The Arcadia is back (part 2) !

Arcadia (DX), Takatoku, Japan,
1970's

... and this is big brother. Not as slim as the ship below, it has a very nice feature: you can insert batteries in the base and the whole ship lights up (nose, canons, reactors). The electrical connection is made through a pin that goes into the belly of Harlock's vessel.

The Arcadia is back (part 1) !

Takara made 2 models of this ship, and Takatoku 2... this is the smaller one and the one more to size and to color of the original TV series. It has the very cool spring loaded knife feature in the nose. If I was a space pirate one day in need of a ship, that would be it.

Arcadia, Takatoku, Japan,
1970's

R2, did you eat the plans of the Death Star Again ?

R2D2 Candy Container, HASBRO, China,
2000's

... Then go and wash your teeth before going to bed, will you ? Robots can be fun to collect - but don't forget to eat all what's inside before putting them on display !

Keep Fit ! Exercize with Robocon !

... and down

Robocon, Bootleg ?,
Japan, 1970's

... and up !

When you feel you are blown - this is a little exercize. Better than weight watchers ! And very good for these abdominals !

Pez Heads from Gotham

Riddler, Joker, Batman and Two-face, PEZ, China (?)
2010's

Miauooowwww !

Hmmm. You scratch my back and I scratch yours, Mrs Selina Kyle ! As mischieveous as ever - but really cool looking for a bad guy - or is she ?

Catwoman (bank), WB stores, China,
1999

Selina Kyle with a smile....

Victory Gundam "Ver.Ka"

Mobile E.Suit LM312V04/06 Victory Gundam "Ver.Ka.", M/G kit,  Bandai,
Japan, 2009

This is the first M/G (master Grade) kit I built of the Gundam series. Pretty nice and I enjoyed putting it together. Did not go through with all the stickers though - I reckon I will need another 8 hours to get them all where they belong...

Clicker rifle.

Space clicker riftle - ? - England ? - 1960's (?)

This is one of the other "no markings" "no idea" toys I have. The helmet of the astronaut seems a lot like the Dan Dare designs (with extra grill-mesh on hte visor - meteroid protection ?). Nice litho, simple design "clicker toy".

Huki Stratoliner

(left) Huki Stratoliner (reproduction) Windup - Retrotoys Tinmen- India - 2010's
(right) Plastic Stratoliner - (?) - maybe Portugal or Germany - 1970's (?)

Sometimes toys appear from nowhere, and it gets really difficult to tell who made them, and when they were made. This is the case for this plastic version of the HUKI stratoliner toy. Another one of my FDL - finds here in Lisbon. (Feira da Ladra) The original HUKI toy is well known to collectors - on the left the reproduction of that toy. The plastic version is a close copy - except with very cool looking rivets. No markings. Anyone has x-tra info ? please contact me.

Nu-Age Smoke Ring gun

Smoke-Ring gun, NU-AGE, USA,

1950's

This is another one of the best space designs around - especially if you were a kid playing Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon in the 50ies. Principle is quite simple - put a special match in the barel (yes kids, do play with fire !) pull the trigger and a rubber membrane would make perfect smoke rings coming out of the nozzle of the gun.

Smoke-Ring gun (chamber open),
NU-AGE, USA,1950's

(Smoke Ring gun pellets - archive pic.)

With the age, the rubber membrane tends to fall to pieces (a problem also known to collectors of fountain pens ;)) Even so, this piece is timeless - and reflects the idea of the 50ies that space exploration would not  always be pacific... Happilly, a decade or so later, NASA decided that the real Apollo missions did not need to carry guns to the moon!

Irwin SpaceShip Express !

Spaceship Express, Irwin, USA,
1950's

A very strange design to go exploring the galaxy... But this spaceship has two big orange knobs... One to choose the planet of your liking (Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus) ... and the other one the propulsion mode (Atomic, Stratos or Atmos - with a STOP included if you need to stay still for a while).
This toy came in a number of different colors. I love the box !

Captain Future Comet - all plastic but what a toy !

Captain Future Comet ST, Popy, Japan,
1980

Captain Future Comet ST, Popy, Japan,
1980

There were 2 ships produced by POPY for the Captain Future series. This is the bigger one (strangely called ST - Standart ?) on the Japanese box. Countrary to its smaller counterpart, this one is made completely out of plastic. Different colour versions do exist (blackwings, for example) as well as a French box and a German box for the toy. It came with a little chrome "cosmolem" (or smaller spaceship) and grey articulated figurines of the crew. 

Comet ST (detail of the crew), Popy, Japan,
1980

Cockpit detail...

Black Hole - Disney

Black Hole figurines, Maia e Borges, Portugal,
1979

With the success of Star Wars, Sci-Fi films were reborn in the late 70ies. No wonder that even the biggest studios went back and developed the theme.

Disney was no exception, and even though it will never get close to the cultural phenomenon Star Wars was, it had some cool mecha design (=read robots and spaceships).

Paint-by-Numbers Shoguns !

 These 2 were bought in Hong Kong. - Gashapon (=free/candy/premium) - type of figurine, but articulated in a quite soft rubber material. I don't have much more information on them. They are completely white/grey - maybe test shots ? (test-shots are toys molded in one color to check for imperfections in the moulding process before going to paint)

Voltes V, Banpresto (?), China,
2010's

Great Mazinger, Banpresto (?), China,
2010's

The CEJI Harlock doll

Capitaine Albator, Ceji, Hong Kong,
1979

This is the original action doll made on an ACTION JOE body - the same as was used for the French GIJOES / ACTION MAN dolls. A friend - collector in Lisbon helped re-string the complete doll, because like lots of its counterparts the joints were made of rubbery plastic that desintegrate with time. Now he's all ready to go and save the galaxy one more time.

German flying car - Das fliegende Auto ! Straight from a Buck Rogers comic ...

Flying Car, Jumbo, US Zone Germany,
1940's

This toy came as a surprise to me last Saturday at my weekly hunt for "toyz extraordinaires"... Made in US-zone Germany by a company called JUMBO (yes - logotype IS an elephant). It has all the gimmicks and feel of Schuco toys of that period - but the really, really cool action is not so much the wind-up of the wheels... Nope ! It has the spring-mounted propellor and pop-out wings straight from a Pulp magazine of that period.

It is indeed a strange design - much more like the bath-tub US-produced Nash than like the VW Kaeffer (beetle). If anyone has more information about this toy please write me.

More of Tetsujin 28 - Gigantor !

The big pot-bellied robot has a certain "je-ne-sais-quoi" of industrial revolution and steam-punk origins. It is heavy, bulky ... and has rivets ! But don't mess with him !

Tetsujin 28, (candy container), China,
2010's

Tetsujin 28, wind-up, Takara, Taiwan,
1980's

BOTP by Jecsan - Spain

A little more chubby than the Popy / CIVAS figurines and without the joints... Very crude packaging (stapled bubble and carton-colored back !) The figurines came with a plastic "visor" - glued (this one fell of with time...)

Princess, Jecsan, Spain,
1970's

Princess (detail), Jecsan, Spain,
1970's