Issued in 1982 to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the store and the, coincidental, 75th birthday of the company's Managing Director.

Deans of Leeds, a large toy car and carry store in Yorkshire, decided to have a double celebration in 1981. Not only was it their own 75th Anniversary but also it was their Managing Director's 75th birthday. Permission to use a standard Y12 Model "T" van was obtained through the regional Lesney Products representative. The Managing Director of Deans then contacted a personal friend at Waddingtons the world famous game people and asked them to help design the label for the celebratory vehicle. 1,000 models were produced and one model was given to every Deans customer free of charge. Deans were then inundated by collectors world wide asking for examples. Such was the popularity of this model that fakes have been reported originating from the Leeds-Pudsey area. However, they are easily recognisable as having much thicker labels covering the original Lesney design beneath and have a poor finish to the red lettering and the black print on the yellow box label.

Livery: (Label) - 'DEANS' in red - 'FOR TOYS' in yellow on red scroll - 'EST.75 YEARS' in black print below - 'TEL 452966' in red on rear doors.

(Source "MODELS OF YESTERYEAR - THE COLLECTION")

Other Comments/Identifying Features: The model has no opening parts. The vehicle roof is black, the seats are black plastic, black type 1 rear doors with red "Tel. 452966" decal placed over the door tampo, black rear lights and "Y12" on the baseplate. The base plate is held in place by three machined rivets.
It comes packed in the original straw coloured box with correct yellow label on the face side stating "A Memento of Deans of Leeds, 75th Anniversary" on two lines in black lettering.

GENUINE
The genuine Deans has a water slide transfer appearance and you can see the black lines through it. Note also FOR TOYS, the Y is more like a V and larger overall. Further more a slight gap between the two schoolmasters.
FAKE
The fake has a plastic yellow background to label. School masters touching, a smaller F in FOR and proper shaped Y, EST 75 YEARS thinner than genuine model. The phone number on rear door thinner and stretched.

This model was a Limited Edition of only 1000 models which was based on either the original "Suze" or "Colmans" models. A small number were issued with the Deans telephone number printed in red on the rear doors.

Scale: 1:35

Deans Of Leeds - 75th Anniversary

Dean's based on Suze Van

Dean's based on Colemans Van

Deans telephone number printed in red on the rear doors

(1) The genuine label on the box has rounded corners whereas the fake usually has square corners.

(2) The genuine Deans has a waterslide transfer appearance where you can see black lines through it whilst the fake has a plastic yellow background.

(3) In the genuine label wording FOR TOYS, the Y is more like a V and larger print overall whilst the F in FOR and proper shaped Y, EST 75 YEARS is printed thinner in the fake.

Genuine Code 2 Dean's Van

Fake Dean's Van