Toyway Figurines

Can someone tell me a bit more about Toyway? I found a little dinosaur baby figurine between all my dinosaur figurines (yes I have quite a lot, I just haven't got place for them anymore ) which is marked as Toyway. I did a little research on the internet, and first of all, I came by this site. When I searched further, I found a post on the DinoToyBlog about some dinosaurs by Toyway that were produced for Walking With Dinosaurs. Lastly I checked TAi (I have to learn to always check TAi first ), and there I found this about Toyway:

TAi wrote:

Toyway produced dinosaurs for the British Natural History Museum, most popularly for the Walking with Dinosaurs series. The company went into bankruptcy in 2009 and the current status is uncertain.

Okay, nice, but I don't think my figurine is made for Walking With Dinosaurs. Maybe it was made for the BNHM, but there is nothing written on my figure about it. Here are some pictures:

Cute:)

All I found was two topics by Taos HERE and HERE. Whatever he's from, he's cute! Congrats!

LeeAnn wrote:

All I found was two topics by Taos HERE and HERE. Whatever he's from, he's cute! Congrats!

Yes indeed, I found these as well, but my baby dino doesn't look like the same style as Taos' dinosaurs and all the other animals are marked as Timpo. Are Timpo and Toyway related in any way?

Lovely, lovely model

Unfortunatley I don't know much  more than you already found
I have the Stegosaurus hare http://www.dinosaurcollector.150m.com/Toyway.htm , and he is matte, so I think your may not be from the British Museum-series

SUSANNE wrote:

Lovely, lovely model

Unfortunatley I don't know much  more than you already found
I have the Stegosaurus hare http://www.dinosaurcollector.150m.com/Toyway.htm , and he is matte, so I think your may not be from the British Museum-series

Thanks for your link, Susanne; the Stegosaurus is lovely (and I'm really in love with the Diplodocus ). I already thought so, because mine is glossy, less detailed and it just looks a bit older

Tarunyada wrote:

LeeAnn wrote:

All I found was two topics by Taos HERE and HERE. Whatever he's from, he's cute! Congrats!

Yes indeed, I found these as well, but my baby dino doesn't look like the same style as Taos' dinosaurs and all the other animals are marked as Timpo. Are Timpo and Toyway related in any way?

I'll look up details when I have more time (had a busy day), but I think in general terms, Toyway bought all the moulds etc. from the old Timpo company.

DaveScriv wrote:

Tarunyada wrote:

LeeAnn wrote:

All I found was two topics by Taos HERE and HERE. Whatever he's from, he's cute! Congrats!

Yes indeed, I found these as well, but my baby dino doesn't look like the same style as Taos' dinosaurs and all the other animals are marked as Timpo. Are Timpo and Toyway related in any way?

I'll look up details when I have more time (had a busy day), but I think in general terms, Toyway bought all the moulds etc. from the old Timpo company.

Interesting! Thank you, Dave Take your time!

Toyway are (were?) a general importer, who specialised in toys (hence the name), they had been around for a while when they had the chance to purchase some of the moulds from Dorset/Marlborough (ex-Lone Star) and then Timpo'

They scraped a lot of the Timpo Moulds but kept those they thought they could do something with, giving first refusal to a private dealer on the rest the morning the scrap men came and he saved a few.

Most Toyway stuff is Hong Kong-China produced and that would appear to be the case with your baby dinosaur. They own use the Timpo brand-name, hence Lone Star sailors and Chinese-made nurses appearing in Timpo-Toyway packaging!

smallscaleworld wrote:

Toyway are (were?) a general importer, who specialised in toys (hence the name), they had been around for a while when they had the chance to purchase some of the moulds from Dorset/Marlborough (ex-Lone Star) and then Timpo'

They scraped a lot of the Timpo Moulds but kept those they thought they could do something with, giving first refusal to a private dealer on the rest the morning the scrap men came and he saved a few.

Most Toyway stuff is Hong Kong-China produced and that would appear to be the case with your baby dinosaur. They own use the Timpo brand-name, hence Lone Star sailors and Chinese-made nurses appearing in Timpo-Toyway packaging!

That's very interesting Thank you for sharing this information!

Your figure would appear to be a later addition to one of the Walking With Dinosaurs ranges?

Two useful links for dinosaur collectors...

Dinosaur Blog
Dinosaur Collector Site

smallscaleworld wrote:

Your figure would appear to be a later addition to one of the Walking With Dinosaurs ranges?

Two useful links for dinosaur collectors...

Dinosaur Blog
Dinosaur Collector Site

Thanks for the links! But I'm not sure if they are from the Walking With Dinosaurs range, for they are way more detailed than my little dinosaur. I find him quite interesting

Sorry Tarunyada...I was being conservative with words! I didn't think he was part of the ranges in the links, just that he might have been part of the same marketing drive? BBC World or whoever was handling the licenses for the WWD franchise would have given those companies buying-in some leeway to source products and brand them as WWD.

Yours looks like maybe Toyway got clearance to do a 'Baby WWD' range or something...I can imagine him (or her?) on a card or even loose in a sales-bin at the pocket-money end of the price range? They will have gone round/rung-round (eMailed these days) the factories in the East that they knew to do budget stuff and found what they thought they could turn a penny on.

If they sold poorly, they would quickly be dropped as a line, and disappear. It will be interesting to see what turns up, when it turns up..which it will, miss-described on eBay at some point - for sure!