William Britain Senior began making high quality mechanical toys in London in the 1850s and released his first toy soldiers in 1893. Initially, these were available in two heights: 52mm and 60mm. However, the former, equivalent to 1:32nd scale, known as the ‘standard size’, quickly became the main scale.

The success of these toy soldiers was in part due to the use of the hollow cast manufacturing process which was cheaper than techniques used by other companies.
The company continued to develop the toy soldier range over the following years, becoming market leader. By the 1920s, a wave of anti-war feeling was affecting soldier sales, and Britains diversified by launching the Home Farm series in 1921. Thirty new individual items including figures, animals and a tumbrel cart appeared in the first year.
1948 saw the first tractor, a Fordson Major available on either spade lugs or rubber tyres, added to the Home Farm series.

The Major was made using the hollow cast process and released in Fordson blue. To increase the tractor’s play value, Britains released over the next four years a timber
trailer, a tipping trailer, a disc harrow, a roll and a four-furrow trailed plough. From the late 1950s there was a big expansion of the farm range. The first significant addition was a model of the Fordson New Major. This both looked realistic and had great play value, having a steerable axle, working rear linkage and mounting points for front mounted equipment. All its future tractors would include these features.

New implements were also released in the 60s to use the features now provided on
the New Major. These implements were both realistic and playable models, strengthening the company’s reputation. Britains continued the rapid expansion of the farm range throughout the ’70s. However, it was finding it increasingly difficult to develop only models of British equipment because many machines then in use on UK farms were imported. A policy change resulted in the release of five of the European tractors in the UK.

Twenty new implements appeared during the ’70s. These included a Lely hay
tedder, two different seed drills, a manure spreader, a forage harvester, a buck rake,a disc mower, a reversible plough, a post hole digger, a transplanter, a disc harrow, a Bomford chisel plough, rolls, and the first front-end loader, which had a bucket, a bale grab and pallet forks. The most significant model was the Massey Ferguson 760 combine.

The 1980s saw many further changes at Britains, with control passing from the family to Dobson Park Industries, which made the Petite toy range. The company name changed to Britains Petite Ltd. The Power Farm series, introduced in 1987, was the significant development of the decade. The Ford TW35 tractor had a battery hidden under the bonnet and the motor drove both the rear wheels and the pto (power transmission overdrive). A special feature was that without the battery it could still be used as any other Britains tractor. Two new implements, a Howard rotary spreader and a Vicon
fertilizer spreader, driven like real tractors by the pto shaft, were also introduced. In the following year a New Holland combine harvester, a Claas self-propelled forage harvester and power harrow were added.