Wet and Dry

A while ago I blogged a rare toy in the form of the Eldon Touch Command Amphibian. A really unusual toy, in that the remote operation was controlled by air pressure. The hand control squeezed a pneumatic switch connected by hose to the toy, and allowed forward and reverse and steering. 

It struck me as having potential to be a viable SWORD vehicle, so I made up some fake decals for it!

At the time, I had only ever seen this toy and no other appearance in catalogues or on the web. Since then, it appears there's also a boat and submarine in the series.

Since then, I managed to win a second version of the Amphibian, this time in a reverse colour variation of red and blue - the first one having a blue upper hull. Looking at the box, there's a real similarity in style to Mattel toys, and Eldon actually shared Hawthorne, CA with Mattel as its base of operations. Eldon was never as successful as its neighbour, despite producing some very original toys including slot cars, kits and the very Matt Mason like Billy Blast Off line.

The box art features some very swordesque line and wash illustrations and the sleek bodywork and extra large tyres are very reminiscent of Hot Wheels cars too.

Just found an auction for Looeys Camaro too!