Veloce Publishing

Britains Catalogues 1970-79

by  David Pullen

Reviewed By  Paul Bradley, IPMS# 35554

MSRP: 24.99 GBP (approx. $35) ISBN: 978-1-845842-75-8 Website: www.veloce.co.uk Now, here's a book that brings back memories of many hours spent playing with the usual toys of young childhood. In the early seventies, I had a large collection of toy animals, made by Britains, the British toy company best known for their lead soldiers. From the crocodile with a moveable jaw to the animated chimp family, I had hours of fun setting up zoos and safari parks with Britains zoo animal collection, many of which were acquired from a toy shop in Glasgow, the nearest city to where we lived when my dad was based in Scotland. A special birthday treat would be one of the boxed sets containing a variety of animals that expanded the collection in larger increments than my pocket money could manage. Later, when my interests swung to more warlike pursuits, I had a collection of Britains' plastic soldiers with a metal base, which had a large range of vehicles, guns and accessories to accompany them onto the battlefield that was my bedroom floor. The 25-Pounder gun, as with many of their metal gun models, fired matchsticks clear across the floor…it's a wonder we didn't all put each other's eyes out… Britains produced a vast range of model toys, ranging from the aforementioned lead and plastic soldiers and their accessories, through foreign troops of yesteryear (Saracens, anyone?) to the zoo and farm animals, to such exotica as tiny plastic flowers of many varieties, to be placed in plastic garden dioramas; aimed at girls I presume, as were their range of horses and accessories. I don't remember my sister having a plastic greenhouse, but then again maybe my plastic army fired matchsticks at it… Of course, all these toys were featured in annual catalogs, the pages of which were pored over endlessly between trips to Glasgow, and Veloce Publishing has reproduced those from the 1970's in all their full-color glory in one amalgamated, 304-page volume, covering 1970 to 1979. There is no additional text; just an index of products with their retail prices for each year they were available. The book was compiled by noted Britains historian, David Pullen. The book is presented in a landscape A5 format, as that's how the catalogs were printed; however, I seem to remember Britain's catalogs being a little bit bigger than the size of the book - I suspect they've been reproduced slightly smaller that 'life size' and that is reflected in the very small type size which makes it difficult to read the descriptions in places. The reproduction is not the best in places either, as if the original was scanned at too low a resolution. Interestingly, the scope of the book covers the transition from drawings of the products to photographs, in time for the 1972 catalog. It is interesting to see the dress fashion of the children on the cover photos - it is painful to reflect that I actually wore some of those styles… Nevertheless, this is an interesting and nostalgic book that will appeal to those with a passion for old toys. Veloce Books are available directly from their website, or from leading book retailers.