Hoppy & Friends - A homage to Timpo (1 Viewer)

[johnnybach]

Anyone who knows me - must know by now, that I have a certain weakness towards painting Cowboys. Maybe they also know that I'm pretty keen on the Old Timpo marque Cowboys too. Well pardners, there's been one particular set that has eluded me until now - as it was mighty rare at the time of last manufacture (1950's) - and been getting rarer with each passing year. I've tried many times for pieces from this Timpo set - dedicated as it was to Hopalong Cassidy - and some of his friends and sidekicks - such as California Carlson and 'Lucky' Jenkins - on e-bay auctions - without any success at all - as even separate and less than perfect pieces are getting pricey nowadays.

I was looking through an old copy of "The Toy Soldier Collector" recently - looking for something quite different - when I chanced upon a piece in the "Casting Around" section of the magazine - which deals with new castings available - and to my surprise - found a small manufacturer who was making re-casts of just the set I had been looking for in vain for the past few years. Even better - not just ONE Hoppy - but THREE poses of him - one mounted on his famous horse "Topper" - and two on foot. Better yet - alongside him came two amigos, California and Lucky Jenkins - again both mounted and on foot.

Snag was - the maker doesn't have web-site or any order facility other than the telephone and a printed catalogue. His name is Alan Goodwin - and he lives just to the North of London in Stevenage.

I rang him for a chat - and within a week was studying his catalogue of castings - and pretty soon had ordered the set mentioned above - as castings.

Now these are NOT expensive - so I think its only fair to mention that they DO require a bit of work to get them to the state required for painting - but at the price - not bad at all - and well within the scope of anyone who can handle the fettling required to get them to the paint stage.

Well, pardners, check my first three out for yourselves - as here they are below. Hopalong Cassidy (Hoppy) is at centre on Topper - whilst to one side is his older pardner in many movies - California - and on the other side is Lucky. They come without bases - but as is my usual practice - I made some for each figure.





To those of more tender years - here's a few facts about these three.

Hopalong Cassidy was a fictional cowboy hero - created by the author Clarence E Mulford - who originally wrote a series of short stories beginning in 1903. Hoppy movies were based on this character - though transformed from the original fictional character - who was a bit rough and ready, to the clean-cut hero type that the Hoppy movies characterised.

Hoppy, as he was universally known to legions of kids during the fifties (including me), was played by William Boyd - who travelled the West, righting wrongs - frequently accompanied by other amigos to help the plots along. My other figures above are two of these - a comedy figure in California Carlson ( Andy Clyde) - and Lucky Jenkins (Russel Hayden), who usually played a son-like heroic companion to Hoppy.

Timpo made a small set of figures of these ( and some other characters) during the early fifties - but they stopped making lead figures around 1954 (going over to plastics) and ceased production altogether in the mid 1970's. However, I've finally got a re-cast set of my own of the metal figures - to remind me of many a happy childhood Saturday morning spent in our local cinema - watching our childhood hero - clean up the West"

Yeeee- ha!

See y'all later - when I get around to painting my four remaining castings on foot. Adios for now amigos - jb

 

[Ivanhoe]

Wonderful figures...as usual !

White horses are difficult...but you pulled it off with "Topper"...Love his tack.

I had to look up "fettling"...

Loved the "Timpo" metal figures from the 50s, especially the knights...knight horses had a tendency to break right front leg for some reason.

Next time I see some "Sarsaparilla" I'll have to drink a toast to you and "Hoppy".

Thank you JB.

 

[johnnybach]

Glad you like 'em amigo. I did already have "Hoppy" - which I bought from from Whitetower Miniatures (see below - with another friend - The Cisco Kid) - but I really wanted the Timpo figures. These aren't originals, of course - but re-casts are the next best thing - and I was so pleased to find them.

The best way to paint a white horse - is to begin with a thin coat of Humbrol Matte 103 Cream paint as a base. I then use Ivory Gloss 41 as the top coat - and in this case - used two thin coats.

Ah! Sarsparelli eh?? Hoppy's favourite tipple (alchohol free - of course!!). Cheers! jb

 

[blaster]

Hello JB,

I know very little about Timpo. However, if these recasts are based on the originals, then the poses and proportions are very good and attractive.

Rgds Victor

 

[johnnybach]

Hello JB,

I know very little about Timpo. However, if these recasts are based on the originals, then the poses and proportions are very good and attractive.

Rgds Victor

Hi Vic. Timpo Toys was a London based toy maker and importer (the name Timpo is derived from Toy Importer). They were founded in 1945 - and at first awaited release by the Government of sufficient metal to re-start toy making. They started releasing hollowcast metal figures around 1946 - and at first these were from both Kew and Stoddart moulds moulds - which Companies they had purchased. They also employed a Gentleman we know well - Roy Selwyn Smith.

By 1950 they were issuing their own range of figures at a rate to rival the market leaders - such as Britains. However, by the mid-50's lead production was declining rapidly due to the lower costs of plastic production - and Timpo went over to that method of production around then - and eventually ceased production of even these by 1975.

These three figures in hollowcast metal (54mm), and have therefore only been available new since around 1954 - and the secondary market ever since.

It was by chance that I spotted a review of these re-casts of those metal figures in Toy Soldier Collector (Casting Around section) - which magazine I believe you are quite familiar with?. I obtained the telephone number for enquiries about the figures from there.

Alan Goodwin is the maker - who began re-casting a few of these for friends - and now makes them to order from his home in Stevenage, England. They are pretty close to the originals - though they are of course, in solid metal - rather than hollowcast - so cannot be mistaken for the real thing, by weight. And as they were last available 60 plus years ago - I felt okay with the purchase of the new solid castings.

Here's a pic of how the boxed set of the real mounted figures looked (Set 281) around 1951 (Auction House pic - with many thanks).



You can see that mine are pretty close - as I have attempted to follow the original colour scheme used for horses and riders pretty faithfully. I have painted "Lucky" Jenkins' horse blanket as the Texas flag though - which is because the actor who played Lucky, (Russel Hayden) played a leading role in a movie called "Texas Rangers" too - but that's just an aside - and the cloth looks well!

I'm currently painting four of the foot figures - which includes two more Hoppy figures - so will show them once completed too.

Cheers Vic - jb

 

[johnnybach]

Having completed my remaining foot figure re-casts of the Timpo "Hopalong Cassidy" figures - this is how they look now.

Note that there were two more "Hoppy" figures on foot - one with trademark hat - and the other without headwear - showing his white hair. The other two figures of Lucky and California - show California with hat in hand - and also showing that he was bald on top!

One small snag arose before painting that might be worth mentioning - is that all of the foot figures had very small stands (bases) - as did the original hollowcast figures. With the increased weight of a solid cast figure - this meant that they were quite wobbly on their bases. I rectified this before painting, by cutting new bases which were slightly larger all round and cemented my figure to these. This cured the instability problem - and they now stand very well again.

All figures are one piece castings - though the riders are detachable from their respective horses - and fit well into the saddle - so don't require pinning - and all were quite easy to paint and - as castings - were excellent value for money. I think they look almost identical to the originals (except for stands) - and am very pleased to own them at last. jb

 

[Ivanhoe]

JB;

Thank you !

I can almost hear the music.

Great work on all of them.

 

[johnnybach]

JB;

Thank you !

I can almost hear the music.

Great work on all of them.

Weeel, pardner you're sure welcome. Hope these brought back as many fond memories as they did for me - while I wuz a-painting.

I guess you must be referring to the TV series theme music - which I've only seen thanks to You-tube in later years. When I was a kid - in Cardiff, me and a small posse of chums used to go to the cinema on Saturday mornings - and get our weekly fix of Hoppy and friends there. They were just half-hour "shorts" - but we used to love 'em. Couldn't hear much of the music for cheering - every time Hoppy appeared on screen. What with that and the smell of "caps" from our trusty six-shooters - you could hardly hear a thing!!

Glad you enjoyed 'em - take a look at this one?? jb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuJxlw-iaVI

 

[Ivanhoe]

JB;

I remember the olde "Saturday Matinees" well ! - Great Westerns, popcorn and a pop for 25 cents...

Was not aware 'so' many of these were available on You-Tube.

We did not have colour television receiver until very late, so the quality of these is just as good if not better than what we used to watch.

Thank you.