Small Objects of Desire

Oddly enough, even though i've found myself in the field of design, im not a fan of advertising. I'm not the kind of person who enjoys the current trend of social networking with Myface and Spacebook etc, telling all and sundry what ive had for breakfast and allowing complete strangers to take a good, long and revealing look inside my head. I prefer the more subtle approach, offering tantalising glimpses into my likes and dislikes by means of smaller indicators such as style and form. Something ive always appreciated as a cool method of communication is a badge.

Alongside most of my favourite toys from the sixties, there was always a badge or a trinket or ID card to be had - Hot Wheels had the fab tin badges that would never stay on, Action Man had his little plastic dog tag, Wayfarer Shoes had the compass and SWORD and Spacex had the badge.

Often lost or discarded in play, the badges from SWORD toys and to a much lesser extent in Spacex, were a brilliant means to proudly display to the world, what you were in to at that time. A kind of semiotic code that other kids could see and covet. The Captain Scarlet Spectrum insignia is another beautifully classic design, but I never really took to the International Rescue or WIN badges.

ZERO X Insignia and Fanderson Repro SWORD

Fanderson have done a stunning job on recreating the SWORD badge, I hope that they might b convinced to make the others in the series at some point. Its actually better than the original badge and a lot more durable!

SPACEX Commander and SWORD series

Over the years ive had a number of different badges on the go, one of my lasting favourites has always been the Communist Red Star. Not that I have any socio-political affiliations at all, but purely from a design aesthetic - James Bond films always had the bad russian vehicles clearly labelled with big red stars and bold cyrillic letters and I always found the Airfix kits of MiGs and the Vostok that much more exciting than the Saturn V and everyday Starfighters and Phantoms. Ebay is always a great place to look for badges and the collapse of the Soviet Union meant that tons of previously unseen space ephemera began to appear for sale online. I found this fab little commemorative Lunokhod badge for about a quid.

Besides space badges, I used to collect comics and at the height of the comic boom in the nineties, a lot of merchandise was created to support major titles. Among them, First Comics made a nice selection of pin badges and I picked up a Rocketeer and American Flagg, two of my (then) faves.

Delving into the past and into dusty boxes of stuff is always a risk for me as it becomes a journey into that far off world of nostalgia.Pulling out these badges was no exception. In an old tin filled with fossils, dead watches, cutthroat razors and keyrings, I came across another keeper from a forgotten time - Corgi Rockets. Now the link to badges and space is tenuous here - so bear with me, but these little golden keys came with the british attempt at breaking Mattels stranglehold on the die cast car market. Corgi Rockets were a late addition to the 'fast car' range after Hot Wheels and Matchbox Superfast and had a gimmick of a detachable chassis. The plastic chassis was removable either by main force if you were impatient like me, or by fiddling about with a gold key to release it. When the chassis came off, you were apparently supposed to be able to 'tune up' the wheels and axles by means of a special lubricating pen (which I never found to this day in shops) and then replace for faster racing. Generally, the keys were just another addition to the loot I carried in my pockets to school along with crater critters, thunderbirds gum cards and rubber monsters. But essentially, they are a nice little piece of silly toy history that ive kept since back in the day.

And finally, just when you thought i couldnt get further off topic, I found this:

This represents a major turning point (excuse the awful pun there) in my childhood collecting obsessions. Previously, when id been happily pulling crackers at xmas, all i usually found were cowboys, dice and jumping frogs with the odd fortune telling fish thrown in for good measure. At some point in the late sixties however, I snapped a cracker and out popped a green version of the tiny red spinning top we see here. Its about the size of a penny, and is so tiny that its difficult to grasp the stem to spin it. When you do, its so perfectly balanced, it spins for ages. At the time I was a big fan of Mattel Wizzzzzers and loved a good spinning top, so the little green one was in good hands. What really baked my noodle at the time though was the similarity in its shape to the main craft from Roberta Leighs Space Patrol series! Since then, ive always looked forward to pulling crackers and xmas dinner invariably ends up in a fight with me and the kids for the best novelties!