Superquick

Lore & Background

The Superquick range was launched in 1960 by Donovan Lloyd, born in 1914, trained as an artist and illustrator in the late 1930s, and died in 2009. The buildings are mostly modelled in the architectural vernacular of 1930s British suburbs and provinces; while likely prototypes of some models can be identified, there is no serious attempt to reproduce particular buildings, as providing full value from the materials was considered more important than exact detail. The industrial logic of print required volume production, meaning the models had to appeal to a wide audience rather than to specialist modellers.

Initially there were several formats and scales, including square packs and a 280 mm × 200 mm pack, as well as kits in British TT scale (1:100) and MR series for Scalextric slot-car track (1:32). The TT scale kits were the first to be discontinued, in the late 1970s, and are now highly prized by collectors. The range includes Series A (railway buildings), Series B (houses, farm and industrial buildings), Series C (low-relief houses and shops), and Series D (brick and stone textured paper).

Commercial policy was to supply kits directly to model shops and other retailers, keeping retail prices low. In January 2011 this changed to supply through dedicated model hobby distributors, and coinciding with a rise in VAT, retail prices increased noticeably but remained competitive. The firm PEMS Butler Ltd took over the range in 1992, extending it with additional railway, village and industrial buildings while adhering to the original design style and commercial policy. Ownership moved in June 2016 to Brickwall Works Ltd.

Reader's Guide

Superquick gained considerable fondness among modellers because from 1960 to 1995 the kits were the obvious choice for first buildings on a layout. Sales rocketed in the late 1960s, but leading modellers criticised the kits as a particular cliché, and the low-relief buildings were said to blight any layout on which they appeared. The rationalisation of the kits by Donovan Lloyd in the 1970s also drew criticism: original series included buildings found in many UK market towns, but the changes introduced much squarer, plainer buildings, and the loss of the old B28 Elizabethan Cottage (marketed in California as 'Anne Hathaway’s Cottage') was regretted. Kits issued after the 1992 change of ownership included buildings not suitable for the majority of branch-line model railways, yet sales of new kits like the Coaling Tower and Ash Plant proved better than at least one staple railway kit. The range gained exposure from the title sequence of the UK TV series 'Homes Under the Hammer', and a large quantity of Superquick buildings were built for episode 6 of James May's Toy Stories. A number of models were destroyed in a scene in the film 'The Life and Death of Peter Sellers', and the Railway Terminus Building appears at the start of the music video 'Einsteins a go go' by Landscapes.

Did You Know?

• The only kit discontinued and not replaced was C3 'Low Relief Modern Shops & Flat', which last appeared in the 1985 catalogue; Donovan Lloyd never admitted it, but others believed he terminated it for being too ugly.
• The old B28 Elizabethan Cottage was profitably marketed by a Californian retailer as 'Anne Hathaway’s Cottage'.
• Superquick kits appear in the title sequence of the UK TV series 'Homes Under the Hammer' across all 13 series.
• The TT scale kits, discontinued in the late 1970s, are now highly prized by collectors and fetch large sums when unmade kits become available.