Andrew Cook has kindly prepared this set of shots especially for the blog to showcase this unusual toy.
Wednesday 28 November 2012
Billy Blasts Off
At the time that Mattels Major Matt Mason was riding high on toy shelves as the premier space toy of the sixties, Eldon, one of Mattels competitors brought out their own little spaceman. Billy Blastoff was a small child in a spacesuit as opposed to Mattels Man in Space. Presumably aimed at a slightly younger audience, Billy and his accessories had a much less realistic look. Billy also had an additional gimmick in that his batteries sat in the backpack and sitting him on a vehicle would power the motor in the craft. Later versions of Billy Blastoff added a walking ability too.
Billy Blastoff only managed a few years in production and saw limited release in the UK. As can be seen from the english Scalecraft catalogue above, he has sneaked into a small panel of the advertising. There are a multitude of different sets and guises for Billy to work with, which ill look at in detail shortly. Before this, i'd like to look at a special set of toys which has borrowed the Billy moulds and added another toy that we have seen before too...
Andrew Cook has kindly prepared this set of shots especially for the blog to showcase this unusual toy.
The Lunar Scout set not only blatantly copies the Eldon set, but draws in the Bandai Thunderbirds Excavator craft too!
The toy is very close to Eldons original and the toys themselves have more than a passing nod to Mattels famous toyline, including a Space Sled and a Space Crawler with the 'legged-wheel' design.
At one point, Eldon were one of Mattels major competitors and held they're own against the toy giant.
More Billy and space toy fun to follow soon!
Andrew Cook has kindly prepared this set of shots especially for the blog to showcase this unusual toy.
My parents told me an entertaining story recently.One Christmas they bought me a Billy Blastoff set.They were so fascinated with the toy that they took it out of the box and played with it while I slept.Then they hastily wrapped it up before I awoke.I was really young back then, but I recognize the box and contents so that must be the set I recieved.I know they definitely were around for many years afterward, so they must have been well-crafted toys.
ReplyDeleteIt still amazes me that the craft Ron Turner designed for the Hood Makes a Strike from the first Thunderbirds Annual ended up as pretty much a de-facto pod vehicle, when it never appeared in the series! Or was it planned for further episodes from the second season?
ReplyDeleteWhen I interview Gerry Anderson many years ago, I asked him point blank if there were any Thunderbirds episodes that were never completed, and he said catagorically "No." They just cost too much to make to waste any usable material. There is a similarity though to the Crablogger...