Eagle eyed Arto spotted this neat rack toy on the Bay last month. Its called UNITED STATES SPACE TEAM by Larami Corp of Philadelphia, USA.
It features our old pals from Imperial's Apollo Moon Exploring and you get 4 LP style golden astronauts! Needless to say, its new to the blog. Anyone got one or any other LP carded sets?
Were Larami rack toys popular?
They've been around as long as I remember.I'm almost 50 and I've lived my entire life less than an hour's drive from "Philly".Space , sci-fi and TV shows were a popular theme with Larami.Such names as Buck Rogers,Battlestar Galactica,and Man from Uncle,among many others, were all licensed for toys.Those astronauts look to me like they were probably sold in the late 60's/early 70's .my guess is based on the card art and the price.Apparently Larami didn't licence everything they sold.Larami's most iconic toy would be a high powered water pistol called "Super Soaker", very popular in the 90's.According to Wikipedia, Larami was bought by Hasbro Corporation.I'm not sure if the name is still used,though.
ReplyDeletejudging by the apollo card photo with the astronaut carrying the mission package in ALSEP barbell fashion, its probably missions 14-16, which would date the toy to 70-71
ReplyDeleteAnd if I can just put in a pedantic 2 cents-worth: -all- those toys are by LP, as are all the toys sold on Apollo Moon Exploring cards by Imperial.
ReplyDeleteBrian is right that Larami were taken over by Hasbro, probably so the latter could get the Super Soaker guns. According to somebody from customer service at Hasbro US I once spoke, there's nothing left of Larami. Not the brand, nor any former staff, nor any archives. I do intend to double-check that some day, for she sounded like I was wasting her time with my enquiry - a far cry from Hasbro Benelux customer service, who (closely followed by Lego Benelux) are the very pinnacle of courtesy and helpfulness.
Best -- Paul