W. Britain

The W. Britain was a company founded by William Britain, a British toy manufacturer, who in 1893 invented the process of hollow casting in lead, and revolutionized the production of toy soldiers. The company quickly became the industry leader, and was imitated by many other companies, such as Hanks Bros. and John Hill and Co.^[1] The style and scale of W. Britain's figures became the industry standard for toy soldiers for many years. From 1907 it was a limited company: "Britains" In 1966 safety regulations in the United Kingdom halted the production of lead toy soldiers. After a seven-year hiatus, however, Britain's returned in 1973 with their "new metal" models, which are cast in a durable alloy. These new sets, as well as their lines of Deetail plastic figures and accessories, and their older sets, now number well over 900 and have become highly collectible. Britain's produces figures in the traditional gloss finish, but also uses the contemporary matte-style paint for many of their new sets. Britains Ltd was bought by Ertl of Iowa in 2000 and used as part of their toy tractor range. ^[2] Ownership of W. Britain Co. has changed hands several times over the years. In 2005, the W. Britain line was acquired by First Gear, an American company based in Peosta, Iowa.

See also

• Hollow casting
• Toy soldier

References

1. ^ Joplin, N. (1996). Toy soldiers. London: Quintet Publishing, Ltd.
2. ^ http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/collections/toys/manufacturers/britain/britains/index.html V&A museum

External links

• Britains (information about Britains from the V&A Museum of Childhood)
• Article at Toy Soldier and Model Figure