Tri-ang Toys

In the early 20th Century the Lines Bros Ltd Introduced Tri-ang toys to the world, which when at it’s peak, was claimed to be the largest toy maker in the world. The hey days for the company came post world war two where the manufacturing of toys redeemed once again.  

The company had many product lines, in the early days it was wooden toys which they did keep a float throughout the later years producing dollhouses, toy forts, a Noah’s ark with wooden animals, along with a small range of wooden soldiers. The company had it’s own railway system, the Rovex system which when marketed was known as Tri-ang Railways.

In the mid 1960’s tri-ang joined forces with Hornby producing model train and tracks marketed as Tri-ang-Hornby. Not only famous for their train sets, Tri-ang produced Minic tinplate cars.

Minic Motorways were a system of HO scale road vehicles, that slotted on to a plastic roadway and moved their way round the track. Tri-ang were aiming for a toy that was as realistic to a car going round a racing track.

The vehicles got their power from a small wheel known as a Gimbal wheel. Vehicles were controlled by a hand-held controller, over time this system evolved into what we know as Scalextric. The range of vehicles for Minic Motorways included a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, a Humber Super Snipe, a Routemaster bus, a Shell petrol tanker and a tow truck. As Minic expanded so did the products, a range of trackside accessories such as a petrol station and a ferry enabled the players to build town around the system, enabling a more life-like experience.

In the late 1950’s Tri-ang had their own range of die-cast vehicles known as Spot-On, which were produced from 1959-1967. Like Dinky and Corgi toys Tri-ang wanted Spot-On models to be as true to life as possible, as well as serving as a toy.

Spot-On models were well made and heavy, they had great attention to detail but were robust toys. Among serious collectors some Spot-On models can command high prices depending on the rarity of the model, the condition and the packaging.

Tri-ang also produced a range of 1/1250 scale of model ships. Many Tri-ang toys have reached high prices at auction and are incredibly popular within the collecting world.

We are constantly looking for Tri-ang toys, whether you have a collection of Spot-On Models or Tri-ang trains and railways or Tri-ang ships that you wish to get valued then do not hesitate to get in contact with us.