Childhood Treasures of Shanti

very nice :)

Congratulations! Those calves are darling...

Very nice models, - you always find "gold"

Thank you my friends!!

Another little treasure in my collection, the Giant Tortoise by Britains. Not sure if this is a color variation or if the color just vanished over the years. The Tortoise shown on Toyanimalwiki always have two colors?

Very nice tortoise

Thank you!!

There are different colour variations, but the head, legs and underside are normally painted grey. At the end of the neck, you can still see some grey paint on your figure. It looks pretty good without much paint though.

Yes, could be. Maybe it lost all paint through the years. On the reference photos the brown top (sorry, don't know the word in english) looks painted too.

Yes, I think both the top and bottom of the later PVC version was painted. The shell of the polythene version wasn't painted as far as I know.

Beautiful model regardless of the amount of paint on it. A little glossary because I also often mix most of those names.

Carapace: The hard, protective upper shell of the tortoise.

Plastron: The flat, lower shell of the tortoise that protects its belly.

Scutes: The individual bony or horn-like plates covering the carapace and plastron.

Shell Seam: The line where the carapace and plastron meet; it can be flexible in some species.

What a wonderful little guy!

Thank you!

@Roger: this is really helpful! Thank you!

I was wrong!

I had to inspect my tortoises carefully. The carapace of the PVC version was also unpainted. The PVC is often quite glossy, so it can look as if it is painted. Here is a PVC version:


This what a polythene version with more paint looks like:


These tortoises were made 1961-1971 (and before that in lead). In 1972, they were replaced by this model:

Thank you! Very interesting! Stil not sure which variety my tortoise is. It looks not painted at all (except some little grey and it is not glossy. Maybe it is just old and worn off.

Your version is unique . This tortoise has several variations in the colour of both the paint and the plastic. The painting of yours would probably have looked similar to my second photo, but the plastic of your tortoise indeed looks less glossy. Perhaps the plastic was slightly different or perhaps it looks less glossy because your tortoise has been well loved.

Thank you! Yes, could be it was just a well loved tortoise!

rogerpgvg wrote:

There are different colour variations, but the head, legs and underside are normally painted grey. At the end of the neck, you can still see some grey paint on your figure. It looks pretty good without much paint though.

I agree, it looks great without paint