ToyPedia Trumps Traditional Publishing for Wells-Brimtoy Collector

Online, December 16, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Lindsay, proud owner of a large collection of the classic British brand's products, had collated a large amount of information on the history of the company's attractive Pocketoy range and had long intended to compile this into book form along with a definitive list of the products in the range." However, he rapidly saw the downsides to this project.

As part of Toy Collector, the leading social networking and ecommerce platform for model and toy collectors, ToyPedia is intended to include every toy and model ever made in its database. Its wiki base means that any and all members of the community can add information, and collaboration between members is quick and easy. And as information can be added over time, any work done is immediately accessible to interested collectors, without having to wait for the whole section to be finished.

"I'd have had to find a publisher who was interested, or publish it myself at considerable expense," said Lindsay, "otherwise it would never have reached the collectors it was aimed at."

There were also issues of time and getting help from other interested parties - Lindsay very much didn't want it to be a case of having to write a bit of the book here, a bit there and it taking years to get finished. And while he'd welcome some help with the project, there was the question of how to structure any collaboration. Then he discovered ToyPedia.

The site's unique layout, with pages specifically designed to balance text description with salient information panels for brands, individual models and variants and all-important images, make it an ideal way to present data of this kind, and with over 172,000 items listed, plenty of collectors and cataloguers certainly agree. Plus, as a website, it's far easier to change, add and amend data as needed. And there are no worries about printed material being lost or destroyed. Lastly Wells-Brimtoys Pocketoys range would be side by side with other prodjucts by the company including its huge range of pre-war toys and other post-war products like the Dancing Cinderella or Walking Penguin.

"ToyPedia provided the perfect solution for me," he says. "Wells-Brimtoy is a famous British brand with many collectors, but perhaps not enough to justify the costs of a print run for a book. With ToyPedia there are no costs, no worries about design or page layout, and of course if any information needs to be corrected it can be without having to worry about printing a whole new lot of books. It also preserves the data forever, making sure that an important part of history won't be lost."

Find the current status of the Wells-Brimtoy archive here on ToyPedia.

ToyPedia®

In addition to all this, the site features ToyPedia® - a Wikipedia-style online encyclopaedia of collectable toys which currently covers over 171,000 items and is growing constantly.

Currently, the project is supported by;

• 27 communities including www.DiecastAviationForum.com www.HobbyTalk.com, www.ModelRailForum, www.SlotForum.com and www.Wings900.com
• 670 volunteers
• 12 authors who have permitted the organisers to use text and images from 26 books as part of a ToyPedia Book Documentation Project
• 355 toy brands who have agreed to open their archives
• 15 leading auction houses including Bonham's and Christie's have allowed use of their images
• 3 Museums (Brussels Toy Museum, Singapore's MINT Museum and the Los Angeles Slot Car Museum)
• 32 members of the ToyPedia Advisory Board who advise on organisation and taxonomy

For more information please go to www.ToyCollector.com/ToyPedia or contact Louisa Cross, the ToyPedia Curator on [email protected] or +44 (1494) 727 947.