How do I identify/value Britains Deetail 70's era? (1 Viewer)

[9thHussar]

I understand from a figure dealer that the new owners of the Britains Deetail range (cannot recollect their name!) are looking for suggestions for these sets of figures.
I suggested that they reissue the Naopleonic foot and cavalry, the 3 earlier American Civil War foot figures with the plug in arms, plus the vehicles which had Deetail drivers eg 8th Army Scout car. I also suggested the pre Deetail ACW galloping gun crew/limber/cannon and the ACW 4 man artillery crew and gun which was sold incorporated into the Deetail range from 1971 - approx 1975/6.

For new figures I would suggest British and Zulus 1879 and some WW1 figures Tommies in caps and Germans in spiked helmets.

 

[peterstoysoldiers]

This site has a few pics etc: http://www.btinternet.com/~peterstoysoldiers/britains_deetail.htm

Hi All,
This is my site, due to BT removing thier free hosting it has moved to here:
http://britains-toy-soldiers.hostei.com/britains_deetail.htm
I hope to post dome more pictures over the next few weeks.

 

[fishead19690]

I,m bringing up this old because with K&C coming out with plastic figures I wonder if Britains will follow and also do some new and improved plastic figures??? In this old thread Britains stated that they would do plastic figures again back in 2006 around the time the new owners took over the company and started doing figures again. There was all this talk about a new and improved detail line with new figures but all we got was a few recasts of the old dated figures that looked just like the old ones and nothing new!
Now that K&C has done it will Britains step up and maybe even rehash some old metal figures but done in plastic or even some new sculpts????

Read through this old post! Look for the posts from Britains.

 

[9thHussar]

Hi,

interesting that these larger toy soldier companies are moving towards painted plastics. Must be some good demand out there via their market research.

Just look on ebay as there are painted 1/32nd plastic figures selling all the time. Maybe the bigger outfits want a slice of the pie?

Regards
Dave

 

[Mirof]

Hi,

interesting that these larger toy soldier companies are moving towards painted plastics. Must be some good demand out there via their market research.

Just look on ebay as there are painted 1/32nd plastic figures selling all the time. Maybe the bigger outfits want a slice of the pie?

Regards
Dave

Have a look here, it can help... a lot
http://www.britains-toy-soldiers.com/archive/britains_deetail.htm

Best

 

[Angusprune]

Hi
Don't bother with WBRITAINS - they know jack about the Deetail ranges
Contact PLASTIC WARRIOR
65 Walton Court
Woking
Surrey
GU 21 5 EE
England

They have covered Deetail in great depth - also Peter Cole's book 'Suspended Animation' tells the enitre story of Britains / Herald and lists ALL the figures ever made. Also available from the above address

 

[thebritfarmer]

Hardly surprising since they have switched ownership a few times. They do what they do best and what they started with..........metal figures !

 

[jager7080]

Hi,

interesting that these larger toy soldier companies are moving towards painted plastics. Must be some good demand out there via their market research.

Just look on ebay as there are painted 1/32nd plastic figures selling all the time. Maybe the bigger outfits want a slice of the pie?

Regards
Dave

Dave ,

A lot of people grew up playing with the Britains Deetail & Swoppit's...That experience is what has drawn alot of people to collecting toy soldiers & being history buff's as adults...The Toy soldier company's are IMO opening a door , hoping younger collector's & those who have tight budget's will be guided to the painted plastic's line's...Or even those with big budgets who may want to augment some of their metal soldiers with the cheaper plastic one's to add depth to a collection or diorama...
I am curious to see how it all plays out...I have some 21st Century & FOV piece's a like a lot...
Loved my Britains Deetail as a kid , & have bought & repainted pieces...Never miss an opportunity to post some pic's of my refinished Britains Deetail...

Joe

 

[Angusprune]

Hardly surprising since they have switched ownership a few times. They do what they do best and what they started with..........metal figures !

Here we go with that same old boring nonsense about Britains metal ranges being the only 'real and proper' soldiers.
Why is this stupid attitude ? sort of " I have expensive ready painted metal figures therefore I am a PROPER collector" and there's a lot of it about and I'm sad to say that the above quote proves my point.

Britains hollowcast, compared to TIMPO for example were boring, dull, static posed little tick tocks. If the company had stayed with Hollowcast they would have gone out of business a lot earlier. Getting in Roy Selwyn Smith ( who designed the best of the TIMPO hollowcast ranges) and Buying out Herald was a shot in the arm for them. The design and posing of the plastic ranges was light years away from the static pigeon chested baggy crotched metal ranges with their unimaginative poses.
What WBritains, and let's face it this company has as much in common with the original Britains as a boil in the bag curry has with the Taj Mahal, now produce are metal versions of plastic figures in the spirit of Deetail, Herald and the standards set by Roy and Ron Cameron.

Please stop making such ill informed and slightly patronizing comments. I suggest that you try to read Peter Cole's excellent book 'Suspended Animation' , which tells the REAL story of Britains.
If you can overcome what appears to be an ingrained prejudice you might actually learn a thing or two

 

[9thHussar]

I prefer plastic figures myself. Peter Cole's Replicants range have some great poses and then look at hat's recent set of Wuttemburg Jagers for example and good old Airfix WW2 of course. I cant afford metal figures anyway so it has to be plastic which I prefer, so not an issue with me.

Would love to see some ACW Zouaves in the Deetail range, but in scale with the existing ACW Infantry/Cavalry. I always wanted some as a kid in the 1970's

Regards
Dave

 

[semenza]

Hi,

I came across this thread searching for something related. I would have liked there to be many more Deetail figures, but the one that always seemed wrong to be missing was WWII Russians. I can't believe they did a second set of US infantry and German infantry but no Russians!

I see that some of the older suggestions in this thread have been done by DSG repainting and modifying the existing figures. The Afrika Korps has been used for a bunch of things.

Seth

 

[theBaron]

Hardly surprising since they have switched ownership a few times. They do what they do best and what they started with..........metal figures !

Here we go with that same old boring nonsense about Britains metal ranges being the only 'real and proper' soldiers.

Sorry, but when I read Scott's post, I didn't take it as saying that "metal ranges being the only 'real and proper' soldiers". I think you're reading something into it, that's not there.

As far as Deetails go, I've been accumulating some of the horses, for use with some mounted figure castings that I have, Rose Prussian dragoons, for example. The horses have such great animation!

Prost!
Brad