Statistics

Introduction

In January 2024, I completed my initial coverage of 13 toy ranges. There were 7 stories about each range, making 91 stories in all, and taken together they contain roughly 920 images & 137,500 words. Phew, I needed a rest! For the next year, running through to January 2025, I added a further 25 shorter, stand-alone stories.

This page shares some stats about these 116 stories, which you might find interesting. Please remember that the stats only refer to the stories, and are almost certainly not representative of toy production in any broader sense.

Country of Producer

This chart notes the country of the producers featured by story: UK x 84, France x 11, Germany x 9, Italy x 9, USA x 2 and Austria x 1. It is also usually where the models were made, with production shifting to the Far East later in the period. The UK dominates primarily because that is where I am based, and these are the toys I come across. Of course, the UK was also a large producer.

Decade of Production

Here we can see the decade of production of the models featured: 1930s x 18, 1940s x 3, 1950s x 24, 1960s x 18, 1970s x 32, 1980s x 13, 1990s x 4, 2000s x 2. This is the decade in which the model was released, but note that some models re-used earlier castings, and of course some stayed in production for a long time.

The 1930s saw the first significant use of ‘modern’ toy mass production methods, from die-casting to early plastics. Note the dip in production in the 1940s, when WW2 curtailed such frivolity. I’m not sure whether the dip in the 1960s represents an actual trend, or is just an artefact of my selection. The tailing off from the 1980s is due to the focus of this website on older toys no longer in production.

Subjects

This pie chart illustrates the spread of subjects I have covered: vehicles and guns x 33, aircraft x 32, figures x 25, ships x 18 and buildings or scenery x 8. Most of these have been military, as you would expect of FTS. Modelling scales varied but trends emerge depending on the subject (e.g. 1:72 for aircraft, 1:32 for figures, 1:1200/1:1250 for ships).

Country of Subject

The national origin of the subject modelled is interesting: UK x 52, USA x 19, Germany x 16, France x 6, Russia x 5 and one each for Italy, Sweden, Australia and Canada. Fourteen models – typically of imaginary subjects – cannot be tied to a country.

Once again, the UK preponderance is probably due to me residing in the UK and having access to a healthy choice of home-grown manufacturers. Note how strongly the USA features despite my not having reviewed any US producers. This is surely a testament to the profile of the US in Europe during WW2 and the Cold War.

Era of Model

What eras do the models represent? Pre-WW1 x 14, WW1 x 2, interwar x 14, WW2 x 37, post-war x 43 and a single subject from the future. A few of the models can’t be tied to a specific period. Notwithstanding some coverage of earlier periods, the military toys I have written about tend, on the whole, to represent contemporary or near-contemporary subjects.