Britains variations

Taos wrote:

Thank you for all the information,great to know!!

You are welcome Taylor.

interesting! thank you Chris! :)

Thanks again for the lovely comparison photos!

The mould used for the later baboon has seriously deteriorated. The baboon was also produced with a green base, but I don't know when.

rogerpgvg wrote:

The mould used for the later baboon has seriously deteriorated. The baboon was also produced with a green base, but I don't know when.

Barney Brown's book states that the original base colour was green and this was used from 1963 to the end of 1964. It was changed to tan in 1964 and remained in this colour until deletion. I have looked at my Britains customer catalogues from 1965 through to 1971 and the illustration features a green base. In 1972 when actual photographs were used for the figures the base was depicted in tan. Personally I have not seen a green base but an example is illustrated in Barney's book.

Caracal wrote:

interesting! thank you Chris! :)

Thank you Caracal

Taos wrote:

Thanks again for the lovely comparison photos!

Thanks Taylor - I have few more coming along. Watch this space as they say!

Chris Sweetman wrote:

rogerpgvg wrote:

The mould used for the later baboon has seriously deteriorated. The baboon was also produced with a green base, but I don't know when.

Barney Brown's book states that the original base colour was green and this was used from 1963 to the end of 1964. It was changed to tan in 1964 and remained in this colour until deletion. I have looked at my Britains customer catalogues from 1965 through to 1971 and the illustration features a green base. In 1972 when actual photographs were used for the figures the base was depicted in tan. Personally I have not seen a green base but an example is illustrated in Barney's book.

Thanks a lot for this information, Chris. I haven't been able to find the Barney Brown book yet. Does it say anything about the different versions of the early crocodile? I have a green one in PVC, but also two earlier ones, one in brown plastic and one that is painted brown. And how about the flamingo with blue base, does it say when it was produced?

A few posts earlier, Rogério asked whether the polythese figures float. I have washed lots of Britains figures (they are often dirty when I get them), and yes, the polythene often floats. But not always. I remember that Peter Cole in his "Suspended animation" book mentions that the polythene is mixed with something else, but I can't find the quote in the book. I wondered whether the weight may depend on the exact mix. And then I also wondered whether this might affect how brittle they become over time. Do you know more about this, Chris? And were the polythene figures truly unbreakable when they were new?

You are welcome Roger.

Re: Flamingo

Barney suggests in his book that the blue base was used from 1976 until the flamingo was deleted in 1980. 1976 was when the Polar bear cub, standing, which was only issued with a blue base, was deleted. However, as Flamingo and Polar bear cub production ran side by side for 11 years and the bases are easily interchangeable they could be swapped! Also from the introduction of the zoo enclosures from 1964 to 1968 it may be possible that someone thought the blue base was better for the flamingo so they can strand in the blue water of the Tropical pool.


Britains Tropical Pool 1 by Chris Sweetman, on Flickr

Re: Young crocodile

Barney just mentions that it was moulded in olive green plastic and the underside is spray-painted yellow or greenish-yellow. Nothing about other plastic variants or the PVC versions.

Barney talks about a filler being used in the polythene plastic and this had to be added to the exact proportions otherwise it would become brittle. He doesn't say what that filler is.

In my experience in collecting obsolete toy cars when anything was issued isn't an exact science as these were just toys and not subject to scrutiny checks. In this case it is just get the stuff out to the shops so they can be sold and it doesn't matter if some are painted or the base is a different colour to what is illustrated in a catalogue.

Unbreakable plastic

From experiments in the mid 1960's with me using a Britains American Civil War Field Piece loaded with matchsticks and fired into a rank of Britains and Timpo Soldiers they all faired well and happy to report they all survived this ordeal. So for me when they were new they were pretty unbreakable. Not an experiment I care to repeat today!

Very interesting information, thanks again. Your experiment with the Civil War piece sounds very convincing, they must have been unbreakable.