Rogerpgvg's Britains collection: black and spotted pigs

2 master pieces!

Thanks, Rogério, Andreas and Alain! Not enough time for a book.

Lovely models,I will need to keep and eye out for them as I don't have them!

I usually share good news about new acquisitions here, but it's bad news today . I took one of my Shire horses out of its box and then discovered that one of its legs had broken. Polythene is almost unbreakable when it is new, but over time, it can become very brittle. Perhaps when I moved the box or when I put another figure on top of it, the Shire horse broke. It was a clean break so I thought I'd be able to glue it without being visible. But then disaster struck! The glue didn't get out of the tube, so I squeezed it a bit harder and then ... about half of the glue exploded out of the tube, pouring all over the horse's leg and my fingers. I am so clumsy! It was super glue and I just managed to prevent my fingers from getting glued together. Tried to clean the glue off the leg with a paper tissue, but it got stuck. What a mess. The beautiful horse is completely ruined   .

ah that's a shame Roger!
I hope the super glue can be removed somehow?
It's a very lovely model! and I'm not sure if I have any in my collection, but if I have one extra I will put it aside for you.
That's crazy that polythene can become so brittle!! and that's a clean break. How unusual?
- glad your fingers never got stuck together!!

Thank you, Annette. I've got another one, but as you know, the painting of the Britains models is almost unique and this horse was in a particularly good condition. I don't know how I can remove the glue from the leg. I had to use sandpaper to remove the thick glue and the tissue from my finger.

I've had breakages of a few polythene models, usually when they were sent to me (even though they were packaged well). Some polythene models are still flexible after many years, whereas others have become very brittle. Perhaps it is due to storage or perhaps related to the exact plastic mix that was used. Interestingly, my impression is that the larger models are often more fragile; perhaps the plastic mix was different.

This is one of those episodes that could have been me telling, but I don't write as well, especially when my fingers are glued together.
I am particularly clumsy with these things, it's true that my lack of vision doesn't help either. I'm very sorry for what happened, but every mistake represents a step forward as we refine our abilities.
Solvents are usually the best way to remove superglue but they usually damage the painting so maybe you could try a less agressive method but also less efficient.
Try to submerge it into warm soapy waterand let it soak for a while, it will soften the glue , when it is softened, use a soft cloth or sponge to gently rub the glue off. It requires a lot of patience since this method can take a lot of time and it is not a certainty that it will work. It can also generate some painting damage, but it only happens if the paint is flaking due to the age of the model.

Very sad

Thank you all for your commiserations. I'll try with hot water, but I don't have much hope.

Let's look at something more cheerful. I found this Clydesdale with tumbrel cart:


The tumbrel cart was sold with this Clydesdale in 1972 and 1973 and again in 1983 and 1984 if the Britains catalogues are correct. However, the cart is much older and was already produced during the lead era.


I already had a white Clydesdale with tumbrel cart, but not a bay one. The box gives me many good memories from my childhood because I had a lot of the Britains farm vehicles and equipment that came in them. (The only animals sold in these boxes were this Clydesdale and the elephant bull.)


The cart can be tipped and the back side taken off. Great to play with but it is quite fragile, not meant for young children (and clumsy adults like me).

That is a good suggestion by Roger, about the hot water, and makes sense. However, whether it works - only time and trial will tell.
I have some 'sticky stuff' remover that takes the labels off glass jars. I can test with some super glue here to see if it will work Roger, and let you know if it does.

The horse and cart is in good condition! £2.50 is a decent price
I see the polar bear is getting out and about

Thanks, Annette and Andreas.

sunny wrote:

The horse and cart is in good condition! £2.50 is a decent price

I paid a bit more for it. £2.50 in 1984 is equivalent to £7.75 in today's money. It is worth more now, so it has kept its value well.

A few new pigs:


The adult pigs were originally made in lead and then from 1957 until 1964, they were made in plastic, both in black and pink. The plastic piglets were only made in 1957 and 1958 according to Barney Brown’s “Britains Herald plastic farm models”.

I already had a few of these pigs and piglets, but not the adult black pig and black piglet with head down. They are not extremely rare and because they are unpainted, they are usually in a good condition, but it took a while for me to find them in the right lot for the right price. This lot contained all of them, both in black and in pink.



While I was writing this post, I discovered that the adult pigs were made in two mould versions: either with their mouth open or closed. The two new ones both have an open mouth. I had to check the mouth of the pink adults I already had. One has a closed mouth. Hooray, a different version!


The other one has an open mouth but a different colour of pink:


The tan coloured pigs were earlier than the pinker ones. And some are marked “England” and others are not. And some have painted eyes. Altogether, there could be 20 different versions of just the adult pigs! A Britains collection is never complete!

Now a question for the experts: Which pigs and piglets are heavier? The black ones, the pink ones or does it not make a difference?

I think it is especially cool that you found such a relevant difference while presenting your figures on forum. It's fun to database all variations, some are more important for sure but you can only track the real story behind each model if you get all these details. Are you suggesting they have different weights? You tell the black ones are not painted so they use the color of the plastic but as far as I know, different plastic colors do not necesarily mean different weights.

The expert is hedging his bets . To help you (or make it harder), neither the black nor pink pigs are painted.

Andreas, I was hoping you'd be an expert on pig weights .

I often find that writing about my collection is very useful because it encourages me to study the models in more detail.

Wonderful collection of pigs!!I remember having knock off versions of these when I was younger but sadly never an actual Britains model!

Actually @Taos is our pig expert but I also put my faith on Andreas.
If none is painted and the difference is the plastic color, what turns one heavier than the other? Colored pigments are added during the moulding injection, normally black colors need more pigmentation but it does not result in a higher weight as far as I know.

these pigs are wonderful Roger! congratulations on getting them!

and that's so interesting to know about the open and closed mouths on them.

Do you have the black one with a closed mouth? - did they make a black one that way?

sunny wrote:

Do you have the black one with a closed mouth? - did they make a black one that way?

No, I don't have a black one with closed mouth, but Britains did make them.
Taylor is definitely the pig expert, but it looks as if he doesn't want to risk his reputation .

To my own surprise, the pink pigs and piglets are heavier than the black ones. I discovered this when they were taking a bath (my pigs are very hygienic): The black pigs could all swim whereas the pink ones couldn't and sank. Either the pink pigment is heavier or more pigment is needed because it isn't such a dominant colour as black.

I had noticed before that some Britains polythene models float whereas others don't, but I hadn't realised it was due to their colour. I need to check which other colours sink and float.

Polyethylene shouldn't sink completely. That's quite interesting.

It must be the pigment. I'll keep an eye on my other polythene animals when they take a bath to see whether they can swim.

I found another African elephant bull:


They are quite rare, probably rarer than the famously rare black panther, and usually considerably more expensive than the panther. But sometimes you can be lucky and find one for a good price.


This elephant was released in 1981, the last zoo model that Britains ever released. It was sold until 1999, when all the zoo models were discontinued. It’s a very impressive model, the largest animal model that Britains made.

This one is special because it has painted nails:


Britains originally painted the nails of all their plastic elephants, but they stopped doing this sometime in the 1970s, presumably to reduce costs. It is interesting that that the elephant bull’s nails are painted even though they had already stopped painting the nails of the other elephants. I think it’s the first time that I have seen an elephant bull with painted nails; Britains must have painted their nails for only a very short time.

As a child, I also had a Britains elephant bull. I still have it:


It doesn’t have painted nails. I don’t remember when I got it, but it was one of the last zoo animals that I managed to find. It might have been in 1983 or 1984. Although Britains still made zoo animals, they were no longer sold in my local toy shops in The Netherlands where I lived at the time.

I told you before that I liked to run races with my animals. One day, the elephant was running and he got a nasty injury: His head fell off! I repaired it, but the scar is still visible in his neck and he can’t shake his head anymore. Fortunately, it didn’t affect his running performance.


My new elephant is different from my childhood friend:


Apart from having painted nails, the new elephant is made of a glossier plastic and it is also larger. You can see that its trunk is higher. That’s not because I glued the head of my childhood elephant in the wrong place: The shoulder height of the new elephant is also higher than that of my childhood elephant (9.8 vs. 9.5 cm). Despite this, the new elephant is lighter: 188 vs. 195 g.

I think my childhood elephant was made earlier than the new one. One reason why I believe this is because I remember that my childhood elephant was old stock that my local shop sold when they had already stopped sourcing new zoo models. The other reason is that Britains changed the plastic of their zoo series around 1992, possibly when they moved their factory to Nottingham. The plastic of the later models is glossier than that of the earlier plastic they used. Compare the earlier lioness on the left with the post-1992 lioness on the right:


I know the glossier lioness was made after 1992 because it comes from a box with 1992 on it. I previously showed a glossy, lighter African rhino and said that it was probably an earlier version:


I am now thinking I was wrong and it was made after 1992 too.

You keep finding peculiar things on your Britains figures. Britains is a brand of experts with some documentation and books but I think you're taking it to a higher level. Your childhood friend is surely a very special figure to you even if it is not in perfect shape as your new friend which has a manicure too.