Tanks for Everything

The earlier posts on Lunik and other italian toys showed a number of plastic tank toys and introduced the name of Telsalda to the mix. Besides being a keen space fan when I was a boy, i also loved a good tank. Especially those with rockets and missiles! As well as coming across the small Army 'Cricket' (or Hamilton Mosquito Jeep derivative) made by FK, I also had an unbranded MissileLaunching Desert Armoured Car (light brown) with twin missiles. The rods to hold the missiles have long since gone and only one missile remains now, but this and the launcher on the back of the Cricket are very similar to the 'tanks' featured in the earlier post, Also shown and exhibiting the Telsalda brand was the Missile Tank. I was lucky enough to own one of these as a boy, albeit with the slightly smaller missiles. The orange and yellow missiles also appear on the red rocket base in Apollo Moon Exploring sets and the longer red and white 'sidewinder' missiles shown on the earlier pic also crop up in similar space sets. Just to add to the mix ive included a similar Marx clockwork Saladin Armoured car, a Stomper Centurion Tank and a disc firing tank, which is tin and plastic and missing the barrel. This little clockwork beauty, again about 3.5 inches long, blasts out counter sized disks as it rolls about. and leads us neatly into the next article....