Tilt, open gate and other extra bonuses...

"Orbit" Pinball, Gotlieb, USA,

1971

I was born in 1971, and so did this electro-mechanical pinball machine. ("flipperkast")  It went with me to Brussels (had to climb to the 5th floor of my student room with that thing !) and Rotterdam and is now resting at my parent's place. Quite fun to play, and with real time xylophone inside ! (quite noisy too !)
Space motives (of course) and bonuses to go wild !

Well, for 1970 standards... Little fact : all wires are still the old type (yes ! fabric !)

E.L.L.I.O.T.T.

ET, bootleg and LJN figurine,
USA, 1982

Who did not cry when Spielberg came out with his fantastic movie in 1982 ? E.T. became a household name for the worl over and started a real E.T. mania. There were stickers, plush toys, glow in the dark fingers for halloween... No kid could live without him, at least not until the next box-office success !  

ET action figure (with communicator)
LJN, USA, 1982

ET (fast food toy), China,
1994

Talking ET, LJN, USA

1982

Portuguese Spaceman

Astronauta, ?, Portugal,
1950's

I don't know which planet he comes from, or if he's human or humanoid... All I know is he's as rare as rare can be and he is armed with both a ray gun and a ray rifle. Articulated at shoulder level. Transparent helmet with metal antena. There is one at the toy museum in Sintra. There is one over here. Are there other colours ? Who knows... Finding already one intact with both little guns is a miracle !

X-300, but the English one...

A lot of toy companies swapped molds and parts around the globe. It is not unseen to have robots that were produced first in Japan, then Hong Kong, then Taiwan... just to find them some years later with the "made in China" label. This swapping of molds went on also in the USA. In this case the Pyro company sent their molds to England and Australia, where similar (but very often more colorfull versions) of the same toys were made under the Kleeware, Tudor Rose or Moldex brand. This X-300 spaceship has the "made in England" stamp - but weirdly enough is missing the astronaut on the seat and any type of indication that there was an astonaut in the first place (read "no opening for any peg in the seat")

X-300 Spacecruiser, Kleeware or Tudor Rose, U.K.,
1950's

llamando a la luna, por favor, responda

Teléfonos interplanetarios, Industrias Geyper, Spain,
1950's

Who needs the new Nokia when you have these ultraweight, futuristic(ly) designed walkie-talkies to speak to one another ? And with the cord system, no interferences ! Check the box-art and the Spanish description of all the functions... and tell my why oh why they included a "micro vibrador" on that toy ! Do you really need that in space ?

Get Superclean !

Feeling dirty after saving the world ? Don't forget your best superfriend to get you that great superhero look ! Clark Kent's favorite... and my all time bubble bath brand !

Superman Bubble Bath, Avon, USA.
1978

Cape (detail)

Flash Gordon

Flash Gordon, figurines and spaceship, Premier Products, USA,
1952

Pioneers of Sci-Fi TV shows in the 50ies (after having already a very big audience through the comics of the newspapers in the 30ies and 40ies), Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers were the best known space heroes of all.

It is no wonder they remained at the top when TV stations began battling for audience rates.

Lots of products were made of both heroes. Here a set of Flash Gordon spacemen and Rocket from Premier Products in New York.

Fusée de l'Espace - Made in France

Fusée FI54 - SFA Paris, France
1950's

Fusée FI54 (detail) and Brittains Space creatures, SFA Paris, France + U.K.,
1950's + 1961

Not only Japan became master in the art of tin toys - some nice examples of rockets and other spaceships came from Arnold (Germany), EGE (Spain) or even France, like this rocket from SAF Paris.

En avant pour l'infini !!! To infinity and beyond !!!

A space saucer exists from the same maker.

Rockets

Rocket with astronaut and camera, La Parisienne, Hong Kong,
(made for Joseph Markovits Inc.) 1960's

With the "real" space age, Sci-Fi spaceships began taking more and more the shape of the real deal... It could be from the Gemini, Mercury or Apollo Missions, but the toys made in that timeframe did indeed look a lot more like rockets, astronauts had updates spacesuits and helmets... The whole romantic side of the toys was put aside for science.

Take as example the astronaut above and the "astronauts" below...

Spacemen and woman (inlay puzzle - detail), Rip Foster,
USA, 1953

Paper Spacemen (Iberic Peninsula)

 

Soldados do Espaço, ?, Portugal
1950-60's

Comandos del Espacio, Recortables Bruguera, Espada, Spain,
1960

Portugal and Spain had a lot of things in common, and on the political front both countries were dictatorial states where Franco from the Spanish side and Salazar from the Portuguese side ruled their people in quite a nationalistic way. They were also (and especially in the 50's) both very poor countries, where the cheapest of toys was all that most of the population could afford.

From the nationalistic side of the coin are of course the toy soldiers (There were quite a lot of Germany made Elastolin products distributed here before and after the war - without speaking af course of the "soldadinhos de Porto": lead casted soldiers from different historical timeframes). The poorer part of the population had to do with paper cut-outs, to be glued on pieces of cardboard. Most of these "soldier sheets" I could find are actual military soldiers, tanks, airplanes etc. But the 2 sheets above form the exception: space men ! In the group are quite a lot of blonde specimens... (hmmm, Portuguese are not very blond...) and uniforms that look more like a Gestapo themed Buck Rogers than anything else I have seen (wait, rubber horse riding boots to go to space ?) But hey, on hte plus side, we do have helmets, oxygen tanks and rayguns !

Christmas present

Jogo do foguetão, NeS, Portugal,
50's? 60's?

Got this bagatelle game for X-mas... very nice space design of the man from Mars (Marte in Portuguese...) The funny thing is, the same game existed in English also... check : http://danefield.com/alpha/forums/topic/11748-space-bagatelle-games-selcol-bell-and-marx-uk/

Who is your favorite Bounty Hunter ?

 When Star Wars came around, the new archetype of the bad guy went to Vader. But in his second movie, Lucas introduced us to another evil character - cold nerved and cool looking - meet Boba !

Boba Fett, Kenner USA
1978

Pink Rolls Royce

FAB 1 (Imai, Matchbox, Imai, JR21), Japan, China and HK

You have to admit... there is no car that drives like a Rolls... especially when it is a Rolls with 6 wheels, machineguns in the grille and all the other gadgets of a secret agent. Mr. Bond be carefull, lady P is in the House.

And just like she says during pursuits and other shootouts in Thunderbirds: "Oh Parker, I just hope they don't scratch the paint !"

Batmissile Batmobile - where is Pfeifer ?

Batmissile Batmobile, Kenner, Mexico, 1992

When Tim Burton directed this new movie with Michael Keaton in 1989, he said the following: "I will return if the sequel offers something new and exciting," "Otherwise it's a most-dumbfounded idea."


With the help of Bob Kane, amongst others he turned the movie much darker than the first one.


Michelle Pfeifer in her Catwoman outfit became instant icons for all of us geeks out there, and Dani de Vito played a very obscure role as the Penguin.

The Batmobile remained the same as the one designed for the first movie, but it had one big new feature: it could drop both wings of to turn itself into the Batmissile, and like this escape all the bad guys. Kenner toys of Cincinati made a very good (and huge) toy of this vehicle, with wings popping out at the touch of a button.

Catwoman, Applause, Philippines,
1992

Tom Corbet Space Cadet

It is 1955... and kids are in front of the tube to watch Tom Corbet. It's in black and white but who cares, so is the universe ! As soon as the show began to have success on American) TV, tons of SPACE CADET items arrived on the market: rayguns, puzzles etc. This pair of dolls also cashed in on the show (and the show cashed in on a lot of sponsoring, like Kellogs Cornflakes etc.) Note the original boots on Dr Joan Dale. All of these dolls had a sleeping-eye mechanism, and clothes stapled on them (hello toy safety !)

Tom Corbet and Dr. Joan Dale, Marcie Co,
USA, 1950's

Dr. Joan Dale, Marcie Co,
USA, 1950's

Tom Corbet, Marcie Co, USA, 1950's

Tom Corbet (detail), Marcie Co,
USA, 1950's

YOU WILL OBBEY ! EXTERMINATE ! EXTERMINATE !

Where's the Doctor when you need him ? Which Doctor ? Doctor Who.

Another classic Brittish icon, the DALEK is to Sci-Fi fans much more than a washing-machine type of robot... it is pure evil incarnated into a torture device ! (and don't ask me what these plumber type arms are supposed to do...)

(to the right:) DALEK, Product Enterprise Ltd., China
2004

Talking DALEK, Tomy, Hong Kong,
1970's

Behold the Santa Fe F7 warbonnet !

F7 GM Diesellock, Marklin, Germany,
1990's

One of my favorite locomotives, the "SANTA FE" has all the power it need to transport mile long trains from Vegas to L.A. or Frisco.

A classic from Marklin (has been in the catalogue for years) - comes with a central unit (no driving cabin) and a third unit that is not powered (not pictured). Classic 1950's streamlined "warbonnet" logo. Why don't they paint locs like this anymore ?

"V" - the Visitors

I know, I know... there has been a remake of this one. But the original series of rat-eating aliens and resistance has always been one of my favorites... and come on, Micheal Ironside played a good "bad" guy in the series...

"V" figurines and original header card, maker unknown, Spain,
1980's

Not a lot of toys were made of this series, even though in the show itself we see kids play with the "action" figures that later on would capture humans for food...
Yummy !

Captain Harlock vinyl set

Captain Harlock Set, Takatoku, Japan,
1970's

 In Japan, very popular TV shows got easily their toyline in the 70ies. Usually, there were diecast and expensive toys, but also very often cheaper toys that kids could buy with their pocket money. Since they were considered "cheap", paps and moms threw these away very quickly, so few survive. Even less in their original packaging. This set is made out of vinyl (like the Godzillas of that time and tons of other toys and robots). The figurines are crude, their look naive. But again, that's what makes them so charming for me.