Portuguese icecream aliens...

Monocromáticos espaço, Rajá, Portugal, 1970's 

Before Mc D's Happy Meal toys, lots of other companies experimented with prizes in their foodline... Portuguese ice cream brand Rajá made a number of monocromatic figurines from different series (Asterix, Hana Barbara,...). Their line of aliens and spacemen/women was quite impressive and funky. A big spaceship exists to house these figurines, and is very difficult to find.

OK, it's.... it's...

Beneath the mask... a lifeless
plastic face

The shield is pure Kabuki art...

It's a robot with a skull mask swiveling on top of an eighties Pontiac type of car with, I kid you not, a dead horse's head on the bonnet / hood.

Oh yes, it has an axe too... and a name : URO KNIGHT CAR

Uro ? hmmmm... how wrong can you get the naming of a toy... This one is for the top 10 list of very weird and deviant toys.

Uro Knight Car, Dentendo, Taiwan, 1980's

Black rubber... Bat rubber

Batman, ?, ?, ?...

Well, at least you know his name is Bruce. As for the rest (maker's name, country of origin, date of birth) this figurine is a mystery...

More bootlegged Gundams ! You have to love these Chinese...

Turn "A" Gundam, ?, China, 2000's

Nice colour scheme. Batteries light up a little red light on the chest - tinny weenie little laser, if you ask me.

Gundam (Wing ?), ?, China , 2000's

This one is like I like... all gold and silver shinny flashy brittle plastic. FDL find...

Mini Shogun - Robo Kress / Blocker 1

From the Macine Blaster series come this beauty... Over 12 inches high of pure plastic joy. Shooting fists, missile launcher hidden in the belt...hatchet...

Guerrier de l'Espace, TovToy, Hong Kong, 1970's

Tekkaman

Tekkaman, Nakajima, Japan, 1970's

Another unknown serie here in Europe, even though some episodes aired in the USA in 1984. This anime was produced by Tatsunoko productions - the same studio that produced the ever so popular Gatchaman cartoons...

Action Force

Watt / Security Trooper - seems more like a dude in a HAZ-MAT suit...

After the success of the Star Wars line of action figurines, lots of other companies started to use 3.75" figurines for their toy-lines. The same happened with UK based Palitoy, who needed to find urgently a cheaper line of toys to replace their Action Man (GI Joe) 12" figurine lineup. Hence the Action Force line of toys. The designs were military (Ex. SAS figurines) and Sci-Fy, like in this case. The first figurines were built without any joints at elbows or knees, just like the original Star Wars toys. Later on, they would modify the design and merge the AF line with the ever so popular smaller GI Joe action figures.

Sattelite Defense, Palitoy, HK, 1980's

Hey ! I got cannons !

Space Engineer, Palitoy, HK, 1980's

Space Force Space Pilot, Palitoy, HK, 1980's

Plastic mayhem... hmmm maydayhem

Flashray Audio Signal Gun, Arliss, USA,
1950's

"Shots Signal Ray" - "Sends Audio Code" -"Accurate Directional Compass" - "Can't loose Lanyard"

... and of course the official Morse code on the back of the packaging ! Because let's face it... The compass is not going to do you any good on any planet without magnetic poles...

More Sith Shower gel, please !

Nothing better than a Sith to clean a Padawan...

Vader bottle, Grosvenor, China, 2005

... before it became a kitchen appliance

X-3 Magnetron, Corgi, Gt.Britain, 1970's

X-2 Lasertron, Corgi, Gt.Britain, 1970's

When the space toys started gaining in popularity again at the end of the 70ies, both Matchbox and Corgi toys started with a serie of futuristic-looking vehicles. There were 2 others in Corgi's "The Explorers" serie: a green swampboat type of thing called X4 Scanotron and a blue X1 Rocketron. None of these were based on real vehicles or TV shows but they were way cool nevertheless !