Timpo Toys

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Timpo Toys Ltd. was a British toy manufacturer .

Company history

The company was founded under the name Toy Importers Ltd. (from which the name Timpo was later derived) 1938 by Salomon "Sally" Gawrylovitz (later name Ally Gee), a Jew born in Frankfurt am Main in 1907 who had to emigrate to Great Britain in 1937 .

Initially only imported toys were sold, but during the Second World War the company increasingly produced its own toys, mainly from wood and metal. In the 1970s, the company, under the name we use today, experienced its boom with the sale of plastic plug-in figures. These were manufactured using an injection molding process that the company's technical director developed in the 1960s and made ready for series production.

Figures and accessories from different epochs were made. Medieval figures and figures from the Wild West were the main focus. Between 1964 and 1980, around 40 million plastic figures were produced and sold worldwide. The company went bankrupt in Scotland in 1980 .

In 2005 a book called Timpo Toys Ltd. The golden years of a Scottish toy factory published by Alfred Plath. It is the only book in German and the most extensive on this subject. In England, a book by Michael Maughan ( The AZ of Timpo ) in English has come onto the market. Articles on this subject have also appeared in Plastic Warrior magazine in England and in the figure magazine.

It was also Alfred Plath who organized a Reunion Party 1980 - 2010 in Shotts , the last production location of Timpo Toys, in 2010 , at which Timpo collectors from all over the world could meet former employees of the company.

Timpo Toys assortment

Cowboys of the Wild West series
Indians of the Wild West series
Mounted soldiers of the northern states
Crusader: The swords, reins and horse blanket are replicas

The Timpo Toys range consisted of several series of figures, with the Wild West series and the knight series forming the core of the product range. Since the series have been further developed over time, collectors also speak of generations within the individual series. For example, there are four generations of figures of this kind among the cowboys and the Northerners. In the case of the knight series, the German name was given due to the optical characteristics of the respective series of figures.

Overview of the series:

Within the respective series there were complementary toys such as carriages, houses, castles, tanks, trains, etc.

Photo gallery

  • Cowboys of the Wild West series

  • Indians of the Wild West series

  • Stagecoach

  • Northern soldiers

  • Northern soldiers

  • Northern soldiers

  • Southern soldiers

  • Southern soldiers

  • Southern soldiers

  • Arabs

  • German soldier

  • Black knights

  • Great helmet knight

  • Great helmet knight

  • Great helmet knight

  • Silver knight

  • Gold knight

  • Visor Knight

Timpo Toys Figures as a collector's item

In the course of the 1980s and 1990s, following the bankruptcy of the company, a collector scene emerged that stretches from Australia to Western Europe to the USA . The core group of these collectors are the children of the 1960s and 1970s, who grew up with Timpo figurines.

While in the beginning mainly collectors' exchanges such as the German Plastic Figure Exchange in Herne served as a marketplace, the development of online platforms such as Ebay brought a new dimension to the collector's scene. More than 3000 auctions are permanently set on Ebay.de in which Timpo Toys figures are offered (status at the end of 2015).

particularities

Depending on the condition and rarity, a collector's figure can cost several euros. Older figurines do not automatically achieve higher prices, but rather those that were made just before the company's bankruptcy. Compared to earlier figures, these figures are visually more attractive and also very rare. The price for this generation of figures is roughly ten times higher than the figures from the company's boom years. Particularly popular among collectors are so-called color variants, which are figures in which parts were produced in a special color. Here the prices often reach 100 times the value of the commercially available figure.

Cannon trains from the American Civil War and carriages from the Wild West series are also priced higher because they contain filigree parts such as reins or harness that were quickly destroyed when used. Undamaged copies are therefore very rare and correspondingly expensive. As with many other collectibles, the use of figures diminished the value of the objects. In addition to color variants, parts that are still in the original packaging achieve high prices.

Spare parts are also traded on the Internet because small parts such as weapons or heads have often been damaged or lost through the use of the figures, while body parts or floor panels have survived in sufficient numbers. Some of these small parts are also offered as replicas on the Internet .

Loss of figures through embrittlement

Broken floor plates and the legs of an Indian, which have lost their elasticity over time due to the outgassing of the plasticizers.

Recently, collectors have reported on the embrittlement and decay of valuable, antique Timpo figures made of thermoplastic polyethylene plastic or a PC / ABS plastic mixture . Figures that have been exposed to large temperature fluctuations and sunlight ( UV ) in particular tend to become brittle because these factors increase the likelihood that the plasticizers contained in the plastic will escape.

Web links

Commons : Timpo Toys  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Big Boys and Little Males: How I Rediscovered the Cult Cowboys of My Childhood . star . July 13, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  2. ^ British Toy Companies: Timpo Toys , website rodgersantiques.co.uk, accessed January 8, 2016
  3. ^ The company history of Timpo Toys , website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  4. ↑ Timpo Toys - A journey into the past , website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  5. ↑ Timpo Series - Cowboys , website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  6. ↑ - Indianer , website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  7. ^ Timpo Series - Nordstaatler , website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  8. ↑ Timpo Series - Südstaatler, website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  9. ↑ Timpo Series - Mexikaner, website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  10. ↑ Timpo Series - Ritter , website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  11. ↑ Timpo Series - Römer , website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  12. ↑ Timpo Series - Wikinger , website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  13. ↑ a b Timpo Series - Arabs and Foreign Leginarians, website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  14. ^ Timpo Series - American War of Independence , website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  15. ↑ Timpo Series - Eskimos , website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  16. ↑ Timpo Series - World War II , website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  17. ↑ Timpo Series - Farm Series , website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  18. ↑ Timpo Series - Guard Soldiers, website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  19. ↑ Ebay auction: Südstaatler 4th Generation , website www.ebay.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  20. ↑ Ebay auction: Color variant Cowboy , website www.ebay.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  21. ↑ Ebay auction: Kanonenzug Northern States , website www.ebay.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  22. ↑ Ebay auction: Crusader castle in original packaging, website www.ebay.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  23. ↑ Timpo Toys reproductions , website www.timpo-artist.de, accessed on January 8, 2016
  24. ↑ Plastic corrosion on figures from Timpo, Airfix, Italeri, and other manufacturers