Britains horses

I will start with this topic on one of the last of the classic plastic farm animals issued by Britains.

This model was number 2108 in the Britains Farm line. Originally issued in matt plastic in 1966 and then available from 1968 in PVC plastic. It was available in three colours: brown, brick (reddish brown as illustrated below) and tan. The model was finally withdrawn in 1992.

Marked on the belly area: BRITAINS LTD ENGLAND

Essentially, this was a re-work from the original lead hollow-cast model which was introduced in around 1946 and lasted until 1959.

Not just three colours, but an awful lot of shade variations as well, to keep us OCD collectors interested.

Very good horse     

Beautiful horse

Chris, do I understand you right, that you want to see other People's Britains horses ?
If not, please just say so, and I will erase this

I got these a couple of years ago. It says 2010 on the box so they are neither old nor the slightest bit rare, - but I like them very much


They look very nice in the box, so I have not teken them out .
That way they do not come to any harm 

Here's the lead version of the Suffolk mare, with its foal.
The foal was later produced in plastic, in dark brown and white.
Note that during the same period, 1950s to 1970, there were two other Britains/Herald foals, standing and scratching, which were made in dark brown, white and black, but the lying foal seen here was never (as far as is known) made in black plastic.

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They are beautyful

To me the lead models have that something very special   

Btw, I think I have that white, lying foal somewhere, but it has had a very hard-handed young owner before it came here   

SUSANNE wrote:

Chris, do I understand you right, that you want to see other People's Britains horses ?
If not, please just say so, and I will erase this

I got these a couple of years ago. It says 2010 on the box so they are neither old nor the slightest bit rare, - but I like them very much


They look very nice in the box, so I have not teken them out .
That way they do not come to any harm 

Post away Susanne. BTW the adult riders are based on those first issued in 1963 and lasted until 1992. However, the designs were simplified from the early 1970’s.

I have never seen a black lying foal Dave and Barney Brown in his Britains Herald Plastic Farm Models 1955-1969 confirms that they were never available in black.

widukind wrote:

Very good horse     

Animal_Figures_4U wrote:

Beautiful horse :D

Thanks Andreas and 4U.   

Chris Sweetman wrote:

I have never seen a black lying foal Dave and Barney Brown in his Britains Herald Plastic Farm Models 1955-1969 confirms that they were never available in black.

Quite so (I have Barney's books, and am in fairly regular contact with him), but items by Britains which are not supposed to have existed have a habit of occasionally turning up!   
Sometimes it is a case of painters errors (or maybe a painter was bored that day. I have a Herald Farmer's Daughter with blue dress and dark brown hair should be blond, the red dress version had brown hair), sometimes it is a case of short term shortages at Britains factory causing them to use not normal plastic colours (such as the mounted Herald Life Guards in white plastic instead of the usual red), and in the last months of lead figure production they turned out non standard items to use up what they had left, such as different moveable arms from normal (I have a mounted ACW Confederate cavalry trooper in a boxed set with a trumpeter arm).
Britains generally tried to be as accurate as possible (within the limits of Britains artistic style of 'reality'), but when push came to shove they were a company trying to make a profit by selling toys.

DaveScriv wrote:

Chris Sweetman wrote:

I have never seen a black lying foal Dave and Barney Brown in his Britains Herald Plastic Farm Models 1955-1969 confirms that they were never available in black.

Quite so (I have Barney's books, and am in fairly regular contact with him), but items by Britains which are not supposed to have existed have a habit of occasionally turning up!   
Sometimes it is a case of painters errors (or maybe a painter was bored that day. I have a Herald Farmer's Daughter with blue dress and dark brown hair should be blond, the red dress version had brown hair), sometimes it is a case of short term shortages at Britains factory causing them to use not normal plastic colours (such as the mounted Herald Life Guards in white plastic instead of the usual red), and in the last months of lead figure production they turned out non standard items to use up what they had left, such as different moveable arms from normal (I have a mounted ACW Confederate cavalry trooper in a boxed set with a trumpeter arm).
Britains generally tried to be as accurate as possible (within the limits of Britains artistic style of 'reality'), but when push came to shove they were a company trying to make a profit by selling toys.

This is fairly typical of most companies in the past that produced toys Dave. After all a toy whether it is car or animal figure does it matter what colour it ends up in? They had a finite lifespan as a toy and if they lasted a few weeks intact it may have been a minor miracle! I have a few toy cars that are in colours that are not recorded anywhere and I know collectors have much more than I have. So it is not surprising that strange colours pop up from time to time that have been painted largely by homeworkers for plastic figures. Peter Cole in his first edition of ‘Suspended Animation’ wondered what early plastic farm animals were in an early Britains box he had. Sure enough a box did eventually turn up with said animals included.

After many years of collecting toys I am not surprised if an item turns up that no-one has recorded before.

STS can be an outlet for all these unusual animal figures to be pictured here with information and we can all learn.

Some more images of the Suffolk Mare. Firstly a close up of the head and braiding:


Now the tan version:


Both the colours I have together:


Close up image showing head moulding differences:

Here are my Suffolk Punch horses-I always though that this model was wonderful!  
Also a picture of the rather odd coloured palomino Shire that was made by Britains-Anyone know more about this model?
He was losing the grey paint on him so I repainted him when I was younger!
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Nope, not seen that colour Shire before. I'm guessing made towards the end of production of it.

Here is another horse:


Britains supplied plastic animals to other companies. Usually these were ones from their catalogue. However, the horse illustrated here was a special moulding specifically for Tri-ang. Tri-ang used it for their large scale pressed-steel trucks. These included a BMC Horse transporter (incorrectly identified by some sources as a Bedford) and an open horse box towed by a Land-Rover. This model horse dates from the mid 1960’s and is to a scale larger than 1:32nd scale. The design was based on one Britains used in their 1:32nd scale range to pull their light weight horse drawn vehicles. This was based on one made in hollow-cast and later in plastic and was referred to as a "skinny horse”.

Marked on the belly area: BRITAINS LTD ENGLAND.

Skinny found the perfect place! I hope this topic has many more stories to tell. I really like everything Britains made. :)
I am eager to receive my first Britains horses and to see how they look like with the modern 1:32 friends of Breyer!

Roger wrote:

Skinny found the perfect place! :DI hope this topic has many more stories to tell. I really like everything Britains made. :)
I am eager to receive my first Britains horses and to see how they look like with the modern 1:32 friends of Breyer!

He/she? certainly has Roger.   

I have a few more Britains horses and these will follow soon.

Breyer were inspired by Britains on some models. More will be revealed! Watch this space.   

Thanks for extra pictures, do you have any example to show where Breyer found inspiration? It would be great to see it.

I've just found this topic now! Thank you for all the photos Chris, Dave, Taylor and Susanne! Very interesting figures! Suffolk is especially nicely sculpted and amazingly (also surprisingly) in lead she came in proper bay colour with black legs. Shire is also very lovely and I think it would be so nice to see few more photos of this figure, please   
I like also the fact these figures came in many colours, skinny one (which I think is probably Hack type?) looks especially nice in palomino  
Interesting to see the "skinny horse" much taller than Suffolk. From what I've read Suffolk Punch horses are tall  (65 to 70 inches, 165 to 178 cm).   
Thank you for nice comparison shots Chris!  

Ana wrote:

I've just found this topic now! Thank you for all the photos Chris, Dave, Taylor and Susanne! Very interesting figures! Suffolk is especially nicely sculpted.
I like also the fact these figures came in many colours, skinny one (which I think is probably Hack type?) looks especially nice in palomino  
Interesting to see the "skinny horse" much taller than Suffolk. From what I've read Suffolk Punch horses are tall  (65 to 70 inches, 165 to 178 cm).   
Thank you for nice comparison shots Chris!  

Ana, THIS 'skinny horse' is bigger than the Suffolk because it is in a bigger scale, as Chris said, items made by Britains for Tri-ang.
The skinny hoses in Britains regular 1:32 scale range were smaller than the Suffolk.

I'll be back in a few minutes with a photo of their regular skinny horse with the Tri-ang ones, so you can see the difference.

Oh, I had to mis this sentence about bigger scale indeed, Dave! I haven't read too carefully   

I would love to see photo of original Britains 1:32 version too of course!

Normal plastic skinny cart horse with Tri-ang horses

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As you can see, I have some spares of these rare Tri-ang horses - will swap for something else good vintage.

Now for, in chronological order, their 3 lead skinny cart horses, then the plastic version again, but this time in brown.

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Roger wrote:

Thanks for extra pictures, do you have any example to show where Breyer found inspiration? It would be great to see it.

You are welcome Rogério. At present I don’t have any comparison images of Britains v Breyer. However, Breyer at one time imported Britains models into the USA.