Me and Missus Moonbase have just got back from a short break in the warmer climes of Southern England. We were visiting friends, always good for the soul and re-visiting old haunts in Farnham and Farnborough where we lived in the mid - 1980's.
As always we checked out the charity shops but alas we came away without a sausage. I did, however, see what is probably a really good source of reference material for toy collectors and historians, the ubiquitous vintage Knitting Pattern. There were stacks of 'em - by firms like Patons and Burda.
One particular one pictured a young boy modelling a new itchy woolly jumper and more interestingly, brandishing a Marx Tom Corbett Space Cadet Toy Rifle. The sheet was in black and white and undated but looked very 1950's. Here is the same rifle in all its colourful glory [courtesy of Vectis]:
I consider this blue version to be one of the most beautiful space rifles I've ever seen. From an age before Apollo when art deco still influenced space toys, its just too early for me to have had one as a youngster. I was still amazed to have seen it on a British knitting pattern. Was the toy available in the UK?
Googling knitting patterns and toys reveals what I mean regarding a source for toy pictures: lots of Action Man, Sindy, Barbie and various dolls. I can't find any other space toys featured in any but they'll be out there for sure! Have a browse and if you find any interesting ones - Gerry Anderson, Robots, ray guns - then maybe we could post 'em up here!
You went to 'Sailor Boy' didn't you!!!
ReplyDeleteShould have popped in for a cuppa!
Hugh
My mum knitted my acton man a god awful set of lemon yellow pyjamas with a big blue letter A on the chest!
ReplyDeleteSounds like the sort of thing "Acton" man might wear?
ReplyDeleteAnd then one xmas I got an empty box, my dad told me it was an Action Man Deserter!
ReplyDeleteSailor Boy? Saw the Knitting sheets in a vintage shop in the Farnham Maltings Mav.
ReplyDeleteAction Man Deserter! ha ha! Funny Bill! Like the bag of carrots My Dad got my Sister one year. He said the horse would follow the next Xmas!
My Grandmother was a Professional Dressmaker before she retired, and in 1968, from the Mike Nobles Zero-X story illustrations in TV21, she tailor made a Zero-X Crew outfit for Action Man!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I have a photograph somewhere.