I'm bunged up and acheing with an inevitable late Summer cold encircled by crumpled tissues, paracetomol and nasal spray on the settee. Oh how the mighty fall, brought down by the smallest things on the planet! When faced with lethargy of this high calibre there's nothing for it but to spend hours browsing Ebay. Here's a few, most likely, mirages seen through my menthol fug.
1. Gumball carded set - interesting mix of Thunderbirds, Playmobil and spacecraft. Is that the 2001 Orion Space Clipper in yellow?
2. Pencil toppers - these guys just reminded me of SWORD!
3. Cake toppers - in the style of Apollo Moon Exploring. I'm amazed how many of these loose sets appear!
4. Moon Ranger Saucer - numbered 355A, which makes it most likely T in a Circle rather than the Cragstan version [but don't quote me as I don't own either!] [The 'A' in the 355A number is fascinating suggesting a variation - anyine got one?]
5. Robot Trapeze - you'll recognise this cutie as he's WOTAN's mate in Apollo Moon Exploring and Moon Platoon sets.
6. Adventure Boy - by Remco 1970. Was he their response to Eldon's Billy Blastoff? I love the rather creepy tag-line 'He's almost Alive!'. Sounds like me! Where are my tissues!
Those aren't fake Playmobil figures in that first one... they're fake Lego! An small, but important distinction.Also, they're beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAwwwww, Woodsy. I'm sorry to hear you're ill :((
ReplyDeleteThank you Devlin. Are you the seller?
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you Toad. Much better today after sleeping virtually the whole of Saturday. I can sleep for England!
No, I'm not the seller... if I had such a thing, I'd probably not be letting it get away from me! It's interesting that, while the figures are pretty straightforward counterfeits, the weapons seem to be original designs. I can't tell for sure, but the chest emblems seem to be a shining gemstone, which was the logo of the distributor (I don't know their actual name) that made these assortments. At least I assume so...the logo usually appears printed on the card itself, though its not visible here.
ReplyDeleteCheers Devlin. There is a number on the card and what appears to be a set of instructions for the spacemen. Do you think it's from the 1970's or 80's?
ReplyDeleteThe Lego astronaut first appears in 1978 (http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Classic_Space has the rundown on their history), but I'm betting these are more in the early-to-mid '80s range.
ReplyDeleteWow, some of these are quite awesome!
ReplyDelete#1 I love the fake Lego guys and their weapons. The spaceships on that card are retro cool.
#2 The pencil toppers are pretty cool: shuttles, fighters, and land-speeders, oh boy!
#3 In the cake toppers, the rockets are kinda cool but that open Apollo capsule looks like an old Japanese toy of the 60s with the 'mystery action' feature and the astronaut that would pop out; and the two yellow things to the right are distinctly clones of Major Matt Mason's Space Crawler.
#4 is interesting. #5 I never saw this particular one but I played with Disney character versions back in the 70s; they were all over the place here back then.
#6 is really cool, too! Yes, he looks like a Billy Blastoff/Major Matt Mason clone. Boy, I'd love to get him!
Thanks for the cool posts!
Gordon Long
<< #2 The pencil toppers are pretty cool: shuttles, fighters, and land-speeders, oh boy! >>
ReplyDeleteLOL - were you parodying Wizard of Oz there? (Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!)
(preens) I was got the cake toppers as a pressie from someone the other day! Very nice, I can tell you. (smiles)
ReplyDeleteHehehe, yup, that's right, Toad! Yup...it's a fun cultural meme and I do that frequently...
ReplyDeleteYou got the cake toppers! OOO! I's jeallussssss but congratulations! Um, was it even your birthday? LOL Of course, those are definitely from an alternate universe. The field of the stars on the flag is wrong. But that's cool, because you can fanfic up a quickie timeline:
1) Early in their space explorations, they had the capsule for Earth-orbiting.
2) They sent seven manned missions to the Moon during not long after.
3) Later, they sent some advanced exploration missions out, which included at least two missions with Major Matt Mason-style Space Crawlers.
Fun fun fun!
Gordon Long
Nope, wasn't my birthday ... that's what made it all the more of a wonderful surprise!
ReplyDeleteThe Crawlers make me think how nice it would be to have a whole miniature MMM set ... with the Uni-Tred, and all the rest of the vehicles. Don't you think?
I agree Toadia, a mini MMM set would be cool, figures and all! Reader Paul V has listed all the mini MMM vehicles from the Apollo Exploration Set on the cool Where The Wild Toys Are site: http://www.wildtoys.com/MMMPage/MMMmisc/MMMmicro/index.asp
ReplyDeleteHow have I missed that before? Thanks, Commander.
ReplyDelete