This beautiful and ultra rare piece of Century 21 is the Sam Loovers Saloon from Joe 90. Only 7 inches long it packs a big punch [it sold on Ebay for £1620 in 2009 - was that a Century 21 plastic toy vehicle record I wonder?] I never had this particular toy as an anklebiter but it would have looked great with SWORD. If you check the last picture you'll see the JR21 diamond logo. Pictures from 2009 are posted with kind permission from the Ebay seller, Toy Cellar. Wonder why C21 never made a toy version of Strakers car?
it is a lovely design. Oh, for a drive in a real one of these, eh?
ReplyDeleteYes, lovely design.
ReplyDeleteI always wanted the Joe 90 flying car but never got it...not sure why as I had most of the stuff in the day...the Captain Scarlet cars, the UFO Mobile and Interceptor, Thunderbirs etc.
I did have a "Lunar Bug" though, similar leg/wheel arrangenent and similar looking retros/jets. I still have it I think.
Anyone remember the "Lunar Bugs"? I loved mine. thinkhttp://www.collectorsworld.net/scifi/lunarbug.htm
(laughs) ... I do like your new avatar! Very apt.
ReplyDeleteI remember the Corgi Lunar Bug! But how could I never have noticed the similarity with Joe's Car? It seems so obvious now that you've pointed it out.
ReplyDelete"Wonder why C21 never made a toy version of Strakers car?" It's an attractive car, but in fairness, it may not have offered much child play appeal: "Vroom vroom! I'm Ed Straker, driving to my divorce hearing! Then I'll brood over my tragic estrangement from my son while chain smoking!"
Hee hee ... very good, Richard. That made me laugh. I never looked at his car quite that way before.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe you're right. But, I do wonder ... Won't a child be looking at the car quite (ahem) divorced from its owner and be thinking more like "wow, this car looks so awesome ... I want to drive one"?
If you think about many of the old Corgi and Dinky ranges, a lot were "dad taking gran to the hairdressers", or "let's drive to the office". Yet they sold pretty well. And from what I remember of boys I knew, those gran-mobiles took part in adventures far beyond anything real ones ever saw on the road.
So, I dunno ... I reckon if a car looks cool, a child isn't really going to care much about the screen-owner ... just what it looks like.
But I admit this is guesswork. What do others think?
And anyway ... isn't Sam Loover's car, "Vroom Vroom. I'm Sam Loover, off to send a nine-year-old-boy on a suicide mission in Red China"? LOL