A Note For Clarity:
Let us remember that "Swoppet" is still a Britians slogan mark. Like "Kleenex", it has become a general word. Practically speaking, "Swoppet" means any soft-plastic, 54mm multi-part figures. To avoid the association with Britains, let us use the more generic form "swappet" for any "Swoppet"-like figure and proceed.
There were three main makers of swappet figures:
However unpleasent the company owners may be, the products are great. The Swoppets' sculpting was clear and highly detailed (although rather plain in some cases) and the parts fit very well with perfect consistancy. The colors were also very dignified and appropriate. They used both soft plastic or a vinyl-like plastic for the parts. The parts were made in appropriate colors and further details were painted on. Eventually many accessories were produced for the line of figures.
The most sought after figures (and most complex) are the "War of the Roses Knights". The American Civil War (ACW) figures are the second most popular and plentiful, followed by the American War of Independence (AWI) figures. Swoppets are currently (as of 2009) sold on Ebay for anywhere from $7 to $40 each, but the buyer may end up with a figure that had contracted the deadly "disease" of becoming brittle. There is only one way to find out if a figure is brittle; the hard way. This author has decided to not put any more money into such risky collectibles, beautiful and enjoyable as they are.
A disappointment in Swoppets is that the AWI and ACW figures lacked diversity. The AWI figures, in particular, came in only five poses (six to a box). Of these precious six, one is the inexplicable "strolling" pose. Why was this not a sergeant or officer? Also disappointingly, none of the AWI or ACW figures offered bayonetted muskets. The muskets they came with were quite undersized, more resembling billiard cuesticks or broomsticks.
A significant drawback of Swoppets is that the weapons and some headgear fall off or come loose in casual handling. Naturally the parts often got lost. Other than this and the lack of pose variety, it is hard to say anything bad about these toys.
The Timpo parts fit very well, the colors were nice and opaque (although some a bit cartoonish), and they offered a larger variety than Britians. These figures had less parts than the Britains and arms were not posable (solid extensions of the torso). There were not as many things coming off.
The disadvantage in Timpo toys was proportionality and sculpting. Torsos might be barrel-shaped or huge, heads might be too small or large, and legpairs might more suggest dancing than any other activity. Hands were usually rather blocky, and sculpting was generally "chisled" looking compared to Britains smooth, delicate, and very proportional work.
Elastolin swappet parts fit well and consistantly, had nice, delicate sculpting. Most significantly, Elastolin swappets had a feature Britains and Timpo didn't offer; jointed wrists and arms. While Britians ACW and AWI had some moving arms, it was almost pointless due to the lack of variety. Elastolin had posible hands that plugged into the arms at the wrist. This way a sword, for example, could be aimed in a wonderful variety of directions. This made Elastolin the King of Multipart Figures in a technical way.
Elastolin did not make a large variety of these figures, and the poses were remarkably limited compared to the potential. Had the entire product been conceived instead of copied, their swappets would have been extraordinary. Had they respected these figures as they did their larger, hard plastic figures, and chosen appropriate colors, there would have been no doubt of Elastolin's superiority. But alas, they didn't.
Some of the advantages of HTF Swappables over other multi-part figures are:
A word about "collectibility";
The word "collection" has become polluted. It has come to include raw speculation. Some companies have turned their attention to the greed in the collector market and have deliberately manipulated products and distribution to get a cut from perceived "collectibility".
This is a manifestation of the "snatch the old lady's purse" syndrome; the young guns, new to the world's possibilities of wealth, find an untapped monetary resource. They don't realize (or care) that those of previous generations considered certain "resources" morally off-limits. Is this moral decay or simply economic desperation in tougher times?
We acknowledge there is no way we can stop every product or part we make from being collectible in some way, but we promise the following: "HTF will not make any effort to limit the availability of HTF products to artificially increase demand or collectibility.
CHERILIE
This well-known, but now out-of-business, English company made some larger scale (70mm?) figures that are rather amusing. They have proportional violations that are comic. The best example is the knights. The waists on some of these figures makes them appear they suffered "the rack" at one time. The colors were simply disappointing.
REL
Rel is a rather mysterious Italian company that made all sorts of little toy gizmos for the hollow, milk-chocolate "Kinder Egg"s sold in Germany in the 80's. Dulcop also made some of these items, but the ones of significance are the 1/32 scale multi-part figures Rel made. The sculpting was crisp and nice, but the surfaces were generally plain and smooth. Instead of wrist joints like Elastolin, Rel was unique in making working elbow joints. This visible joint took away from the overall appearence, but it worked very nicely. This author has a Samuri figure. The colors are nice enough, and the parts very well made. These figures are rather difficult to find and were not sold thru any venue this author is aware of other than the candy eggs.
"SHELL'S Liberty Toy Soldiers"
This is a good idea that went wrong and this author suspects there is a sad story and great personal loss behind it.
Shell Oil Co. offered these figures in the early 70's as a gas-station promotional when the Bicentennial Bandwagon was being readied to roll. The idea and design were fine; simply make figures a lot like Britians AWI Swoppets. The figures were actually made by Innovative Promotions of Hong Kong in 1972. But something went wrong in the planning. When made, the parts usually fit poorly or not at all, shrink was not taken into account, and a host of other problems plague these figures.
Collectors still trade in Shell Liberty figures because of a few virtues they have: they made a woman figure which usually has no problems, there is a nice cannon accessory, and the parts that DO work can be used as substitute parts for Britians Swoppets that are missing their original parts. Sometimes you can find parts that fit together ok and you get a nice enough figure. This is about 20% of the time. The figures are copies in concept of the Britians figures and thus inherited all their drawbacks. Had these figures been made right, they might have caught on and thus more might have been produced and they'd be very sought-after today.
One good thing about the Shell figures is the standing leg-pair; quite good. These were made in hospital white, tho, as opposed to the buff or cream that Britain's were made in. But it was a nice, flat white. Yet the Shell kneeling leg-pair was surprisingly undersized. Most of the Shell colors are only acceptible. The Buckskin-clad figure had proportion problems in the right arm and legs. But there was an Indian figure that, tho perhaps undersized, was still good to have. They had plenty of mounted figures and the horses were quite good (aside from being undersized). The painting of shoes and such was rather poor. The tricorn hat, perhaps the most significant part other than the "redcoat" torso, was pathetically small. Like Britians, the hats and torsos were made in a rubbery material, while other parts were soft plastic.
The Shell figures are often available in collection circles, and often "en mass" and kind of cheap, but you'd have to get a big box of them to come up with a shoe-box full of decent figures.
Hong Kong's Various Companies
Hong Kong is known to copy everything in sight. England eventually used Hong Kong to make their original items. Thus nearly every British toy product has a Hong Kong "knock-off"; a duplicate that is a tad smaller and usually not quite as clean and crisp looking as the originals. Sometimes Hong Kong companies just copied an item in design or theory rather than a direct copy. They even copied the non-fitting Shell figures. You can IMAGINE the result! There are many not-as-good knock-offs of Timpo figures. They are wanted by collectors if in packaging, but usually they only rate as recycle material.
THIS PAGE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Our main page is at
http://www.angelfire.com/fl2/htf/
Our Email is
htftoys@hotmail.com
