packaging was introduced while the older, larger, Road-Master series was discontinued. The new cars were a smaller three and a half inch size, similar to Mini-Dinkys, and were advertised as the "cars with everything". For example, the 1963 Chrysler Imperial was not offered by any other diecast maker and featured opening doors, hood, trunk, working steering and jewelled headlights. The Impy Jaguar Mark X outshone the spartan Matchbox version with four jewelled headlights and opening 'everything'. Having so many features on a smaller diecast car could be unsightly, however, as cut door lines broke the smooth sides of the car on the Imperial, and other vehicles. On the FIAT 2300S Ghia coupe the cast line was rough and uneven from fender through door to fender again.It is interesting that Lone Star was the first toy producer to respond to Hot Wheels' hit of low-friction wheels In 1968, less than a year after the introduction of Hot Wheels, Impys were refitted with sporty fast wheels which Lone Star now called its "Flyer" series. The first Flyers' wheels were simple shiny silver wheels with black hubs, rather reminiscent of Corgi's first low-friction gold wheels with red hubs. Eventually cars were given a handsome five-spoke wheel By contrast, Topper's Johnny Lightning and Aurora's Cigarbox cars did not change wheel styles until about 1969, nearly two years after Mattel's premier. Similar to Majorette and others, Lone Star also offered gift sets of cars with trailers into the early 1980s, like the Range Rover pulling a zodiac-style inflatable boat.
Earlier Lone Star packaging was coloured similar to Corgi and especially Dinky, with red and yellow box panels. Later packaging was bright - almost luminescent - and Impy boxes were among the first to feature plastic windows, while Matchbox still had closed boxes.