British Traditions Kits?

[mattbacon]

Hi, folks... Mr Mat Irvine is seeking our help:

"The reason for contact is I'm trying to find out details on a kit that
came out under the British Traditions name? I know these aren't likely
your bag, but they are 'British', so you seem a good starting point!

I ask as Andy, my friend in New York, collects them and is missing one,
the 1742 Whitbread Dray. However we have no idea what scale it is - ever
come across it on your modelling travels? Trouble is that the company -
hardly being a 'mainstream kit company' isn't mentioned in any books!"

Does anyone know of the British Traditions kits? They sound as if they might be related to Keilkraft type subjects, but does anyone know any actual facts instead of my wild speculation?

;-P

bestest,
M.

[peebeep]

There was a post somewhere else about these quite recently, but I can't remember where. I remember the dray model, also I think there was one of the royal coaches. I think the scale was something like 54mm.

peebeep

[peebeep]

The kits I were thinking of were made by a company trading under the name Paramount and were to 1/30. I can't say if they were the toolings used by British Traditions.

peebeep

[mattbacon]

Hi, all... this is one of them:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ROYALTY-CHIEF ... 0515437071;

As you can see from the box side photos, there were several others, mostly figures, but including a "Whitbread Dray", which is the one that we're most interested in...

Anyone's memory triggered?

bestest,
M.

[beany]

Hi, all... this is one of them:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ROYALTY-CHIEF ... 0515437071;

As you can see from the box side photos, there were several others, mostly figures, but including a "Whitbread Dray", which is the one that we're most interested in...

Anyone's memory triggered?

bestest,
M.

So how come the brown box issue is worth £84 more than a blue box version (no bids yet - £0.99 starting bid at time of posting this)?!...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CHIEF-YEOMAN- ... 500wt_1413;

I've never heard of them to be honest so this is all an education for me.

Cheers
Al.

[mattbacon]

I've been doing some further digging...

It looks (following Richard Humm's lead over on ATF... thanks, Paul) that these were issued as "British Traditions" kits after the moulds had first been used to create assembled "promos" for drinks manufacturers.

Richard reported in a thread from 2007 that the kits "were produced by Malcolm Joyce Designs under the auspices of Rodger Tomkins and D.J. Tomkins,"

There are five that have been identified so far that were issued by British Traditions:

Chief Yeoman Warder, 280mm
Scottish Dancer, 200mm
Huntsman and Hounds, 200mm
Drum Major, 200mm
Whitbread Dray, 1742

I have dug around and found in auction listings that when they were advertising models, they were issued by a company called "Hyfin", which is blinkin' hard to Google successfully.

This is the Huntsman, in Gilbeys Gin promo guise:


and this is the Whitbread Dray:


It is said to be 15" long here, and there are several listings for the Whitbread Dray model in a case, which is said to be 36x24x14 cms. That makes it about 1/14 scale, or 120mm figure scale.

Here is the Yeoman Warder:


And here's the Scottish Dancer


This is the Drum Major:


Does anyone know if Whitbread, Gilbeys Gin and Beefeater Gin were all owned by the same company in the early 60s? (they're probably all Diageo now... ) And if so, what drink brands the Drum Major and Scottish dancer could have been associated with?

bestest,
M.

[JamesPerrin]

I asked my dad about the drink companies as he seems to know rather too much about this sort of thing.

"Gilbeys was part of Grand Metropolitan (Watneys etc), one of the big six brewers of the 1960s
Beefeater Gin was part of Allied Domecq (Carlsberg Tetley etc) another big 6 brewer.

I think Drum Major and Scottish Dancer could have been logos of Whyte & McKay whisky."