Tri-ang Toys

In the early 20th Century, the Lines Bros Ltd Introduced Tri-ang toys to the world who, at its peak, claimed to be the largest toy maker in the world. The heydays for the company came post World War Two, where the manufacturing of toys redeemed itself once again.  

The company had many product lines; initially, in the early days it was wooden toys which they did managed to keep afloat throughout their later years of production - Doll Houses, Toy Forts, Noah’s Ark with wooden animals, along with a small range of wooden soldiers were among the popular wooden toys made. The company also had its 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 to produce 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 onto a plastic roadway and traversed their way around the track - Tri-ang were aiming for a toy that was as realistic to a car going around 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 now 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 their products; a range of trackside accessories such as a petrol station and a ferry enabled the players to build towns around the system, offering a more life-like experience.

In the late 1950’s Tri-ang had their own range of die-cast vehicles made known as Spot-On, which were produced from 1959-1967. Like Dinky and Corgi toys, Tri-ang wanted Spot-On toy models to be as true to life as possible. Spot-On models were well made and heavy. They had great attention to detail but were still 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, Tri-ang trains and railways or Tri-ang ships that you wish to get valued, please do not hesitate to contact us. We'd love to hear about your items!