Thursday, January 17, 2013

l'Étoile Filante or the real flying Renault...

Follow the star !

What, a turbine engine ?

Are these guys really the same ones that made the 4L ?

Étoile Filante, Eligor, China, 2010's

Voltron knock-off

Aircraft Warrior, ?, China, 2010's
I just love Chinese stores. Where else can you get a Voltron robot for EUR 6.50 nowedays ? OK, it's all plastic, and will probably not withstand one transformation. But then, I usually use these blisters as wall-paper, so who cares ?

Monday, January 14, 2013

Got hosed ?

Robocon Robo Sho, Popy, Japan, 1970's

Here is another one of Robocon's weird friends, Robo Sho. Red as a firetruck and with the hoses to match. And yes, the bell with the heart on its head... nice touch, really !

You'd better having a pirate holding that belt !

Capitan Herlock (belt and buckle), ?, Italy, 1970's
Now, all I need is a pair of suspenders !

Saturday, January 12, 2013

one ex - two exes...



Any connection with Montaplex ?
These little plastic spaceships are possibly the tokens for some sort of boardgame... or something that came from a plastic set ? All I know is they are finned and bear the X-mark.

Plastic ships X-12, ?, possibly 1960's

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Is it the new Volga ? Nice wings...

OK, the driver has a "CCCP" on it's helmet and Leonid Bresjnev eyebrows... But be certain you can have your ride in any color of the rainbow as long as it is red ! The Party guarantees it ! Going to space is like driving in rush hour through Moscow. You dodge at anything you pass, inlcuding asteroids, satellites and other space debris. And the bodywork ? Going in style - really nothing to do with the funny convertibles NASA got on the moon, naaah.... 



 

Space Car, Knib (?), Russia, 1975

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

B-52 for space-travel ?


Take a Learjet cabin, V-shaped B-52 wings with 2 turrets at the end (sorry, "wing tip observation platforms") and voila ! Got yourself an Interplanetary Mystery Space Ship that defies gravity ! All for 49 cents! No - in fact you get 2 of them - and they are touted as unbreakable (well, I have heard that before - that's why I had to re-glue a reactor on the blue ship !).



They come with 2 anti-gravity poles (plastic sticks on a base) and due to the weights in the wing's turrets, they will magically teach kids about points of equilibrium and such...

So yes, "mysteriously" floating in a tip of a rope... Definitely a toy from before silicon chips ! High technology - yet highly simple.

Interplanetary Mystery Space Ships, Concordia, USA, 1950's

Monday, January 7, 2013

Matsumoto's WW2 planes...

In the gems of Matsumoto's mangas, there is a little OAV of 3 different stories called "The Cockpit" that just hits the point. Nothing to do with Harlock or any other space pirate, but with the harsh reality of WW2 (as seen obviously from a "Japanese" point of view). These little kits (read - hard to built for bulky fingers) are based on the serie... (even though the skull and crossbones and "Death Herlock" is seen on one of the Me262a - strange !)


Fw190D-9

Mitsubishi A6M5 model 52


Mitsubishi A6M5 model 52 (roll-out)

P-51B
Me262 A
Me262 A

Nakajima KI-43 (?) (training version)
Nakajima KI-43 (?)


Box-Art - is it Herlock ?
Dust-jacket for OAV

Más astronautas caminando sobre la luna ?


They look like spaceman with masks of plague doctors - snouts going to their back-pack and ray-guns to blast the infected ! Oh yes, if the desease hits planet Mars, E.T. will be toast ! They are spanish of origin, and quite unique in toy design ! 







Yes ! we're flat !


Spacemen, MONTAPLEX (or PIPERO ?), Spain, 1960's -70's (?)

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Huki Firebird



Firebird space plane 10-4, HUKI, Germany, 1950's

Well, another HUKI plane showed up in Portugal, with US-markings on the wing and guns popping out from the air intake "vents" above the cockpit. Same shape as the Stratoliner 10-3 seen here on Alphadrome, but different design. Size is bigger than the repro toy from India I already have... (see original post).



Saturday, January 5, 2013

Early Batmobile ? The Heinz Phantom Corsair - 1938

Phantom Corsair, Hotwheels, Malaysia, 1998 

Sometimes a car is so ahead of its time it really deserves to be treated as a gem. The Phantom Corsair was one of these. It is a Concept Car from 1938. It is a six-passenger Coupe that was designed by Rust Heinz, the heir to the relish and ketchup fortune who died in a car accident at 25. Clearly the dream of a young man, the audacious car was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, among the boldest cars of its era and a big draw at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. Read more here : http://blog.hemmings.com/

The real car - archive pics
Phantom Corsair, Harrah collection, Reno, Nevada


Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Negative - Positive (I'm seeing double !)



Need for speed ? These babies will get you from naught to sixty faster than a Veyron. The springs in that toy could be used to destroy humanity if placed in the wrong hands.

This is maybe why the drivers are in fact army men molded in white... just to guard this toy of mass destruction. 

Race cars (with launcher above), Thomas Mfg. Corp,
USA, 1950's