Dulcop Company History and Timeline is look at this Italian company. Erwin Sell working from books, sites and blogs has gather some interesting information. In a future article Erwin will look at figures that were not reissued by Dulcop.
Dulcop Company History and Timeline Early Years
Dulcop was founded in 1938 by two families. They view it as a low budget toy maker. The toys were either fabric,tin or woods.
In 1957/1959 one family(Melotti) purchase the company from the other family. The Melotti acquired assets of the company and name.
1966 First mold machinery for plastic production were purchased
1967 First line of plastic toy figures/soldiers was started
1969 Dulcop created its first line of soap bubbles products.
1970s is the main production of all toy figures (52-60 mm scale ). Early figures were painted. Later figures were sold unpainted.
1976 Dulcop introduces the Playmobil( style articulated multi pieces figures line call Super Charly. These figure were done to compete with other European companies. The idea was to give Italy an indigenous toy line for this type of toy.
Dulcop Company History and Timeline 1980’s
1980 Dulcop started making household-kitchen plastic accessories production line. They entering this non toy market with competitors.
1986 Dulcop cease producing toy soldiers line figures. That line had been reduced since 1980 with the introduction of SUPER CHARLY line.
1987/89 Dulcop sales manager Alessandro Belinden enters in negotiation with liquidators to purchase all remnant produced overstock of toy soldiers line.
Admin note: It is around the 1980s that Plastic Warrior and later others would purchased the Dulcop figures. This would be the first time most collectors outside of Italy became aware of these figures.
1998 Dulcop introduce the Babbol characters.
1999 Dulcop cease producing the Super Charly line. They sell the mold and machinery to Argentina buyer.
2001 Dulcop initiate the massive Bubble toy production line
From 2001 till now Dulcop dominate Italian soap and bubble soap related products market. They are one of main exporters to South America .
Dulcop still uses same main factories that they set up in 1959.
Here are two links with general information
The first time I found Dulcop figures was in a store in Mombasa Kenya in the 80’s.They were WW2 Germans and when I saw the figures with the STG44 I about died,had never seen WW2 Germans before with it.Bought 6 bags,didn’t buy more as I would have had to carry them around with me.
Brian interesting place u found it, but it corroborate an interesting fact about Italian market. In one of books I have it show several African buyers in a meeting with Dulcop and Nardi representative at what looks like a fair.
So apparently they did good market there.
best…
Yes 8 poses, 4 were good and 4 were lame rip-offs of Airfix.
Ahoythere, I have the same fire wagaon ownly from a different company. The horses are really cartoonish,along with the two firemen. The also made a cannon small 12 pder and casion. I,ll send My good friend ted B some photos to post.
It sounds like you might have the Timpo fire wagon. We will have to see when you sent the photos.
Lester
Actually ,you may have the same exact Carriage(Dulcop) with playmobil type figures and horses. Those are the DULCOP 80s series (SUPER CHARLY )
as I describe above in history .
DULCOP made that series to compete with PLAYMOBIL and AIRGAM and used the same toy soldier era accessories such western carriages ,houses even fort ,just adding new type figures x kids to play.
Here is an ebay sample of DULCOP stagecoach with the figures under (SUPERC CHARLY) series
http://www.ebay.com/itm/311625592561?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Here is one of the two forts made by Dulcop.
Notice how they use the original western wagon with new toy style horses and figures. Fort and accessories are from old western sets.
I made a resume history of SUPERCHARLY and those brands w compere links too for admin in case need to be used..
here is the fort.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/172041537171?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
there several HK and European fire carriage as well. I have few of then, one looks by description as the one Lester indicate.
I had list others in my eBay resently,one sold out(From Spain) and other still listed but small scale…
Will love see the picture of those as well.
best..
It was in 1988 that I imported the Dulcop figures into England for Plastic Warrior, I recall the date as I had just bought my house and had no furniture to put in it, which was as well because when the Dulcop shipment arrived the crates filled an entire floor (English houses are much smaller than American ones). Paul Morehead dealt with the actual negotiations but I’m fairly certain he was dealing direct with Dulcop not the liquidators (I still have the paperwork somewhere), and they had stopped manufacturing figures by then as you mention above.
They wanted us to take the Super Charly figures but when we only wanted the toy soldiers they slapped a minimum order of 150,000 pieces on us, it took us about 10 years to get rid of them all. After that several other dealers from the U.S. contacted them to buy figures and the rest, as they say, is history.
Best wishes, Brian
Thanks for the date when PW got the figures. I asked Paul Morehead and he did not remember. I had forgot when You got them and I purchased them from you.
I remember when I first encountered the Dulcop figures in the 1980s. It was at OTSN, and Rick Bracamontes of “Company B” had them. I recognized they were not the absolute best plastic figures out there, but thought they were pretty exciting nevertheless, with nice subject lines and bright, vibrant colors.
Later, I acquired quite a few Dulcop sets from James Delson, who also carried them, usually selling groups of 20 figures for around $25.00.