Britains Toy catalogue, 1979

Posted on February 11, 2020 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Featuring toys from the world famous British toy manufacturer William Britain, as seen in the 1979 English, French, and German language mini catalogue. Britains are well known for producing durable and highly detailed painted toy figures, play sets, and vehicles, with sets such as the ‘Deetail’ line being much sought after by collectors in today’s vintage toy market.

On a personal note, as a child, I collected the Britains American Civil War soldiers, 7th Cavalry, Cowboys and Indians, and German Infantry figures. I also had one of the wagon and horses sets, and a selection of farm animals, and one of my brothers had numerous animals from the Wildlife range. This catalogue brings back a lot of happy toy memories 🙂

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Toy soldiers

Posted on August 10, 2019 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Artwork detail. Airfix Catalogue 2008, UK.

TVTA is pleased to present a selection of international toy soldier print adverts, catalogue pages and photos from the brands Airfix, Atlantic, Starlux, Britains and others in the scales H0/00, 1/32, and 1/72.

Airfix Military Figures. 1983. France.

Airfix Military. 1984. UK.

Atlantic soldiers. Italy. 1979.

Atlantic Toy Soldiers. 1981. France.

Atlantic Toy Soldiers. France. 1981.

Atlantic Far West. 1982. France.

Floraline pasta. Collect free soldiers and cowboy and Indians figures. 1979. France.

Cowboys and Indians. 1969. Denmark.

Wild West figures. Gerca. 1980s. Made in Macau. MIP. TVTA Collection.

Wild West figures. Gerca. 1980s. Made in Macau. Loose. TVTA Collection.

Britains Deetail soldiers. TVTA Collection.

H0/00 scale painted soldiers. TVTA Collection.

Various H0/00 scale soldiers. TVTA Collection.

BRITAINS SET N° 460, Scots Guards, circa 1933. No price listed. Christie’s Catalogue. 1988.

Toy Soldiers Combat Set. Wonderland Catalogue. France. 1987.

Footlocker Toy Soldiers. 1981. US.

: Tank Trap and Cannon Ball. 1971. US.

: Revolutionary War Soldiers. 1976. US.

: Task Force and Fighting Ships. 1981. US.

: Roman Soldiers. 1975. US.

Starlux Cavalry and Infantry. France.

Thanks for looking 🙂

The mystery of the French toy soldier photo collection – SOLVED!

Posted on October 19, 2017 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

GIF courtesy of theatrenerds.com

Update: 20/10/2017

Thanks to Twitter agent @DanHammond72, I think we can safely say that this mystery is now solved! Scroll down to the bottom of the post to find out the maker of these soldiers!

I recently picked up some paperwork items from a local vintage toy shop here in France. Among the items was a folder of photographs showing a vintage toy soldier collection. The soldiers seem to be Napoleonic era and include both infantry and cavalry. The photos look professionally made and are printed on Kodak paper. This looks like it could have belonged to someone who was documenting and cataloguing their collection. All in all there are about 400-450 pieces across 18 photographs. I’ve spent time online trying to match these figures to brands such as Airfix, Britains, Starlux, Timpo etc, but to no avail. The figures all have the same rectangular bases (similar to Britains) apart from one set which has round bases. If anyone recognises any of the pieces and can put a name to the brand(s) please let me know! Thanks for looking.

: Starlux Cavalry. France.

Update: 20/10/2017

STARLUX

Here is the comparison I received that makes me certain enough to say that the majority of the figures in the collection of photographs are from the French Starlux l’Empire line. Big thanks to @DanHammond72 for the awesome detective work!

Figurine number 274 (left) with the mint in box picture I received (right). Mystery solved.

I’d already looked through a whole bunch of Starlux images previously and had drawn a blank, so having a match from a mint in box was priceless as it enabled me to make further searches online and find other matches. The figures all appear to be 60 mm in height and datewise appear to span 1965 through to the 80s.

No doubts here. MIB photo from Lulu-Berlu.

I’m pretty certain the riders here are the same. The MIB photo next to my photo is from Lulu-Berlu. They date the figure as 1965, which leads me to believe that the figure in my photo is possibly a later 80s remould – due to some differences in the horse, most notably the position of the head and colour of base. It could be a switched horse, as online photos of Starlux lots show riders that can be detached. As with many toys that are painted and licensed across the globe, it’s possible that paint applications and mould details may differ. Some collectors add their own paint schemes. This can all lead to many variations.

No doubts here about the match. MIB photo by Lulu-Berlu.

I was able to match most of the figures in this lot from Paravendu France with figures in my photos.

There. Mystery solved. Or is it? The question that remains now is who did this collection of soldiers belong to? Who was it that took time and care to label and photograph this collection? And why did the photographs end up in a vintage toy shop in Toulon, France? I expect that’s a question that will remain unanswered. For now I’m happy to be able to put a name to it all. Starlux. Thanks for looking, and please feel free to add any further information.

Starlux print adverts

Starlux toy soldiers. 1958. France.

Toy Soldiers

Posted on January 24, 2015 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Toy Soldiers (or Army Men) typically measured around 5 cm (2 inches) in height and were usually moulded in green, brown or grey solid plastic. Popular figure sets were based on modern military soldiers and came in various combat and strategy poses along with vehicles and accessories (often of a smaller scale to the soldiers) which were sometimes bundled into sets. As well as the modern military sets, other sets available on the market were cowboys and Indians, medieval knights and space figures.

US. Ghostly Haunts. 1974. Lucky Products ad.

US. Weird War Tales. 1978. This variant of the Lucky Products ad appeared four years later and shows a price increase as well as change of address.

US. Marvel Doctor Who. 1981. Fast-forward three years and this variant shows another price increase, some minor changes to the order details, and “imaginary war scene shown” added below the illustration.

The footlocker versions as seen above were probably only available via mail order. At the cheap end of the spectrum these soldiers were often sold in stores in clear bags with an illustrated cardboard header. Companies such as Louis Marx, MPC and Airfix offered a more expensive range that covered many more armies from around the world.

Below are more ads from the same Lucky Products stable, plus some from other companies offering similar toy soldier sets.

US. Weird War Tales N°1. 1971.

US. Weird War Tales. 1975.

US. Weird War Tales. 1976.

US. Star Wars 28. 1979.

Toy Soldiers Fighting Ships. 1981. US.

US. Weird War Tales. 1975.

US. Creepy Things. 1975.

US. The New Mutants. 1985.

Atlantic Toy Figures

Posted on November 2, 2014 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Atlantic was an Italian company operating between 1966 and 1984 which specialised in plastic toy soldiers and vehicles. Atlantic produced many WWII figures and vehicles sets, as well as an “Ancient Civilisations” line which included Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. Also noteworthy is Atlantic’s “Far West” line and the colourful “Galaxy Serie” space sets.

Atlantic. France. Pif Gadget. 1976. This 1976 French advert is a promotional tie-in for the French 14th July national celebrations.

Atlantic vehicles. France. Pif Gadget. 1977.

Atlantic soldier sets. France. PIf Gadget. 1977. Left side of a two-page double ad.

Atlantic The Egyptians sets. France. PIf Gadget. 1977. Right side of a two-page double ad.

Atlantic The Egyptians sets. France. PIf Gadget. 1977.

The cover of Pif Gadget #446 Sept 1977. Pif Gadget featured many adverts from Atlantic and even devoted one of its covers to the Egyptian series line of figures.

Atlantic The Egyptians. The cover of Pif Gadget #446 Sept 1977. Pif Gadget featured many adverts from Atlantic and even devoted one of its covers to the Egyptian series line of figures.

Page 3 from issue 446 Pif Gadget showing a diorama featuring pieces from the Eygyptian sets.

Page 3 from issue 446 Pif Gadget. Diorama featuring pieces from Atlantic’s The Eygyptians line.

Atlantic Far West sets. France. Pif Gadget. 1977.

Atlantic The Egyptians, Atlantic The Romans and Atlantic The Greek sets. Italy. Topolino. 1978.

Atlantic The Egyptians, Atlantic The Romans and Atlantic The Greek sets. France. PIf Gadget. 1978.

Atlantic soldiers and vehicles sets. Italy. Topolino. 1979.

Atlantic soldiers, Far West and Ancient Civilizations. US. Weird War Tales. 1979.

Atlantic Galaxy Serie. France. Pif Gadget. 1979.

Atlantic Galaxy Serie. France. PIf Gadget. 1979.

France. Pif Gadget. 1979. Advert for Humbot Story, collectable story books feauring the character Humbot from the Galaxy series of figures.

Atlantic Galaxy Serie. France. Pif Gadget. 1979. Advert for Humbot Story, collectable story books feauring the character Humbot from the Galaxy Serie line.