The one that was hard to get !

Sometimes there is a toy that haunts you. A toy that follows you with a particular idea of it through the years but that you never seem to locate anymore. This is what happened when I was 8-9 years old and saw this Captain Harlock ship in a glass showcase inside a department store in Marseille. At the time my parents didn't get me this toy, and it took me about 30 years to find another one in new condition - and quite some cash also. Italian company Atlantic made the famous "little soldiers" boxes of both Captain Harlock and the bad ones, just like they did with Goldrake. Not so well known is the fact that they also made 2 playsets - one of the ship of the Space Pirate (pictured here) and one vacu-formed interplanetary base that came with the "little soldiers".

The catch ? Why soo long ? Well, because it is one of the worst quality toys ever made, which explains why very few survived complete. All is in the formula of the plastic Atlantic used at the time, which is brittle and breaks like glass. They wanted to have clear plastic parts but didn't know very well how to make the stuff. Also, being a "build it yourself" model of a toy (yes - there are wheels at the bottom and you were supposed to play with it) didn't help either, neither did the supports of the missile pods that were cracking due to stress right from starters. This is what explained the glass showcase at that department store for sure!

And since scarcity makes rarity... Voilá !

Alkadia - Atlantis, Atlantic, Italy, 1970's

Alkadia - Atlantis, Atlantic, Italy, 1970's

Alkadia - Atlantis, Atlantic, Italy, 1970's

Captain's quarters (detail)

Alkadia - Atlantis (detail of stern of hte ship with opening ladder at the back), Atlantic, Italy, 1970's