I featured Lilly Ledy's Capitan Boy yesterday, so it feels right to look at another of Billy Blastoff's contemporaries, his rival over at Remco, ADVENTURE BOY. I don't recall seeing this little American fellow in the UK and I certainly didn't have any pals who owned one.
Adventure Boy often featured in US Catalogues alongside Major Matt Mason and Billy Blastoff and this is how I first came across him in the last few years. The packaging is classic late Sixties Remco, a house style I particularly love [ Mighty Mike, Star Trek etc] and like Eldon's Billy B you could get different beautifully boxed sets. Pictured are Spacecraft, Snowmobile and Skymobile from 1970 [images courtesy of Ebay].
I'm just not sure about Remco's unique selling point for Adventure Boy though. You stuck two of your fingers in his trousers to create his legs! A neat idea, finger driven toys, but when compared with Billy Blastoff's battery driven vehicles, TV and raygun, well Adventure Boy is really just pants! Did it ever catch on or was Adventure Boy the first and last finger driven toy line?
For Pete's sake, I've been trying to remember what this was called for years now! I was beginning to think I'd dreamed it!
ReplyDeleteNot the first time this blog has restored a lost memory for me, but certainly one of the most unexpected.
I owned several as my parents would often bring them to my brother and me while we were in the hospital. I knew I wasn't imagining it. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteRemco did a lot of different dolls like this,dating from about 1969 on. The others were mostly girls,and were called 'Finger Dings'. There were also several animals,and a set of dolls based on The Monkees, which included everybody except Peter Tork.
ReplyDeleteThats fascinating Tam. So Adventire Boy is related to the Finger Dings? Why did they leave out Peter Tork?
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