The recent appearance of the two Futuramic toys above by Ideal sparked some interest and comments on the blog about the similarity between the Space Fighter Transport and our old favourite the Rosenthal Rocket Transporter. I had come across the Futuramic series in the great reference work 'Blast Off!' by Mark Young and I had marvelled at the incredible amount of detail crammed into such an early toy and the fact that any examples had made it to the present day after over 50 years. Shortly after we published the pictures on the blog, a gentleman named Bill Bugara dropped us a line to say he had been the lucky winner of the auction and provided us with much needed background info and photographs of these spectacular toys. Bill takes up the story:
"I'll start with the futuramic box. I know of one other in this condition, pg. 17, Mark Youngs Blast Off book. Mine is squared and shrink wrapped for protection, 100 percent of the box art is there, original price tag of 1.98 is still on the bottom of the box. Unbelievable condition. I wouldn't sell it for any price. Next are the four Futuramic ships in all four color variations, still working on completing all, but getting there. Lastly is this beautiful XP-19 Space Fighter Transport. This is ULTRA rare. What an addition to my upcoming diorama i'll build this winter. And to get it in this color variation is a dream come true. I've been told by some that have collected for decades that this came in three color variations as far as the main transport, yellow, blue shown on pg. 17 Blast Off book, and red BUT the letting on the side in any color is always blue. Yellow is my desired color for sure, the lettering pops right out at you, and those three gorgeous dark ships, what a work of art. The tri dented fin just below the front cannon, the wheel covers, the extended outside fins above the rear wheels... Box has never been found, i heard from someone that it was just in a cardboard tray with a couple rubber bands holding it in. Price for this was 79 cents, introduced in 1953, one year production. Please study the under carriage of the three miniature ships notice how each have four very small fixed wheels, all are there and complete, AMAZING. These never survived in this condition."
These are amazing Bill! Thanks for sharing your obvious passion with us! Beautiful toys from the Golden Age. I wonder what the equivalents of such 1950's rarities would be in the UK? Plaston Supercar? Tudor Rose Space Tower?
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