1/32 scale animals

You are right, Britains referred to this horse as a hunter horse. I don't know a thing about horses, so I thought that this is just a horse used for hunting and a Hackney horse could be a breed of hunting horses. Are you saying that Hunters are a horse breed?

rogerpgvg wrote:

You are right, Britains referred to this horse as a hunter horse. I don't know a thing about horses, so I thought that this is just a horse used for hunting and a Hackney horse could be a breed of hunting horses. Are you saying that Hunters are a horse breed?

Roger, this article may help answer your question:

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It is from The Field magazine so they should know!

The article says that Hunters can be of a variety of breeds, including cross-breeds. It doesn't mention Hackneys and Wikipedia says that they are carriage horses, but I suppose it doesn't rule out that they can also be used as Hunters.

Chris, do you know whether Britains ever referred to them as Hackney horses? I don't remember where I got this information from, I don't know how reliable the source was.

rogerpgvg wrote:

The article says that Hunters can be of a variety of breeds, including cross-breeds. It doesn't mention Hackneys and Wikipedia says that they are carriage horses, but I suppose it doesn't rule out that they can also be used as Hunters.

Chris, do you know whether Britains ever referred to them as Hackney horses? I don't remember where I got this information from, I don't know how reliable the source was.

Roger, not sure that after 1974 the original Britains company actually named any animal in their catalogues. I certainly don't recall the term Hackney used. I don't have immediate access to my Britains catalogues post 1975 readily to hand but will check as soon as can.

Hackneys were bred for looking fancy pulling a carriage. They are rather rare now, I think Hackney ponies are actually more common than the full size horses now. You've heard of an animal's gait being described as 'hackneyed'? It comes from the Hackney's characteristic trot, lifting the knees and hocks very high. They are not known as saddle horses, and I suppose one could be used as a hunter, but it would be unusual.  

Hunters can be any breed (one of my mom's little old Arab mares does very well for my brother's wife) but are typically Thoroughbreds, one of the various Warmblood breeds, or crossbreds of similar type- generally bigger horses of fairly sturdy type are used; not all Thoroughbreds make the cut. There isn't a specific breed, though in Thoroughbreds there is a specific type bred for hunter/jumper and cross country use. They are sturdier usually than horses bred for flats racing.

The Britains Arab is the second horse from the left? Funny that purebred Arabs do not have the palomino dilution gene.  The Thoroughbred looks like a flats racer type. (the bay to the Thoroughbred's left, with high head and tail, looks the most like an Arab- but with its high carriage I can see it being the Hackney)

Great information! That's right, the Arab is the 2nd on the left. Britains did indeed sometimes make horse breeds in fantasy colours. I need to check this more systematically. They made them in the following colours:

Arabian: palomino and brown
Holstein: palomino and brown
Percheron: white and brown; also in palomino and black with rider
Hackney: white and brown; also in palomino and black with rider
Thoroughbred: black, brown and palomino
Welsh cob: black, brown and palomino
Shire: white, brown and palomino (I know palomino is impossible)
Clydesdale: white and brown

I didn't realise Hackneys could be ponies; size-wise that may be better. Britains also produced the Hackneys (or Hunters) with saddle and rider. That might suggest it wasn't intended as a Hackney, although I suspect that they weren't so concerned about factual accuracy as we are.

This is the giant Japanese spider crab by Kaiyodo for the Sendai Aquarium collection. It scales to 1:27 for a large specimen. While that may be a little big for 1:32, there are not many arthropod options in that size

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Thanks, Blaine, I'll look out for this spider crab. I wonder whether it is the smallest one that has been made. The Kaiyodo Enoshima giant spider crab is easier to find, but as far as I can tell, it is also larger.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Thanks, Blaine, I'll look out for this spider crab. I wonder whether it is the smallest one that has been made. The Kaiyodo Enoshima giant spider crab is easier to find, but as far as I can tell, it is also larger.

I have a few about this size; let me check the others later today or this week. I feel like 3 or so are about this size.

Roger,I will dig out my Britains horses and show you what I have for each breed.

Would be great to see your Britains horses. Do you have other horses in a similar scale too?

Here are the Britains horses in they various colours.The Shire in an older and new paint work with the newer one being more accurate.The palomino and grey Shire.
The hunters,including the one with the rider.As Kelly pointed out hunters are a type rather than a breed and are generally based on a Thoroughbred with additions and in Ireland this tends to be an Irish Draught horse.They are also more a British/Irish invention as they would be termed a Sports horse/Warmblood in other countries.Hunters can either be light,middle or heavyweight.Other types of horse are cobs and hacks.Then come the Arabs,including the one with a rider which is a different colour to the one without the rider.The Holsteins and then the Percherons,who sadly look nothing like breed.I am aware that there is a slightly lighter built Percheron but still the models don't represent the breed and again the brown/bay is incorrect.The Welsh Cobs(these have become standardised as a breed),the Suffolk Punch in 2 shades of chestnut,the Thoroughbreds with the rather odd coloured palomino!and the 2 different coloured bays.The Shetland ponies with riders in different colours and finally the Clydesdales.The dark horse should really have a lot of white on legs and face to be more accurate.Even though there are some inaccuracies with the colour,overall when I saw these horses when I was younger I thought they were great and still think today that these models are excellent compared with the terrible knock off Hong Kong models that were around at the same time!

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Here is the Britains hunter with a rather well made Hong Kong horse(a stallion no less!!)-one of the better made models of the time!
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Wonderful Britains horses!
Lots of familiar faces there too from some of my Britains horses! I love the ones in the photo 6th from the bottom, I have one of them and they have detail and texture more like that of a major brand- is it a draught horse? (I'm so sorry I'm not that good with horse breeds!)

Yes,they are Suffolk Punch horses.

Oh thank you!

Great selection of Britains horses, thanks for showing them! The Hong Kong stallion is interesting too - it looks a bit like the Britains Black Beauty (especially the white sleeve), but isn't a direct copy. I need to remeasure the Britains horses. When I moved from Windows 7 to 10 recently, I lost all my measurements and size information. If I remember correctly, the Shires and Clydesdale are a bit small for 1:32 scale and the Welsh Cob too large.

Do you have Breyer horses? I wonder how their size compares to the Britains?

I will get some pics of the Britains with some Breyer Stablemates.I also had a look in my Britains catalogues and the 1979 catalogue mentions the horses by breed names but by 1983 they are just referred to as working horses and riding horse with the Percheron,strangely in the riding horse section!

Like the Hunter/Hackney horse, the Percheron was also sold with rider (probably 1972-76) in 4 colours: white, black, palomino and brown. Both were sold in riding sets. People at Britains indeed seemed to think the Percheron was a riding horse.

I have never seen the Percheron with a rider so I will have to look out for them!

I wish I had an extra one for you, but I only have double Hunter horses with rider.

Let's measure the other Britains horses.
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The Britains Shire horse has a shoulder height of 4.6/147 cm, which is a bit small as Wikipedia says that mares should be at least 163 cm and stallions are 178 cm on average.

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The Welsh Cob is 5.1/163 cm. Wikipedia says the breed ranges from 112 cm for the smallest ponies to over 163 cm for the tallest Cobs, so this one is fine for a very large Welsh Cob.

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The Suffolk mare is 4.7/150 cm. Wikipedia says that Suffolk Punches generally stand 165 to 178 cm, but they used to be smaller in the past. In 1784, the breed was described as 152 cm high, which is closer to the Britains.

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The Britains Shetland ponies are 2.9/93 cm. The height of Shetland ponies can vary a lot, but they should be no larger than 107 cm. Any Shetlands over 86 cm are standard size.

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The Clydesdale is 4.6/147 cm. Again a bit small; Wikipedia says Clydesdales are between 162 and 183 cm.

Very interesting, thank you!

Britains draft horses are small, I never noticed it, at least not in such an obvious way. Particularly clydes and shires. However, they are also very beautiful models and these horses were made for a farm series, isn’t it? Not exactly an equine oriented series. I must find a way to have my collection back, I know I have a few Britains horses but I can’t tell from memory.

I never realised that the Britains horses are small either, until I started measuring. I see the Britains horses more often from close-by than real horses, and as quite often the Britains size has distorted my idea of how large the real animals are.

I agree the Britains heavy horses are particularly good. When I was a child, I didn't have the Shire horse, but my brother had. I was very jealous!