Airfix Products Ltd.

Very nice dogs and pictures, Chris!

As a matter of fact, i had the Airfix zoo-Set(yellow animals) for my 7th birthday, together with the Britains Zoo-cage set, and two later Corgi Toys animal-transporters, one with giraffes, that is what i remember.
Later on i am sure i had those farm animals also.
But i did not like them very much, as they had no colour on them.
I didn't swap them, but i always kept them hidden somewhere in my collection back then.

This was one of the animal transporters, the one with the giraffes, i think the green one was with horses or so.



And this the Britains Zoo-Cage set.

I have no decent pictures of the Airfix sets.

Here are the scans of the pages 56 of the Airfix catalog 1972.
Benno

I'm not sure, but I think I see a little border collie next to the sheep!

Wow, are there antelopes ? I can not see that very good.

Great to see these. I had always assumed that Airfix only produced unpainted animals. It looks as if some animals in the catalogue already have paint loss, like the giraffe and the elephant in the top right.

rogerpgvg wrote:

Great to see these. I had always assumed that Airfix only produced unpainted animals. It looks as if some animals in the catalogue already have paint loss, like the giraffe and the elephant in the top right.

Hi Roger

Airfix never produced painted animals they were only available unpainted. The photos in the catalogue provide an idea on the colours the animals could be painted - no doubt by using Airfix paints.

I remember back in the mid-1960's a toy/model shop had displays similar to what Airfix published showing all the sets, including the animal ones, painted. Once I asked for a set only to be given a box with unpainted figures still attached to a sprue - I was most disappointed in this!

I can imagine that you were disappointed. Thanks for your clarification about the painting.

Bonnie wrote:

I'm not sure, but I think I see a little border collie next to the sheep!

You do Bonnie. This was a direct copy of the Britains Herald sheepdog miniaturised.

Britains not only had to contend with Hong Kong and other Far East companies copying their designs but closer to home Airfix was doing it too!

Thank you for sharing these scans Babdo! :)

Here are the pages 56 + 57 of Airfix catalog 1978.
Benno.

Imagine that i had these yellow zoo-animals completely.
I saw all of that stuff passing by in the far past, i was 7 when i got that set, so that was like 52 years ago haha...
Thanks for the memories Babdo!

Chris Sweetman wrote:

Bonnie wrote:

I'm not sure, but I think I see a little border collie next to the sheep!

You do Bonnie. This was a direct copy of the Britains Herald sheepdog miniaturised.

Britains not only had to contend with Hong Kong and other Far East companies copying their designs but closer to home Airfix was doing it too!

Thank you so much for this- very interesting! I thought it was similar to the Britains, it's a lovely little model so I'm not surprised there were lots of companies trying to copy it! I also love the sable and white collie of the same mould by Britains, but it's proving more difficult to find which I recently learnt from Roger was due to a shorter run time!

Especially the birds, unbelievable

I would like a lot to see some! what's the scale?..

Caracal wrote:

I would like a lot to see some! what's the scale?..

I do not know the scale. But see the cover of the Airfix catalog 1978.
Benno.

The birds were life size, but note these were kits to be assembled and painted.

The dinosaurs/prehistoric reptiles varied from 1:48th scale to 1:30th scale and again these were in kit form to be assembled and painted.

Caracal wrote:

I would like a lot to see some! what's the scale?..

HO, fitting to the small trainsize.

This seems to be the last of the Dogs; a Springer Spaniel I think?



Which gives us;

HUNTING SERIES
532 - HUNTING SET. Consisting of 2 Masters of Hounds, 2 Fo1lowers, 4 Horses and 2 Foxhounds, in beautiful 6-colour display box. (two poses)

DOGS
551 - KENNEL OF DOGS A real board kennel containing 4 different unbreakable finely moulded dogs (German Shepherd, Pointer, Setter, Spaniel)
551 L - DOGS. Loose, assorted six types, ideal for doll's houses (4 dogs - German Shepherd, Pointer, Setter, Spaniel plus two Foxhounds)

Those bird sets are particularly lovely, I would love to try my hand at those if they were still in production. Too bad.