Toy Importers Co. (Timpo) was founded in 1945 by Sally Gawrylovitz and started by repackaging composite and aluminium figures manufactured by British companies Zang and Wend-Al. After World War II lead was in short supply and so Timpo released some small Timolene figures based on Elastolin. This idea was thought up by Brent Toy Co using the name Elastolene. Timpo's toys were the most successful of all the plastic toy soldiers' and figures' producers that emerged after World War II. Between 1946 and 1955 and with the assistance of Roy Selwyn Smith, it produced some of the best post-war hollow-cast toy soldiers. Timpo had a factory in Schotts, Lanarkshire. In the 1950s Timpo converted their existing moulds to fit plastic injection moulding machines. They also went on to adopt the Swoppet range - all pieces in a range, including individual pistols etc were removable and interchangeable, and so could be swapped with other figures. Timpo made sure their products were widely available from chain stores like Woolworths and independent high street shops. They were also cheaper than those produced by rival companies.
Norman Tooth was a remarkable Timpo designer, who continued to come up with new ideas, and in the late 1970s devised a remarkable machine that could convert, cut, paint and assemble a complete figure. This automatic process produced Timpo's last range in 1978, a series of Vikings, mounted and on foot, but unfortunately the company ceased production in 1979.