Dauphin - Dauphin Display Accessories - Dauphin Display Cabinet Company

118 Holland Park Avenue

London

W11 4PA

Unit 4 and 5 Lobb Farm
Tetsworth,

Oxfordshire
OX9 7BE

 

Tel: 017 270 715

Tel: +44(0)1 865 343 542

eMail: Dauphin@dauphin.co.uk

Web: https://www.dauphin.co.uk/

 

Old Advert

 

 

'Design Eye' - Design Eye Publishing Limited - Dinozoff Limited - 'Ultimate Explorer'

UK

Flourished 1990's-2010's

110 Whitchurch Road
Cardiff
Wales
CF4 3LY
(1st address 1992-96)

6 Great Queen Street
London
WC2B 5DG
(2nd address 1996-?)

4-6 Dunmow Road
Bishop's Stortford
Hertfordshire
CM23 5HL
(3rd address? 2010's)

226 City Road
London
EC1V 2TT
(4th Address?)

The Old Brewery
6 Blundell Street
London
N7 9BH
(Newer/last or service address? 2005-?)

Tel: (+44) 0 1279 655 155 (Bishop's St.)
Tel: (+44) 0 2078 128 604 (City Road, EC1.)
Tel: (+44) 0 2077 002 001 (Blundell St.)
Tel: (+44) 0 1225 852 727 (Sales 2010's)
Fax: (-44) 0 1279 655 151

Private limited Company
Company Number: 02723729
Incorporated: 17th June 1992
SIC: 99999 (dormant company, still filing financial statements)
Trading as Dinozoff Limited: 17th June 1992 - 9th November 1992

Known Staff
Marcus Edward Leaver (director), Laurence Orbach (director), Michael Damien Connole (director), Robert Morley (director), Michael Damien Connole (director), Chuk Kin Lau (directory), Michael Mousley (director/secretary), Clive Ronald Potterell (director/secretary), Ms Anne Olivia Crompton (secretary), Lizie Millard (Admin)

Logo above.

Company History
Not much is known about this company, toward the end they seem to have had a tie-in with Dover Publications in the USA to reproduce some of their interactive craft-based paper/card products over here (UK), and the two sets listed below were what put them on the toy soldier collectors' radar, but other than that, there's not a lot to go on, they also moved around a lot, and were using the Hertfordshire address during the issue of the two relevant sets and some correspondence between themselves and Plastic Warrior magazine around 2006-8?
There was another name associated with the Ultimate Explorer sets, while the given sales telephone number is for the Bath area (Somerset) and when I've tracked it down it may all become a little clearer, re. the number of addresses associated with such a small company? There were also eBooks toward the end I believe.

Relevant Listing

Ultimate Explorers (book format, heavy card-stock folder with blistered booklet and craft/project supplies in one side and a fold-out model and board game in the other half, a folding magnetic spine seals the sets for storage as books on a shelf)
ISBN 1 84026 001 7 - Castles (EAN 9 781840 260014
ISBN 1 84026 031 0 - Ancient Egypt (EAN 9 781840 260311)

Amazing Automata (animated, craft-project, card models with plastic-winder in a card base)
- Dinosaurs (2013, still available 2021, ex-Dover 'Origami Papercraft' set)
- Pirates (2013, still available 2021, ex-Dover 'Origami Papercraft' set)

Links
Design Eye on the Home Blog

Further Reading
One Inch Warrior magazine - issue No. 7

What This Entry Needs
Anything useful anyone has!

Thanks To/Contributors
Paul Morehead - editor: Plastic Warrior & One Inch Warrior magazines

Festival - Festival Products Incorporated - 'Good Guys'

Festival Products Inc.,

Skokie

Illinois

USA

Flourished mid-1960's

Seem to have imported and re-packed the 1st version Timpo swoppets, there is a chance that they may have been importing someone else's figures, but they were swoppets, they were British and the card art has one figure (behind the anti-tank gun-barrel) clearly based on the 1st version paratrooper holding a Sten-gun by the magazine.

Sets dated 1966 and large-enough for 6 figures at a squeeze, but probably a three or four figure assortment? It's possible they also carried the US-only issues of Timpo 'Green Berets' with a beret matched to the body colour of the 1st version British Infantry (as the Australian slouch-hats were)?

Listing

Good Guys (Timpo 1st version swoppets)

- Crusaders

- Knights

- Cowboys

- Indians

- 7th Cavalry

- Army (? Could be US, German, British, all three, or the Green Berets)

- Accessories (? Could be larger-packs with wagons or just trees, cacti etc...)

What They Say

"Unbreakable Plastic Interchangeable Parts"

What This Entry Needs

Anything you've got!

Logo/Brand Mark

Header-card/hanger from blister-pack dated 1966

 

Addendum

January 2026 - Somebody sent a set of these to Plastic Warrior magazine (issue 201, pp32), confirming they are 1st-version Timpo figures, his set was three ACW Union/7th Cavalry foot troopers. Accompanied by the message "...never seen before . . . never heard of...", I would suggest he or she find Small Scale World, where these have been sat here, since 2018! The card illustrated in PW is subject specific (Wild West, black & green artwork), so it can now be assumed the above example is a WWII one.

Hand Temple Workshop - 1st Hand Temple Workshop

Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina, USA

Tel: 843 324 6082

http://the-hand-temple-workshop.webnode.com/

After-market service provider, custom-building and painting offered for most genres and in most scales, they also sell pre-painted figures, presumably from other makers.

Five and Dime Corps - Five and Ten

See: 5 & 10 Corps

Fairchild / Fairchild Plastics Ltd. / Selcol Fairchild Ltd.

Walmar House

288-292 Regent Street

London,

W1B 3AL

Company No: 769862

Incorporated in 1963

Dissolved in 1978 (the earlier document at Kew gives 1977, see below)

 

See also:  Selcol - Selmer and Gala-Goldentone

Not to be confused with:

- Fairchild Industries of Illinois, USA, general plastics, 1961-present

- E.E.Fairchild ' (Alderman-Fairchild Corp. / All-Fair inc.) US game and puzzle manufacturer.

Company originally formed as Fairchild, some products appear in both Fairchild and Selcol Fairchild graphics, as Selcol are reported as being closed in 1968, it is fair to assume that the years 1968/9 through to 1978 are the 'Selcol Fairchild' years, as Selcol get first billing, it may well be that Selmer (parent of Selcol) or Musical & Plastics Industries (MPI - parent of Selmer) took over Fairchild and then hived-off the result, or that Fairchild took on the ailing (?) but better company, and agreed that due to asset help from the acquisition, they should have predominance in the trademark?

One should also remember that Selcol would have had the greater 'goodwill' within the both the toy and plastics industries, by dint of the decades of Selmer producing amplifiers and musical instruments alongside the Selcol records. Whatever the reasons/relationship, Selmer ceased to produce records when they moved Selcol electronics out to the Braintree factory in 1968, the ill-feeling among the Braintree plastics people seems to be of direct consequence to the arrival of Selcol Fairchild as a brand.

Although the relationship was a pre-existing one with some records issued in Selcol Fairchild graphics as early as 1962?

While a fair bit is known about Selcol, very little is known about Fairchild, the above being only confusion without the necessary information! However, one piece of Fairchild's history is freely available on the web: Their legal case as respondents to Marx Toys. To summarise the Judgement linked to below - Marx accused Selcol of plagiarising a set of dogs (almost certainly one of the sets of food/washing-powder premiums that cause confusion, Marx had three ranges of dogs), which Selcol basically - happily - admitted to.

The case came down to when the dogs had been registered as a design, and in the end the judge decided that by a matter of hours, the plagiarism, err…wasn't and Marx lost the attempt to have them removed.

It's not known what subsequently transpired between the two companies in the wider case, but the failure of what was basically a 'cease and desist' injunction is taught to law students to this day, as a piece of seminal 'case law'/classic case of corporate timing, meaning it's readily available on the web.

Listings

Fairchild (1963-approximately 1968)

- Dogs

- Tractor

- Paratrooper

Selcol Fairchild (approximately 1968-1978)

- Knitting Jinny

- Mercedes International Giant Fire Engine (4 foot extending ladder on turntable, red and silver plastic)

- Tractor (same as Fairchild-only branded one)

- Magic Guitar (push-button electric sound toy in the shape of a guitar)

Links

National Archives Kew BT 31/46233/10

National Archives Kew BT 31/46762  

Marx Legal Case - Abstract

Marx Legal Case - .pdf File
Paratrooper on Home Blog

Further Reading

- Farming in Miniature (FIM) Vol 2

- The National Archives, Kew has two files available: reference:  BT 31/46762 (appears to be largely a partial duplicate of BT 31/46233/10)

What This Entry Needs

More on the relationship between Fairchild and Selmer/Selco

Better history

Better product listings

Company personalities

Fame Master - FM

See: 4D Master (4D Puzzle)