david_scrivener

I guess that the people buying the smaller scales are essentially 'toy car collectors'. 1/34 scale is near enough to 1/32 for all but the most OCD afflicted collectors.

The reasons behind the various scales go way back into the history of various sectors of the toy industry, especially (as they were dominant for a long time) the larger scales of toy trains, 1 guage and O guage, popular before the toy train community settled on smaller OO/OH scales. We are where we are, with 1/32 being the main toy soldier scale, 1/43 being the main toy car scale, and larger scales, such as 1/16 being the preserve of single models for adult collectors, being too large for dioramas/layouts. Although there are obviously problems with details on smaller scales, there is a lot to be said for 1/43 when it comes to layouts, be it for a farm/country/town scene in civilian life or a battle/castle military scene. On the soldier/military side, I can only say that some of the castles I have look a lot better with smaller than 1/32 figures, such as Britains very old 'B Series', and even then, a castle or battle cannot be 'realistically' represented in a permanent diorama in most collectors' homes, and would have been even less the case in a child's nursery. After all, they might be 'models', 'collectables' or 'antiques' now, but they were originally 'toys'! These are complicated issues, and we have to make decisions about "where we're coming from" (in my case mainly a Britains & similar figure collector, be they farm, zoo, soldiers or whatever), and what we're trying to 'achieve' in our collection, which might be a diorama/layout, a collection of the products of a particular toy/model manufacturer, or models as part of a collection relating to some other interest, in the case of many members here, often tractors & other farm machinery, hence all your other threads about real farming, real machinery brochures, etc.

I wasn't referring to the houses in the photos, but rather to Mandy's:

Just because farms have modern farm buildings, doesn't mean the farmhouse has to be modern. I'm sure there are lots of farms with old houses, modern buildings, and any surviving old farm buildings converted into another house (or several), which has either been sold off, or used by other members of the farm owning family. So how about a barn/barnyard house conversion as a model idea? Look at rural estate agent sites to find photos of zillions of them all.

That's OK then. I just thought it worth putting in 'reality check' comment regarding the general idea, before you guys start discussing which tractor in particular, and where to buy one from. As it will be used around the farm, I imagine it won't be too ancient then, such as presumably with a cab for safety and with appropriate linkages to fit modern implements.

Are you really, really sure he'd want a classic tractor? Does he have one or more already? (i.e. Is he a collector?) Just checking that you're sure you're buying it because it's something he'd like rather than something you'd like. It would be a very expensive mistake if he doesn't really want one. I speak from the heart on this, as my now deceased dad was such a different person to me (we had completely different interests), that very few presents we gave each other were things either of us really wanted. But then, mine is a very dysfunctional family.

The thing I love about this hot weather is the short skirts and skimpy tops........... ........although they do make me look a bit ***.

Hi James, and welcome to the forum. Like everyone else, I look forward to seeing photos of your collection. As for the 'villafan' part of your life, that's something that 'does not compute' with me. I'm very much in line with David Mitchell on this:

Same here. I have the English version, but never knew there was a Dutch version of this little booklet. Bearing this in mind, I now guess there are French, German, Spanish, etc versions as well. Also now wondering if there are other language versions of the 4 leaflets (Garden, Farm, Zoo & 'Assorted') issued 1962-4.

Worzel Gummage (with alternative heads!) and Aunt Sally (sometimes used by collectors as 19th century women in displays) was one of Britain's short lived follies, only 1980-82. Oh, and hi 'britains'/Floris. I look forward to seeing more of your animals & people, which I guess go back to the beginning of plastic farm in 1955, rather than your general 1960 collection start date. Have you got any interesting 'rare colours' of people/animals?

Reminds me of an antique fair about a year ago, where I spotted & bought a Britains lead Ayrshire cow #785 on a general stand for £3.50p (slightly tatty, but well worth it, as mint specimens are unaffordable at about £100). The lady said, "It's made of lead, so don't let any children play with it. I was worrying about selling it at all." I assured her that there was no way I would let a child get anywhere near it. (Didn't tell her about its true value though. )

Hi Hajo, I had a quick look at your forum, but it's a bit slow trying to find my way round as I don't speak Dutch, although when written, enough of the words are similar enough to English to get the general idea. To save me a lot of time searching, are there any threads, preferably with photos, of really old (1960s, preferably 1930s) lead farm figures and wooden farm buildings? If so, can you point me in the right direction or give links? I don't collect post 1970 models at all, but would be interested in pre 1970 plastic figures. Unlike almost everyone else here, I have zero interest in tractors & farm machinery.

Britains has a long history (i.e. back when it really was 'Britains' - owned by the Britain family) of 'mistakes', including plain old using up old stuff so as not to waste it. I've noticed two periods when this sort of thing was especially common, 1945-50, when they were sending out any castings they had left from before the war in some very, ahem, 'unconventional' boxed sets, and same again in the early 1960s, when they were trying to clear out the last of their lead castings as they knew lead production was coming to an end. Non standard arms can be found on movable arm figures when they had run out of the proper arm, and some interesting improvisations in paint jobs. I've just bought some of these, the steel helmeted WW1 standing on guard figure overpainted as an ACW Confederate, with the steel helmet no doubt pretending to be an old shapeless floppy hat. The original olive green/khaki paint can be seen under the base, and the overpainted Confederate colour scheme looks like Britains colours and painting style to me, so I don't think it was a repaint by a collector later, & the other Britains figures sold by the ebay vendor all seemed original, and the vendor was clearly not a collector or regular toy dealer.

So what sort of models are they? I'm sure there are members here who collect other (non farm) diecast vehicles, or (like me) non-farm lead, plastic, composition & aluminium soldiers, zoo & other figures. It might be worth you at least giving us a general idea, which can be followed up by PMs for more details of specific items, so you won't need to do a detailed list of everything.

As toy farm animals these sheep could indeed pass as Kerry Hill, Swadale, Scottish Blackface, but certainly not an Oxford. For toy Oxfords, Britains old lead Hampshire Down ram suitably repainted would probably be best. Which brings an idea to mind. Has anyone ever done a layout of an agricultural show? Would make a nice change from the usual farms, and possibly would be more realistic as lots of models could be placed close together rather more realistically, without having the reality problem of tiny fields in convential farm layouts.

They didn't name these sheep. but Britains had previously named some of their sheep as the 'Kerry Hill' breed, and these were probably an attempt to produce slightly more accurate Kerry Hill sheep as they had the opportunity with their new cheap Chinese workforce.

Yes, please do. Although if word of us blokes gazing adoringly at photos of sheep ever got out, we might be accused of having, ahem, 'Welsh tendencies'

Some farm model production was moved back to the UK, and even in China all that intricate painting became uneconomic, and obviously completely out of the question in the UK. Hence why they reverted back to the simpler previous sheep, which didn't need as much painting.

You wondering about them being repaints is quite understandable, as they are indeed very well and extensively painted. The reason: they were among Britains earlier made in China production, when, unlike rapidly developing China today, the poor buggers had to work like slaves for very low wages.

I don't have all the catalogues from this period (as you may have noticed, I'm only really interested in much older stuff), but I can narrow it down a bit. These sheep started in 1993 (may have been out late '92 for Christmas sales), were still produced in 1996, and definitely gone by 1999. So only made for 5 or 6 years then.

Take a look at these deer (& other animals) on Richard Lewis's ('The Zoo Man') site: http://www.thetoybox.4t.com/zac.htm Not all of the sections on the left of the screen have been made yet, but if you go to the bottom of the page, click to go to his shop, there you will find his 'Your Collections' section, pictures from his regular customers. A feast of toy animal wonderfulness, including lots of farm stuff too.

Just in plastic? Or do you want to know about old lead deer as well? the plastic deer: I presume Jakescot (above) meant the 2nd Britains stag (1971 to about 1999), which is indeed a splendid figure. Keep lookiing on Ebay, & one will turn up, although probably in a group of zoo animals. Britains 1st plastic stag (1960-1970) was a plastic version of their lead stag, and a rather weedy thing. There were also many 'Made in Hong Kong' copies of this (& many other Britains farm, zoo, soldiers, etc), and both often appear in job lots, often with their antlers broken off, which isn't a problem as such examples make good hinds to go with the #2 stag. There are also several other rather nice Hong Kong deer, original designs as far as I know, which again you'll just have to keep looking for, and will also be in job lots of assorted zoo animals. I can only think of 2 other UK made plastic deer, a crude walking stag made by Cherilea, and a considerably nicer one by Timpo the lead deer: Britains, as mentioned above, also made in plastic, and rather slim (would do as a Fallow Deer?) Good condition examples with complete antlers can be quite expensive (£25+ each), but those with significant paint loss or broken antlers a lot cheaper, which would be better for you if you wanted to repaint as fallow or use them as hinds. Crescent made a nice hind in lead, as did Wendal in aluminium. Timpo made a good stag (different from their plastic stag), as did Charbens and Taylor&Barrett. Pixyland/Kew made two rather poor stags. Expect to pay about £20 for any of them in very good condition, again paint loss/antler broken examples a lot cheaper & better value if you're going to repaint anyway.

Doh! Kids today eh? You're talking about the top 5 Britains models got/wanted OF ALL TIME, and no one has even got close to such real treasures, items which you could show to a non-collector without danger of them thinking you're 'a bit strange' , such as: 5F Horse drawn wagon, 6F Two horse plough, 12F horse drawn timber carriage, the other horse drawn vehicles, all the wooden buildings, and even some of the more charming single figures such as #595 Shepherd boy with lantern and 'lunch onna stick'. I don't know, the younger generation today.......... (BTW,when I have non-collector visitors, I usually only show them items from my old lead collection, seldom any of the plastic, except perhaps the Britains/Herald Sheriff of Nottingham, to point out that some plastic toy soldiers change hands for £30+ each nowadays - which generally gets them shaking their head in disbelief/amazement.)

I'll have another look at this thread, in case you all get fed up with talking about farm implements, and move on to potentially more entertaining stuff about 'other' implements. You're nearly there already: Reminds me of some of the, ahem, 'specialised machinery' I've seen on porn sites.

Although some sellers who don't know what they've got ask for ridiculously high prices, they are balanced out by those who offer good items at a low starting price and a poor description (so they don't come up in the usual searches potential buyers would be expected to try), sometimes even in the 'wrong' section. There's still plenty of bargains to be had on Ebay, if you have the time and patience to look for them.