W. Britain Ltd.’s short flying boat is one of the rarest aircraft toys of the 1930s

Throughout the history of toy soldier production, no manufacturer had greater success than the William Britains firm, commonly known as Britains. Launched in 1893, Britains successfully adopted a new process of hollow casting lead figures to give them a competitive advantage in both price and realism over the mainly German manufacturers of the flat-lead figures prevalent during the period.

The toy soldiers Britains produced were made to a uniform size of 2.2 inches tall (54mm) in a scale of 1:32, which became the popular standard size for other figures thereafter. The firm paid particular attention to faithfully reproducing uniforms, down to the minor details and hand-painted finishes required to imbue accuracy in each toy soldier.

After the end of World War I, with toy production halted, there was a collective desire on the part of the public to forget the horrors and enormous tragedies of the war. To this end, Britains expanded the toy line to include the Home Farm range of figures, animals and structures, which became a popular success. Following the Depression in the 1930s, they continued to expand into circus, zoo, garden and civilian vehicle production, all the while keeping the toy soldier series in production. Britains expanded production and was aggressive in successfully exporting to foreign markets, mainly to the United States where prestigious toy stores such as FAO Schwarz in New York City featured their products.

Today, Britains scale-model toys are highly sought after by collectors. Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Jim Gordon, an advanced Britains collector and military historian, offered this explanation: “I believe that the specific popularity of W. Britains toy soldiers, as compared to other competitors such as Heyde, Mignot, Lucotte, Elastolin or Lineol, stems from the fact that, with few exceptions, all the sets were numbered, and the company not only included product line lists within the individual boxed sets, but also regularly issued comprehensive illustrated catalogs. Today even those catalogs are eagerly sought after.”

As Britains enlarged its range during the 1930s, the company also prided itself in adding timely items related to new military technology in toy form: mechanized vehicles, cannons, howitzers, lorries, light tanks, anti-aircraft guns and equipment, sound detectors, predictors and height finders – all with newly equipped miniature toy soldiers to operate them. A full barrage balloon team was also issued, though in a reduced scale from the Britains standard size.

During this flourishing period Britains also launched its first aircraft toys with pilots in a scale compatible with their toy soldiers; set no. 433 Royal Air Force Monoplane, and set no. 435 U.S. Aviation Monoplane, both first issued in 1931 with square wingtips. Britains also issued an RAF toy soldier set, no. 240, at the same time, which included two officers and six men. In 1935 they issued set no. 1392 Civilian Autogiro, set no. 1431 British Army Cooperation Autogiro, set no. 433 Royal Air Force Monoplane and set no. 1525 U.S. Air Force Biplane (both with rounded wingtips), and finally set no. 1899 U.S. Army Air Corps Autogiro, which was issued in 1940.

While the fixed-wing aircraft toys were basic and generic in design, lacking any armament, the Britains Autogiro was a true-to-scale working model of the Cierva C.30A Autogiro designed by Spanish aviator and inventor Juan de la Cierva and used by the RAF.

One of the most astounding toys Britains ever produced was set no. 1520, a 1936-37 boxed “Working Scale Model of Short Monoplane Flying Boat.” This toy is one of the rarest of all Britains toys of any subcategory. Jim Gordon noted, “In the expert opinion of James Opie, the much published Britains author, this aircraft is ranked 85-96 [out of 100]. This places it near the top of the list, even among those sets that Opie ranks as being very rare.” It is considered by some knowledgeable toy collectors to be the scarcest, perhaps even the most exceptional toy aircraft ever produced. It is rarely seen in any collection, and only one example of this aircraft appears to have been sold at an auction in the last 25 years. The last recorded auction of this toy, found on LiveAuctioneers.com, was more than $18,000, and its box was damaged.

The Britains Flying Boat was modeled after the Short Brothers S.18, a design that was selected by the British Air Ministry following competition to specification R.24/31, for a general-purpose open sea patrol flying boat. The Short Brothers had a long history of aviation developments starting with the acquisition of the British rights to build the Wright Flyer; it became the first aircraft manufacturing company in the world. Why the Britains firm selected this unusual design of an aircraft not put into production or military service is not known, but it was an extremely well-made and complicated toy. “An explanation may be that it was a pet project of one of the Britains’ management, perhaps doing it on behalf of a friendship or business relationship with someone within the Short Bros. Aircraft Co. as advertisement for the actual aircraft,” said Gordon.

Whatever its origins, the Short Monoplane Flying Boat was produced in a smaller scale, which was not compatible with the standard Britains toy soldiers and other military equipment. Issued only for a short period after 1936, it has a blue fuselage, wing sponsons and other small parts made of Bakelite, the first successful plastic. The Britains Short Flying Boat has a 14-inch wingspan, silver-painted tin wings with RAF markings and accurately scaled tin tail components, engines and propellers. It also had two open gun turrets with movable Bakelite machine guns.

The boxed set included detachable lead beaching gear with rubber tires, copied from the full-size aircraft, which was not amphibious and needed the detachable wheels to taxi under power out of the water. Also included with the toy were 25 feet of metal wire which, when attached at both ends at different heights, enabled the Short Flying Boat to “fly” realistically down the wire using gravity while turning both propellers, which were connected to the main pulley axle.

Surprisingly to many, Britains made no further other efforts to produce aircraft prior to the start of World War II. The Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire would have been logical and highly popular choices, but only one small-scale prototype of a Bristol Beaufighter, thought to have been made in 1941, has appeared; but production was not initiated. While the other toy firms of the period, such as Tippco, Dinky, DUX, and INGAP produced many successful and popular military aircraft during this period, the Britains Air Force remained comprised of only the four outdated designs.

The Britains firm was sold to the first of many buyers in 1984 when Dennis Britain wished to retire and no other family member wanted to take over the firm. The buyer, the Dobson Park Group, changed the company name to Britain Petite Ltd. In 1997 the U.S. toy company Ertl, an established manufacturer of farm toys, purchased Britains and moved most of the toy production to the Far East. In 1999, Ertl was bought by another U.S. toy company, Racing Champions, which then eliminated all British production. In September 2005, First Gear, a small family firm, acquired Britains.

Geoffrey Randolph ‘G.R.’ Webster is a commercially rated helicopter, aircraft and seaplane pilot, and was a highly decorated military aviator flying gunships during the Vietnam War.