C is for Canoes - 3 - Timpo and Copies

Some of those children of the 1960's and 1970's who failed to receive a Britains Herald or plain Britains canoe, did so not due to parental cruelty, but because they got given the Timpo one/s instead! This post will look at them and some copies.

Brian's is in a nice - if slightly unrealistic - duck-egg blue, the colour of one of our childhood ones, and while things are slightly calmer than they looked in the introductory post, matey in the stern still has his knife out!

 

I have a couple of the smaller ones, in fawn/sand and cream, and the larger four-man one, in screaming red, which came a bit later I think. But not much later as both these have the earlier painted designs on the prow, done with a print-maker's rubber roller, I'd imagine, highlighting the raised areas of the designs - later issues weren't painted.

 

Also a tad later (I think?) was the trapper version, with the coonskin cap on standard body/legs, but a pink 'white man' head! There was also a pile of pelts/furs in the canoe with a cooking pot and musket (left-hand example) or Winchester (right-hand one) which plug-in to the load.

 

Undersides of both with the smaller counter-weight, I don't have the larger one yet (if anyone has a spare?) and the Britians copy is only there to prop both the Timpo canoes in place for the photograph!

 

Timpo used a copper-plate or anodising to protect their keel-weights, so they are less likely to be set-rigid in the canoe, with rust, like some Britains ones, which had a thin and rather ineffectual layer of galvanising.

 

From the old attempts at 'photo-realism' folder (there's still about 20 shots in the folder!), which must be about 12-years old now? In order to get the shot without the giveaway shadows, or something technical like that, I had to cut most of the bottom off, can't remember exactly why, but that's how it shook-down!

 

Hong Kong copies; I don't have a set/brand or even identified crew for them yet, but they are given away by their more pronounced 'shark's teeth' edges (gunwales?) and slightly more flimsy colours!

 

Brian has an even poorer one, hard to judge, but I think it's a lot smaller and thinner, and as you can see semi-transparent plastic with even sharper shark's teeth! And when I say poorer, that's a judgement on the manufacturing quality, not the fact that I won't grab one when I see one! Also, Brian has managed to colour-match with his Timpo original!

 

The crewman is, again, a poorer copy of another maker's, the Red Box (Redbox) 'Buffalo Fort' play set, however as this pair, will be from a cheaper, probably bagged, rack toy type, and equally-probably modern CHINA production.