Britains shades..

on leopards:

wonderful Alain! This just makes me want to go thru my boxes and get all my leopards out to compare the differences in them.
Do some of yours have a white underbelly that I can just make out? The 2 on the right and the 3rd on the left?

You have the Britains panthers in more shades than I have! I think there are three main variants. The oldest leopard was fully painted (no bare plastic). It was made in polythene first and then in PVC. The second version had bare plastic and only the spots were painted using a mould. The spots were closed spots. The final version also had bare plastic, but now the spots were stamped onto it and they were open spots/circles. Do all of your panthers fit into these three categories or do you have others?

Many thanks to you  three Annette, Andreas and Roger!

 Here some pictures more. I think all my panthers fit into these three categories:





 .. four into the first one, only one into the second one and two into the third one.

   Annette, as you can see, all have a white belly! 

  I like a lot the panthers of the first categorie! :)

The second version is indeed the rarest, I think almost as rare as the black panther.

Great to see all the Leopards ,they are among my favourites.I have 2 of the ones in the second and third group and the black panther!

Thank you Roger and Taylor! :)

The second version is maybe rare but not as beautiful as the previous ones according to me! :)

I agree. Britains simplified their painting in later years to cut costs. However, a disadvantage of the earlier model was that it lost its paint quite easily and could become quite ugly. This happened to my panther when I was a child. I then decided I should paint it into a black panther, but I never finished the job. Typical, I still don't finish painting models as an adult!

thank you for the underside photos Alain. They all have white bellys! Most of mine don't, all worn off.

Did the 2nd one only run for a short time Roger?

I don't know if I have any of this type. I will have to gather up the leopards to check.

It's a bit hard to tell from the catalogues, but I think the panther with open spots was introduced in 1980. I have the rarer panther with closed spots but unpainted body in a box from 1977. It may have been introduced that year, but that's just a guess.

Impressive collection and impressive knowledge.