Britains Motor Vehicles

Most people are aware of the military vehicles made by Britains both before the War and after in 1/32 scale to go with their soldiers, but not so many are acquainted with the contemporary civilian models. Some of these models are only colour variations of the military versions, for example the 59F ‘Four-wheeled Lorry with Driver' in the farm series is the same as 1335 ‘Lorry, Army, Fourwheeled type' but painted in a smart duotone colour scheme instead of khaki. Other models are only available in the civilian type, usually for the good reason that the army could not possibly have a use for a militarised version. A good example of this would be 1656 ‘John Cobb's Railton Wonder Car' (or ‘Railton Mobil Special' as we know it!).

Britains is our oldest toy company which is still in business having been started in 1860 although the first of the famous soldiers did not appear until 1890. This still means over a hundred years continuous toy manufacture, surely a record. The motor lorry models appeared in late 1932 and were based on the Albion army lorries of the time with the familiar ‘square' cab design which was to be a hallmark of the Britains lorries until the end of the decade. The range of four, six and 10-wheel farm lorries are still illustrated in the 1940 catalogue. After the War the cab was brought up to date by a change to a more rounded Fordson type, not nearly so attractive.

The military ambulance was also used in civilian versions, a cream ‘Corporation' and a blue ‘Volunteer Corps' as alternative liveries to the khaki army one. The rarest version of this model is the red and black ‘Royal Mail' van, which was sold for a short time towards the end of the production run.

There are three civilian cars, a ‘Two-seater Coupé' and two ‘Sports Model Open Tourers' in the pre-War production. The coupé and the open sports car without driver and passenger do not have military equivalents, but when the open sports car has people in it then it is either a ‘Mobile Police Car with Two Officers' (finished in green with black wings), or a ‘Staff Car with Two Officers' as the military offering. The occupants of the car are legless and their lower regions are covered with a tartan rug - how nice for them on cold days! After the War there was a one-piece casting version of the staff car and police car without the separate grilles of the pre-war models and these were rather plain by comparison.

The final group of models consists of the superb record cars ‘Bluebird' and ‘Railton Special'. These came out in the late 1930s and each is over 6-inches long. The Bluebird was produced in three versions a) with fully detailed removable chassis b) without this part and c) a slightly smaller one (just over five-inches), without underside detail. The Railton Mobil Special always had the removable chassis and was available painted silver for 1s.6d. or chrome plated for 2s.6d.

After the War two new farm tractor models appeared, a couple of Fordson Majors produced with the active co-operation of the Ford Motor Company. These are excellent models both finished in the correct shade of dark blue and with the name ‘Fordson' applied to the front and sides of the cab. One version has standard wheels but the other (rarer) one had the spiked or ‘spud' wheels used on heavy ground.

All these models are to the same scale as the soldiers (1/32), but there is also a similar range in ‘00' gauge (1/76 scale) to go with model railways. The smaller models date mainly from the post-War era although a sports car and a fastback saloon were seen pre-War. The small scale trucks have a Fordson cab similar to the later large scale farm and army lorries.

The large scale pre-War models are very collectable and prices are consequently very high for rare items in excellent condition and with original lovely boxes. Some few years ago a batch of replicas of the coupé were made here in England so exercise care when buying this model. Spare parts are, or have been available for most of these toys to enable repairs to be carried out.

The models were constructed of a lead-based alloy and the main body parts were hollow cast. However, parts such as wings and running boards were diecast individually by hand. The Market Price Range figures refer to boxed models in excellent condition. Pre-1939 lorry models have a ‘square cab' and bonnet shape. Post 1945 versions have 'round cab' bonnet shape.