15 British Toy Giants That Ruled Our Childhood.. and Then Vanished
26K views · Sep 14, 2026 · People & Blogs
Comments · 18
@anthonycook9571 · 12 days ago
I have around 50 original dinky toys in their boxes and around the same amount in corgi toys in their boxes plus an action man in his box and lots of Hornby trains. I love them.
4
@richardmillican7733 · 8 days ago
The Holyhead plant continued until the early 2000s as "Wells Kelo" making garden swings, slides and the like.<br><br>There is a Home Bargains, defunct Wilko, and carpark on the original site.
2
@davidmckirdy4063 · 2 weeks ago
I still have Denys fisher Dr who toys and the palitoy talking daleks and the talking k.9 which still talk and have their boxes.
4
@teebodk3917 · 10 days ago
"Made in England... two words molded into the underside of a car..." nice counting!
5
@hoplite1766 · 12 days ago (edited)
It's a damned shame, we were the workshop of the world. The toy shop was a wonderland and every town had at least 2<br>Those toys stayed with me until I was about 13 and then everything was football and Subbuteo. At 14 I discovered Airfix and had every single warship in their catalog on five 5' shelves in my bedroom. The box art itself was worth the price.
9
@hoplite1766 · 12 days ago
Meccano inspired the American 'Erector set' one of the most popular boys toys the USA ever made.
@LizaandJamesDurhamTheLJ33 · 1 day ago
💚!
@liverpoolscottish6430 · 8 days ago
I have hundreds of Britain's toy soldiers from my 70's childhood. Even at the age of 7, I knew they were a quality product and would be sought after one day. I have had some of them for 48 years now. I have two large biscuit tins full of them- WW2 British infantry, 8th Army, German Afrika Korps, Wehrmacht infantry, Japanese infantry, US infantry, a small number of 'modern' British Para's with L1A1 SLR rifles. I will never sell them............I have about 350 soldiers.
1
@SherrySwiss · 11 days ago
💗💗💗
@nigelcharlton-wright1747 · 2 weeks ago
The Airfix company went out of business due to militant workers at the Meccano factory in Liverpool. The factory was going to be closed due to huge losses, and the workers said they didn't care if the company went out of business. Therefore that was the end of Airfix. The tooling went over to France and the models were made by Hella, which it's self went bust over 20 years ago. I have a few French made model cars, and they were just as good as the originals, whilst the Indian made kit of a Ford Escort, well lets say, there is room for improvement. You also forgot to mention that Corgi was purchased by Matel in the late 1980's early 1990's, and later took over Matchbox, which owned Dinky Toys. Strange how a majority of British companies were taken over by American companies and production moved out of England. Whilst Hornby own Airfix. Corgi, Oxford Diecast (which now privately owned) and a whole load of model railway companies, and charge too much money, whilst still making the models in China and India. A real shame.
7
@AdamRichards-us3ju · 2 weeks ago
What about Invicta and Mastermind?
@JD-XA22 · 9 days ago
The 'Royal Warrant'....freebies for the world's wealthiest family paid for ultimately by the peasants.
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