Remember GI Joe ?

For kids living in the 80ies/90ies, this toy-line was really all they wanted... Lots of vehicles, figurines and action !

S.A.W.-Viper, Hasbro, China, 1991

Laser-Viper, Hasbro, China, 1991

Free Fall, Hasbro, China, 1991

Dee-Jay, Hasbro, China, 1990

Capitaine Flam - Future or Futuro ?

Capitaine Flam mask, César, France, 1980's

Holy cow Batman ! They are building a wall !

El chico maravilla (Robin), ?, Mexico, ?

Flimsy blown plastic toy - 25 cm.

By the way, anybody knows how they translate "Holy Cow" in Spanish ?

Albator, Albator, la la la la la la....

Harlock mask, Takatoku ?, Japan, 1970's

Albator mask, César, France, 1978

Herlock mask, ?, Italy, 1970's

3 different countries, 3 different companies. Same mask. same pirate... Which one is your favorite ? 

Lightsaber with gun attached ? Ulysse (s) 31

I still find things I never knew existed, even of my favorite series. This lightsaber/laser pistol belongs to this category. Somebody said the lightsaber was a more elegant weapon for more elegant times... now attach a laser pistol in the handle and you are ready for the Gods of Olympus !

Ulysse 31 saber, A.G. Excominsa, Spain, 1982

Simple toy, water squirter thing, I guess to be sold in Spanish newspaper kiosks or beach stores, hanging from the ceiling with hooks or something similar ? Exists also with yellow handle/gun.

No marking on the toy, only on the card...

For scale, with a plastic Popy figurine

Shitajiki

Shitajiki's (or pencil boards in English) are a common method to advertise in the manga business. These B5-sized cardboard images became very collectible and these are some of Matsumoto's series I have in my collection:

The Aéro-Car from Mr. Francis Laur

Le rapide aérien, Maison Ch. Rollet, France, 1933

Just like the cars from Leyat 10 years earlier (see here), propeller-driven vehicles were still all the rage in France in the 1930'ies. This toy is a rendering of a proposition of Francis Laur to install a cable-car between "Porte de la Chapelle" and "Saint-Denis" in Paris. Why a cable car ? Because it had to cross 3 railway bridges at 7m height on a straight of 3300m. So it was designed to hover at 20m above street level.

Read all about it here.

The toy came with a cable and instruction leaflet.

The cabin is very light, all made out of aluminium. 

And the sticker says it would go all the way from Paris 

to NYC ! Big, big cable...

A rubber band for propulsion...The real thing would have had
a 40 hp engine, and a propeller that could be inverted
at each end of the line, to avoid expensive roundabouts... 

Newspaper rendering of the time...

In need of rolling stock ? The real system might have been "invented" a couple of years before, when Zeppelins were shot down above Paris.

World War One. Nacelle of the Zeppelin L49 captured in Bourbonne-les-Bains
(France) and displayed in the courtyard of the Invalides.
Paris (VIIth arrondissement). 1917. © Maurice-Louis Branger / Roger-Viollet
(Courtesy http://www.parisenimages.fr/)

The box has the stamp of Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville Paris... today better known as BHV

Scotland tried a similar system, with the George Bennie Railplane. Read more on it here. There was even a small test stretch build at Milngavie, near Glasgow.

The George Bennie Railplane

If Boba says it...

Who am I to argue... ? No, really, never argue with a Bounty Hunter.
Thanks Mr. Bulloch !

Little green spaceship with propellor

Spaceship, ? (origin : U.K.)

I still did not figure out exactly how these work, and the spring inside is quite impressive regarding to the flimsy plastic, so I'm not forcing anything...

Can someone help me on the mechanism behind these toys ?
 

with Portuguese counterpart ?

Joker's Lil Pumpkin...

Harley Quinn, DC COMICS; China, 2015

Everybody that has had some psycho girlfriend can relate...

Acrobunch - Pentabot robot

Acrobunch robot ST, Poplar (Clover), 1982, Japan

What do you get when you mix archeology with a giant robot ? Well... this. Called "L'Empire des Cinq" in France, it was quite a nice cartoon in the line of the popular Indiana Jones movies (remember, this was the 80'ies !). The plot ? the search for the lost city of Atlantis.

But they are not the only one trying to find it. So what best than a giant robot whose limbs can transform into motorcycles and race cars to combat the evil !

The whole cartoon was heavily sponsored by Poplar itself, in the wake of what the competion (=read BANDAI) was doing in Japan at the same time... What better advertisement than to make a cartoon of the stuff you have for sale ? Read mote about it here.

This is the smaller (ST) version of this robot - a larger DX version exists also.