In the 1890s, UK, William Britain perfected the metal hollow casting process that led to the production of hollow ‘cost effective’ lead toy soldiers. This method had already been utilised to some degree by German manufacturers, but it was William Britain that led the way in creating affordable lead toy figures.
In 1959, William England purchased the Herald toy company which had been successfully manufacturing plastic toy soldiers. William Britain embraced this new method and began producing a wide range of plastic toy soldiers, a successful farm series, a space series, and a range of ‘Deetail figures’ with metal bases that were popular throughout the 1980s.
US. FAO Schwarz catalogue 1980/1981
Denmark. 1970.
UK. Hamleys Christmas Book. 1983.
France. PIf Gadget. 1983.
Denmark. Anders And & Co. 1984/
France. Pif Gadget. 1979.
Britains. De Speelboom. 1987. Netherlands.
More history here: A short history of Britains Toys
This really is a nice peice of information on Britains, I well written article. Although one thing I can’t find out today, who now owns Britains. I know Britains farm toys were previously owned by Learning Curve only as far back as the end of 2011, but it appears the official page on Learning Curve website for the Britains range has disappeared and now I find I end up on the Official UK Tomy website for the Britains brand. I can find no information on Wikipedia or other websites which is very strange from such a big brand providing no news releases anywhere online.
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Thanks Nick. It looks like they’re still owned by the First gear company: http://www.wbritain.com/home.cfm
Their WBritain web pages contain up to date (May 2012) information on it, plus new releases for this year. Cheers, Paul.
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