Now I'm back online here we have the first bloglet in the scoop tray....from our man WOTAN:
The first range of Spacex toys includes the distinctive, purple Base Patrol Cricket P1 - an armoured car with bubble canopy and cannon ( purple vehicle - middle picture). Second series Spacex revived the basic body as a quick addition to the line with the Apollo Tracker (and here). All of the initial run of the first vehicles are found to have been patented by Jack Rosenthal of JR21 toy fame as was discovered by Paul Vreede recently, apart from the Cricket, which does not appear to have been patented. The design of the 'car' first appears in the Remco Hamilton Invaders line in 1964, several years prior to the launch of Spacex, as the Mosquito Jeep (grey vehicle - top picture, also done as blue/red versions).
Remco used the same model for the Star Trek toy line (yellow 'astrocruiser' - top picture) and produced a white version for the Canadian market too (top). Mosquito and Cricket are obviously insectile references, so even overlooking the straight lift of the design, Tri-ang have blatantly plagiarised Remco. Several other army versions of the car have turned up by lesser manufacturers such as Codeg, featuring various styles of rocket launcher or cannon on the back ( four green vehicles above in pictures) and I have even found a modular, 'building block' style set with a red cricket and two other Spacex model bodies and an interchangeable motor base (middle picture).
One thing which always struck me about the cricket in all its variations was the similarity to Ed "Big Daddy" Roths 1963 Beatnik Bandit custom car. Harry Bradley adapted the basic real world design for the Mattel Hot Wheels Redline series and Ed Roth used a similar shape for his 'Orbitron' car and much later Bandit II (bottom pictures)
Might it be possible that there is a real design for a futuristic, atomic age, armoured car lying around somewhere ? Any gearheads care to comment ?
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