Collecting Toy Soldiers: Taylor and Barrett

Showing posts with label Taylor and Barrett. Show all posts

Thursday, 6 August 2026

Plunder from the Plastic Warrior Show 2026

I usually take a lot of photos at the Plastic Warrior show, particularly the more unusual items that turn up, partly to share information and images for those collectors who can't attend but primarily for use in promoting the show the following year. This year I took my camera along but spent so much time running around I completely forgot to take any photos, so apologies for that and here are some of the bits I managed to pick up.

First up an early Monarch brand Conquistador in red/brown plastic which carries the lozenge shaped indent marked "England" under it's base which was used by Hilco (John Hill & Co), seen here previously: Collecting Toy Soldiers: Converting Monarch Conquistadors I have lots of these and don't really go in for collecting all the different plastic colour variations but this chap was in a 50p junk box so he deserved rescuing.

My prize find of the day was the figure of Queen Elizabeth I from the Sir Francis Drake set made by Charbens, I am now just missing the figure of Sir Walter Raleigh to complete the set. Everything turns up eventually and it's that quest which keeps us collecting.

The 75mm Warsaw Pact Sailor in blue is made from some sort of PVC plastic, he was made in the former East Germany by PGH Effelder, and is marked as such under the base.

The Standard Beaverette Light Reconnaissance Car (produced by the Standard Motor Co and named after Lord Beaverbrook) is an unusual item, it was an improvised armoured car with armour plate being riveted onto a commercial car chassis. Considered unsatisfactory for overseas service it was issued to the Home Guard and RAF Regiment for home defence so I'm not sure what I'll do with it but I like the concept. This is a 3D print and is very robust, I bought it from John McRae who has started a new venture making 3D printed figures but I think he said this was made by someone else. I've noted with such 3D printed vehicles that they often seem to have this pronounced riveting, which is not particularly accurate but gives the model a bit of character, and I rather like it.

The Infantryman standing to attention is an early Zang for Timpo, there are several versions of these figures but this is the first I've seen in a beret, a forerunner of the figures Roy Selwyn-Smith would later design in plastic for Zang/Herald.

A copy of the Britains Armoured Car (based on the Crossley) which was issued from 1934 until 1941, the body and wheels are a one part white metal casting with separate revolving turret so it's quite a weighty piece. I missed one of these at last year's show so was delighted that the same seller brought along another one this year, it will see service in any number of 1930's scenarios.

An assortment of composition French infantry, the first made in Germany by Manzsoldaten dates from about 1910 he's not fully round and is what the some collectors describe as "Demi Ronde".

In the centre a 60mm Poilu made in France by INCA (no relationship to the Belgian firm Incamin), according to the French "soldatplastique 1/32 forum" trade catalogues show the firm was based in Paris and made toys between 1957 and 1965. They produced a small range of WW1 French and Colonial troops, including mounted, and are sometimes marked INCA FRANCE along the front edge of the base (none of mine are marked).

The 80mm Standard Bearer was made in France by Cellose, the flag staff is complete, but out of picture, and is missing the cloth flag, fortunately I have one somewhere to make him complete.

Now this one is a mystery which I'm hoping some of the French collectors on the soldatplastique 1/32 forum or one of the facebook groups will be able to identify. Made in a composition material he stands 100mm tall, has no base and no markings, my first thought was it's made by the French firm J.R.D. who's figures were on the large size and sculpted in a cubist art deco style

Rear view of the 100mm Foreign Legion figure above.

John Clarke very kindly cast eight of these smaller explosions for me in white metal, along with the recast of a Taylor Barrett deep sea diver, and passed on four of the larger resin example, which were made by Paul Watson. The explosions are copies of originals from the 1930's made in Germany by Lineol, can't wait to get these painted up and see them on the table.

The three English Civil War conversions were made by Eric Kemp and kindly gifted to me by Graham Apperley, who knows that I'm a big fan of Eric's work, from the ECW collection he acquired last year (see link to Graham's blog "Tales from the Toy Room" in the list on the right)

Last but not least Andreas Dittmann gave me this mix, a post WW2 composition infantryman made byy Solido Belge, a 1980's resin copy of an Elastolin WW2 marching drum major and three plastic horses made in Germany but I can't remember who Andreas said they were made by.

An eclectic haul, as always at the Plastic Warrior show, because anything can turn up, and many thanks to John, Graham and Andreas for thinking of me and passing on these goodies.

Sunday, 7 September 2025

Rare Sacul knights at the Plastic Warrior Show 2025

It has been three months now since the Plastic Warrior Show and we are still unearthing the goodies that emerged, here are some more:

These three Sacul mounted knights in plastic were seen at the Plastic Warrior Show in June, notice the one on the right has a shield which is copied from the Britains Wars of the Roses Swoppet range. The Sacul knights were originally made in hollowcast lead and are fairly common in the UK but not so much overseas, later they were made in plastic from the original moulds for a very short time and the plastic versions (above) are very rare. There is just one horse and one rider model but the rider was issued with four different articulated right arms holding an axe, a sword, a standard or a lance.

Curiously the horses turn up more often than the riders and the moveable parts; visor, right arm, shield and scabbard are always moulded in these garish bright colours. The shields are invariably missing, I have one with the original heater shaped shield but I've never seen one with this copy of the Britains WOTR shield in lead or plastic. The Sacul foot knights are extremely rare in plastic, I have only ever seen one example.

My friend Norman Joplin told me "I believe one of the Barrett brothers (Bert) may have been responsible for these along with plastic items marketed as Luntoy and Paramount when I visited his home in Croydon some years ago." Norman is referring here to the family who originally founded Taylor & Barrett in the 1920's, then later split to form F G Taylor & Sons and A Barrett & Sons after WW2. The Barrett Brothers bought up moulds from various defunct manufacturers such as Benbros, Paramount and Sacul, which were in due course sold on again to Giles Brown of Dorset Model Soldiers, but that's another story for another day.

These are the two plastic Sacul knights in my collection, the hollowcast lead versions had a plume in their helmet made by gluing a down feather into the vent hole in the top of the head where molten metal was poured out in the hollowcasting process. Timpo had done a similar thing in their "Ivanhoe" and "Knights of the Round Table" series but instead of using a real feather they used a .22 air rifle dart, which was much more robust, the metal point of the dart being pressed into the lead venting hole in the helmet so that the brightly coloured tail was left sticking out. Sacul had been set up by an ex Timpo employee called Lucas (who reversed his name for the firm). On the plastic versions the lead venting holes were capped off and new plumes engraved into the moulds when they were adapted for use on a plastic injection moulding machine.

The knight on the right has the correct Sacul shield (in plastic) which came with the original hollowcast figure, there is a spigot on the reverse which plugs into the bend in the left arm. It's curious to note that the horses are made in various colours of plastic and always appear to be factory painted in the Sacul style while the riders are made in a base body colour plastic with multi colour accoutrements in the early swoppet style, this has led us to speculate that the horses might have been produced first in the Sacul factory then sold as a job lot along with the moulds and the riders moulded at a later date.

On the same table was a good selection of the 60mm Crescent Hurons/Mohicans (I'm never sure which they are supposed to be but I'm sure someone will enlighten us), these are also very hard to find so I thought I'd squeeze in this pic just because they are so nice!