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 !

Sticker Head

Super Robot, ?, France ? Hong Kong ? 1970's ?

Getter 1's long lost cousin, this one was left at birth because he was too ugly.

Maybe a beach toy, or one of these robots you could win at the county fair. The right arm sticker has something of Grandizer... No shooting anything, just kind of hollow and fragile. A wonder he survived.

Pimp my Ride - Tatooine

Ok, now I want a twin carburator, exhaust flames painted on the reactors, and... a blast of a sound instalation to hear Max Rebo's cantina band...

Oh well, Luke is a teenager, isn't he ?

Landspeeder, General-Mills / Kenner, USA, 1978

Pneumatic and Sound -controlled ?

L'Atlantis, Joustra, France, 1979

The cannons can launch plastic discs !

These are the big plastic ships that were available in France (see A2 logo - second channel) when the Captain Harlock ("Albator 1978") cartoons first aired. Since Takara has made these for the Japanese market, I guess they sent molds to France to get them made and packaged there, or maybe it was just a "sticker and box"-swap... The Arcadia had a sound controlled mechanism with a clicker that made the ship run in circles and shoot the discs.

The Cosmowing ("Aviscoupe" in French) had no batteries whatsoever, but used a clever system (but not very strong) of air to launch the bullet car and the missiles. The back tower of the ship served as pump.

Cosmowing and Bullet Car 

... with missiles

Ready to pump ? Aviscoupe, Joustra, France, 1979

Goodrock "Il Difensore del Pianeta"

Lots of cool toy-designs appeared in Italy to cash in on the Mazinga and Goldrake - craze. A number o unusual robots came to light. This one was produced in HK especially for an italian company, Il Giocattolo S.P.A., and was part of "Guerra Nella Galassia" series.

Goodrock, Il Giocattolo, Hong Kong,
1970's

Ah, toy-funk at its best !
Where is the disco ball ?

Vive la Françe !

Asterix and Obelix, Kinder Surprise, China, 2010's

Now you know where I am for the holidays ! Good cheese and wine, lots of sun... and even more of these irreductibles Gaulois !

Walk like an Egyptian...

  

This guy came from a serie from Toei Animation that aired between 1967 and 1968 based on a manga created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama.

Giant Robot, Rocket Pro ?, China, 1990's

Hey you ! Gimme your money. We need to buy growth hormones !

Giant Robot, Banpresto, China, 2000's

SD (=Super Deformed) robots sure look cool, but these ones have a slot, collect money and say something through a voice chip when you feed them with coins. Don't trust the banks ? Give your funds to Personal banker Raideen, Account manager Daitarn or just plain Stock broker Getter.  You'll be sure to... Gett your money back with a punch (line) ... Oh well ...

Raideen, Banpresto, China, 2000's

Daitarn 3, Banpresto, China, 2000's

Getter 1, Banpresto, China, 2000's

Gatchaman

Gatchaman set, Unifive, China, 2001

Ready to battle SPECTRA ? Quick, let's get to the Phoenix and save the world....

Attention Getter

Getter Robot 1 SD, Banpresto,
1999 China

Hatchets ? Moi ? What hatchets ?

Sunkist

SF-805 robot, ? China, 1980's -90's?

Cheap plastic battery operated toy. Archeological site : Feira da Ladra Lisboa.

Ulysse 31 and son

The Classics !
Metal and platic with removeable helmets...
and pistol + pistol/sword

Ulysse + Telemaque, Popy, Singapore, 1980's