Timpo Toy Soldiers

Timpo Toy Soldiers Are Fun to Collect

You probably remember having several collections of little toy soldiers and other miniature figures when you were a child and enjoyed pitting them against each other in interesting ways. If you need to replace valued toy soldiers you lost or misplaced years ago or simply want to collect more of them, you can easily find inexpensive vintage Timpo toy soldiers for sale on eBay to add to your forces.

Timpo made many different types of small model figures. Most Timpo collections depicted military-themed characters, but they also produced other series of note, such as superheroes, automobiles, aircraft, and people of various ethnicities. Many of their figures in these series were unnamed and not identifiable as separate pieces.

These are some of their well-known series of miniature toys:

• American Frontier - The American Frontier series encompassed various examples of the American West that were not specific to cowboys and Native Americans. One example of a Timpo American Frontier toy you may find on eBay is a stagecoach.
• Cowboys and Native Americans - There are many varieties of cowboys and Native Americans in these sets.
• Heroes - Superman and Captain Marvel are two of these heroes you may see on eBay.
• Arabs - There are many menacing Arab figures in this series. They are often depicted as standing in fighting stances with daggers and swords uplifted.
• Inuits - There are lots of Eskimo dog sleds with Huskies in different colours in these sets.
• World War II - One example of a WWII toy is a German officer with binoculars, and another is of a German soldier standing while holding an upright rifle.

Timpo was founded in 1938 in England and was a reseller of toy soldiers, both foreign and domestic. They began producing their own miniature toys because of the difficulty of importing during WWII. These toys were manufactured of wood, Bakelite, and composites, primarily because of material restrictions in effect during the war. In 1946, they started to produce hollow-cast lead figures. In 1955, Timpo started production of plastic figures from old hollow-cast moulds, using an Azmidor machine. Soon, Timpo began solely making toy soldiers of plastics.

The company enjoyed a boom time of production and sales between the 1950s and 1970s. Toy soldiers from this era are highly collectable, and you can find many Timpo toy soldiers for sale on eBay that date from this period. They include a painted police officer from the '50s, cowboy and Indian mini figures from the '60s, and a boxed figure of Queen Elizabeth on horseback from 1953.