A brief history of the Britains Toy Soldiers in Argentina

In the ends of 70`s some of the Deetail and herald Mouldings were shipped to Argentina. There they were owned by the Crovetto family, a manufacturers toys, who produced the British 8th Army, Afrika Korps, French Foreign Legion, Arabs & Mexicans as well as the 7th Cavalry figures, Indians, Cowboys and Royal Guards, previously made in Hong Kong, on plastic bases. All of the colours used were a direct copy of their English (& HK) forbears and they maintained the tradition of only 4 colours per figure. In the case of the 8th Army and the Afrika Korps figures some texturing of the moulds had taken place and the result was a lowest quality. The most obvious change was the introduction of plastic bases as opposed to mazak bases, with the purpose of reducing costs, the replacement of the deetails horses by herald horses, only in one pose and in one colour was made, with the same purpose and the use in some cases, arabs, mexicans and legion sets, of methallic swords, belonging to the britains swopet, and not the britains swords made in plastic. These figures were produced under the banner of Britains Herald and were unique to Argentina. But this soldiers were sold only in toy stores and not in hobbys stores, maybe this it was not the appropriate target, the figures were too expensive for a toy for children and they were not made with the enough care as to be appreciated by the collectors or to be exported, this added to the opening of the imports in Argentina and the massive arrival of toy soldiers from another countries like taiwan, these yes enough cheap for the childrens, made them to stop the production.

Some toy soldiers made in the seventies by the Crovetto family

Few years ago, the Crovetto family have since passed the moulds onto Enrique d S G, himself an energetic and enthusiastic Toy Soldier Collector. His company is called DSG Plastic Toy Soldiers. Enrique has started producing these Deetail Figures once again but this time with a very high quality and care and directed to the collectors and not the childrens. This figures are not sold commonly in the Argentinean toy stores but in the hobby stores. The startling quality of these figures may well have influenced the decision by Racing Champions to withdraw the license allowing Toy Way to produce their other well known Deetail figures. The painting of the DSG figures is closely supervised by Enrique and he takes great pride in producing the masters for his artists to copy. The paint used is the same as the paint that Britains applied to their original Deetail Range. Britains Deetail limited their use of colours to around 3 or 4 per figure. DSG has no such limitations and in addition, Enrique has also used different coloured plastics to get the maximum use of these moulds, making very interesting variations and transformations to the original sets. Where else could you buy factory painted Deetail British Infantry representing the Burma campaign, WWII German Mountain Troops and SS Troops, Rough Riders, Australian army troops and more?!.

We know Enrique personally and we know the care that he puts in the production of these sets. The painter's attention to Deetail is breathtaking and, some say, superior to the originals. Finally the great advantage is the low cost of these figures compared to their original cousin's and the fact that this figures are actually only produced by Enrique, if you want a arab set or a Foreign Legion set for example, you have two options: buy this superb figures or break a bank and buy the originals.

The same figures made by DSG, compare the quality and quantity of colours with the olds figures.

And now DSG has raised the bet and has launched his sets of figures made from his own molds, sculpting the new figures and launching to the market of the Toy Soldiers collectors sets completely originals but with the high quality and the style of the Britains figures. First were the Napoleonics/South American Wars figures, on foot and on horseback, then the Vikings, the romans and for last the Crusades. And this is not the end, there are plans for the future. If you want figures with high quality, excellent painting, pay atention to the DSG News.

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