Britains a year of celebration ..............

sauroid wrote:

thank you Chris for that very informative reply.

Hi sauroid

I took a picture of the 1971 pig mouldings together with a model that was produced in China.


Britains pigs from 1971

In 1968 Britains started to change to PVC plastic and PVC paints for their figures. Also from 1969 they decided to reduce their Farm animal range and started introducing new mouldings.

In 1971 Britains introduced ten new Farm animal mouldings. Four of these were pigs. These are the first four from the left:

Piglet standing, sow, Saddleback boar and piglet feeding.

Both the sow and boar were available in pink and Saddleback versions. They were all withdrawn in 1992. The piglets from 1971 to 1992 may have been available in black as well as pink.

The piglets were re-introduced in 1995 to replace their replacements! From 1995 they were definitely available in black as well as pink. The two pink piglets on the right are made in a translucent type plastic.

The Old Spot sow was introduced in 1992 and originally made in China.

The piglets above have: "Britains Eng" on their bellies. The pink sow has: "Britains Ltd England 1971 (C)" on her belly. The Saddleback boar has: "Britains Ltd 1971 (C) England" on his belly.

As I noted above all the 1971 mouldings are currently available.

Chris Sweetman wrote:

A mixed flock of sheep breeds from Britains. All these models featured are from 1971 onwards.

Britains sheep 1 by Chris*4, on Flickr

The moorland diorama base was made by my Brother-in-Law, Richard Brady, for my 1:43rd scale Land-Rover models. However, it is perfect for 1:32nd scale animal figures.

Ohh, I love these! And photo! And all sheep from the photo Wow, I must find these figures too one day So far I have only dog :)

A phantastic Britains collection My alltime favourites are the gaur and the Sable antelope

Great work from Richard and excelent picture as always! I enjoy all these little figures.

Roger wrote:

Great work from Richard and excelent picture as always! I enjoy all these little figures.

Many thanks Roger.

Photo information: Nikon D200 DSLR Nikkor 18-70 lens Nikon SB900 flashgun

Shutter speed: 1/60th second Aperture: f22 ISO: 100

Processed in iPhoto - where I lighten the image.

Ana wrote:

Chris Sweetman wrote:

A mixed flock of sheep breeds from Britains. All these models featured are from 1971 onwards.

Britains sheep 1 by Chris*4, on Flickr

The moorland diorama base was made by my Brother-in-Law, Richard Brady, for my 1:43rd scale Land-Rover models. However, it is perfect for 1:32nd scale animal figures.

Ohh, I love these! And photo! And all sheep from the photo Wow, I must find these figures too one day So far I have only dog :)

Thank you Anna. Most of these figures in this image are still available.

widukind wrote:

A phantastic Britains collection My alltime favourites are the gaur and the Sable antelope

Many thanks Andreas.

Bought today at the NEC Toy Fair Birmingham England:


A new addition in the Britains 1972 catalogue but it didn’t last long in the farm range!

Reference number: 2000

Name: “Small animals and birds” this model had 8 detachable animals from a tree plus five that were supposed to stay on the tree!

On this example I am missing two doves on the upper branch and the fox. Fortunately, I already have the fox.

A good addition Chris

widukind wrote:

A good addition Chris

Thank you Andreas. 

Great addition Chris . I never have in hands the plastic chimp, mine is a Hong-Kong copy, could you share some pics ?

Chimps look wonderful. I know they are so rare that not even Christophe have it.
Very interesting about Barret polar bear.

Kikimalou wrote:

Great addition Chris . I never have in hands the plastic chimp, mine is a Hong-Kong copy, could you share some pics ?

Thank you Christophe.

I will put this model on my "to photo list" ASAP! I have a Hong Kong copy too.

Roger wrote:

Chimps look wonderful. I know they are so rare that not even Christophe have it.
Very interesting about Barret polar bear.

Hi Roger

The two Chimpanzees in the image were £4 each and are slightly different. They are earlier version in brown plastic. They go nicely with my other two versions in black plastic. I guess I am greedy in having four of them! 

The Barrett polar bear is an unusual find. I need to look more closely next time and check the underneath of the model to see where it is made.

Lots of interesting figures, I always love looking at group shots.

Tiermann wrote:

Lots of interesting figures, I always love looking at group shots.

Thank you Tim.  

Well 2013 has now finished and Britains did not celebrate their 120th anniversary by bringing out any new animal figures. Never mind here I go back to 1968 when Britains released their Mini-Set range of 1:42nd scale diorama sets. One of the first sets I obtained was 1033 Elephant and Boy:


All elements could be used separately providing extra play value.

Thanks for showing Chris! They are very beautiful and if your picture was B&W they'd look like recently bought.
So many years before and your collector heart still hoping for a new Britains!

Nice set, I heard about those sets for the first time a few days ago when you were showing this elephant in another topic.

How many set do you know or have ?

When I look at your pics on Flickr, I discovered the Safri truck I played with when I was young, I always thought it was a Corgi from the Daktari set. In my mind there was a giraffe in this set and it fits perfectly with a Daktari green pick-up(the one with the lion on the bonnet).

What was Corgi and what was Britains then ?

I realized for the first time that maybe I had a few Britains in my youth.   

Roger wrote:

Thanks for showing Chris! They are very beautiful and if your picture was B&W they'd look like recently bought.
So many years before and your collector heart still hoping for a new Britains!

Hi Rogério

You are welcome.   They look like new because I haven’t played with them much!   

I am always optimistic that one day Britains will issue another range of 1:32nd scale wild life/zoo animals. Perhaps Tomy have seen how popular Schleich and Papo are and will return to the field.

Kikimalou wrote:

Nice set, I heard about those sets for the first time a few days ago when you were showing this elephant in another topic.

How many set do you know or have ?

When I look at your pics on Flickr, I discovered the Safri truck I played with when I was young, I always thought it was a Corgi from the Daktari set. In my mind there was a giraffe in this set and it fits perfectly with a Daktari green pick-up(the one with the lion on the bonnet).

What was Corgi and what was Britains then ?

I realized for the first time that maybe I had a few Britains in my youth.   

Hi Christophe

Britains introduced their Mini-Set range in 1968 with 12 different sets. Three were farm related, three zoo related, two sets featured cowboys and Indians - all dismounted, one was knights in combat which included a mounted and dismounted knights, two featured WWII American Infantry and one was an undersea set which featured two frogmen and an octopus. Out of these 12 original sets I have ten of them. The only full set I don’t have is the knight one but I have one frogman from the undersea set. All these sets were illustrated in the 1969 Britains catalogue. The farm and zoo related sets were withdrawn at the end of 1969.

In the 1970 Britains catalogue the six remaining sets were joined by six others. The new set of six included a tractor, a German anti-tank gun, three knights in combat, three US Federal Civil war infantry men, another undersea set with two deep sea divers and a shark and finally a set of three footballers. Out of this set of six I only have the footballers but I have two sets of these: one set has the players in the colours illustrated in the catalogues and the other one is a special in which the players are in the kit of the two finalists from the FA Cup of 1972. Leeds United beat Arsenal 1-0.

I will eventually post the details in another separate thread.

The Daktari truck in one of my FlickR images is from Corgi Toys Giant Daktari Gift set 14. Christophe you are correct in thinking that another vehicle was a giraffe transporter and it also included the Daktari Land-Rover from Gift Set 7. The animal figures Corgi used were their own they didn’t use any from Britains.

Hope all this helps Christophe.

Chris Sweetman wrote:

Kikimalou wrote:

Nice set, I heard about those sets for the first time a few days ago when you were showing this elephant in another topic.

How many set do you know or have ?

When I look at your pics on Flickr, I discovered the Safri truck I played with when I was young, I always thought it was a Corgi from the Daktari set. In my mind there was a giraffe in this set and it fits perfectly with a Daktari green pick-up(the one with the lion on the bonnet).

What was Corgi and what was Britains then ?

I realized for the first time that maybe I had a few Britains in my youth.   

Hi Christophe

Britains introduced their Mini-Set range in 1968 with 12 different sets. Three were farm related, three zoo related, two sets featured cowboys and Indians - all dismounted, one was knights in combat which included a mounted and dismounted knights, two featured WWII American Infantry and one was an undersea set which featured two frogmen and an octopus. Out of these 12 original sets I have ten of them. The only full set I don’t have is the knight one but I have one frogman from the undersea set. All these sets were illustrated in the 1969 Britains catalogue. The farm and zoo related sets were withdrawn at the end of 1969.

In the 1970 Britains catalogue the six remaining sets were joined by six others. The new set of six included a tractor, a German anti-tank gun, three knights in combat, three US Federal Civil war infantry men, another undersea set with two deep sea divers and a shark and finally a set of three footballers. Out of this set of six I only have the footballers but I have two sets of these: one set has the players in the colours illustrated in the catalogues and the other one is a special in which the players are in the kit of the two finalists from the FA Cup of 1972. Leeds United beat Arsenal 1-0.

I will eventually post the details in another separate thread.

The Daktari truck in one of my FlickR images is from Corgi Toys Giant Daktari Gift set 14. Christophe you are correct in thinking that another vehicle was a giraffe transporter and it also included the Daktari Land-Rover from Gift Set 7. The animal figures Corgi used were their own they didn’t use any from Britains.

Hope all this helps Christophe.

Great information Chris, thanks for sharing.

Thank you very much Chris   

The giraffe was designed by George Ford and introduced in 1972. It was one of three issued that year that had a “working feature”. In the case of the giraffe the neck could be raised and lowered. This model represents a pre 1980 version as from 1980 the pattern was a sharper edge style not a fuzzy-edged, stencil sprayed paint style. This was the tallest of Britains animals. The smallest were little brown birds from the Floral Garden range and were also included in the Folk Set released in 1967.


So here are the tallest and smallest of Britains animals.

I always liked a lot Britains giraffe. I remember when I saw it for the first time on forum and got surprised how could an old toy be much better sculpted than all modern giraffes I knew from Schleich, Papo, etc. I was still starting my collection and my knowledge about older brands was minimal. I've found that most Britains are better sculpts than relative and larger modern figures. Fortunately, last years, major brands are abandoning an excessive toy like figures and walking towards more realistic sculptures and in my opinion, newer CollectA giraffe is a really great tribute to that Britains figure.
Yours is in a wonderful condition. Mine is just almost unpainted.