Roy Selwyn-Smith

Roy Selwyn-Smith born 22 September 1923 in Walton-on-Thames died of cancer 16 June 2006 was well known as a sculptor of English plastic figures and toy soldiers.

Following World War II service as a Merchant Navy radio operator in the North Atlantic, Selwyn-Smith joined Myer Zang's Modern Packages where he learned sculpting and plastic moulding from 1947-1949. Hethen joined Willmore & Sons that made moulds for lead hollow cast figures for Timpo. Selwyn-Smith used his wife Mary as a model for a figure of a woman leaning against her suitcase.

In 1951 Selwyn-Smith formed Selwyn until his backer committed suicide and the moulds were sold to W. Britain.

Returning to Zang, he developed the Herald Miniatures plastic figures with Zang that Britain's distributed from 1954 until the firm was purchased by Britain's in 1959. [Cole, Peter Obituary "The Guardian", 5 August 2006] Selwyn-Smith also developed Britain's Swoppets where figures could be assembled and combined with pieces of different coloured plastic to form a variety of poses that was patented in 1956. [ [http://www.wikipatents.com/gb/812707.html Improvements in or relating to model figures - Patent Review GB19560014389 19560509 ] ]

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