The Triang Zone: Moving with the Times

In the first post we saw Triang toys begin to expand from simple dolls and prams into areas such as Minic vehicles and other wider appeal toys. As the company entered the 1960's, the zeitgeist once more saw the shadows of war and conflict appearing in the global culture as well as the nascent space race capturing the publics attention. The first man in space had briefly orbited the Earth and the race to reach the Moon had begun. Toys naturally reflected the cultural trends of the day and jet planes, tanks and rockets began to appear in abundance in the Boys toy sections of stores. The threat of cold war meant that missiles and rockets appeared as toys and models, Americas involvement in Vietnam highlighting their profile considerably.

The 1961 Triang catalogue had the usual fare of dolls, prams and the full range of Minic models, but was now joined by FROG model kits of Nike Hercules ground to air missiles and the ONTOS vehicle with six recoilless rifle missile launchers strapped to its armoured sides. The Minic range which had formerly included the WWII Sherman tank opted for a more up to date version of the classic machine - the Rocket Firing Tank. Ostensibly a Sherman with a new turret, the futuristic looking monster also featured a newer logo which had crept in towards the end of the run of the older Sherman, a mushroom cloud overlaid with an ominous red lightning bolt.

The Tank itself was essentially, the Sherman chassis - the original mold had been retooled slightly to add a large panel just behind the turret and some work on the upper surface to admit the bigger steel dome. The turret sported four metal barrels and an integral mechanism to elevate them. The missiles themselves were more like harpoons as the majority of the body of the missile had to reach deep inside the turret to the firing spring.

 

I had originally seen the Missile tank in the catalogue long before I saw the Sherman and had been immediately impressed by it. Not long after buying the Sherman on Ebay, a 'spares or repair' model of the missile tank appeared and I was able to buy it. It was missing the missiles and box and the motor was in worse shape than the earlier tank, but after a lick of paint and some cosmetic fixes, it displays quite well. Below is shown a more complete version on ebay, the missiles tended to have rubber tips which were prone to perishing with age, so after forty odd years, its unlikely that I will find any now!