The Stuff in My Kid Pockets

It takes a lot to make a childhood.

Obviously there are essentials like love and affection from parents or guardians and tender loving care all round. A nice safe warm home with lots of good grub available also helps and a decent clean bed to kip in.

There is also the small matter of school so a washed uniform and PE kit and sturdy shoes go a long way too as well as folks who take an interest in your learning.

A few books and comics scattered about the home don't go amiss either and maybe a working TV. 

Once all these are in place with a sizable dash of good luck and good health, the real reason for childhood can take centre stage: playing.

The tools of play have never changed much: a decent imagination and a few toys and nik naks. If one is lacking then use more of the other.

Like many of you my own baby boomer childhood, 1960-1978, was garnished with the playthings of the day and it was often the smaller pocket toys which defined my existence.

At any one time I might have a whole cache of nik naks on my person, my pockets stuffed with more sweets and gizmos than a magician for hire.

These oddments included:

Pea shooter: a sturdy straw with a mouthpiece through which to shoot .... peas. The peas were the dried variety raided from the pantry, the king that came in boxes along with a huge white tablet. The sound they made as you blew was something like ploof but maybe you can describe it better!

Clackers: these were small plastic balls on a string with a plastic grip in the middle of it. the idea was to clack the balls as fast as you could both below and above your hand. A bit like hard nylon conkers they were eventually banned on account of possible shattering. They made a great sound though and a good clackering was as satisfying as seeing Lance Henrikson do his android knife trick in ALIENS years later.

Whoopee Cushion: more of a joke than a toy, these rubber fart bags were everywhere in the Sixties. You couldn't move for hidden whoopees and almost every time you sat down one went off. I hope Mister Whoopee the inventor made a mint as millions have been sold.

Catapult: these were basically lethal weapons for juniors and I'm amazed we were allowed to wander round in public with them. You got what you paid for with a catapult but the basic playground issue had a metal grip, a thick elastic pull and a hide ammo seat. I can't describe the sound it made but its not something I'd like to hear these days. My chosen ammo remains a locked memory but for the tougher kids it was a pocket full of pebbles. Any derelict house windows never stood a chance!

Flicker ring: these were so cool it made your eyes water. i think the correct term is lenticular and it was a craze. My fave flickers were TV related like the one you got with the Corgi UNCLE Thrushbuster and superb little Batman and Robin rings which were sold everywhere.

Clicker: I'm not sure of the exact name of these but essentially they were a tinplate shape with a sturdier piece of tin attached to the back. This was clicked with your thumb and the noise produced was like an armour plated cicada. It was loud and for anyone nearby very annoying!

Kazoo: equally annoying was the kazoo, a sort of plastic duck whistle that sounded like a strangled pheasant. Entire pop sings were kazood much to the disgust of anyone nearby. For the koazooless kid, a similar rasp could be made by blowing though tracing paper held over a plastic comb.

Half eaten packet of Fruit Gums: theses were always in the pockets of Sixties kids, poking out like the slithery heads of anenomes. For some reason the packet was always half eaten and a flap of paper and silver foil wrapper stuck out like a flag. the sweets could vary and might also have been polo fruits, opal fruits, fruit gums or Munchies [messy!].

What did you have stuffed in your kid pockets readers?

Gay Toys ATV Anyone?

I just love these Bazooo ATV's on the cover of their 1970's brochure I saw online.

What a ball those guys are having! Looks hazardous as hell in that forest though!

I noticed a cool plastic toy on Ebay that's similar to the one with the canopy.

Its by Gay Toys ...

in orange

in green .....

and in yellow!

Is this Gay Toys toy the basis for other toys like the Banana Splits Buggy or the Space 1999 buggy do you think?

A S C E N T

A jet ascending over the local fields. 

Probably from Doncaster Robin Hood Airport.

R A T S

The local gang of country rats

feasting on and living in a pile of old wheat

where Blue and me start our walkies!

Do you have rustic rats?

rubbing revealed the true me

I recently had cause to use some old Letraset I found during one of our recent Moonbase clear outs.

Its been years since I'd used Letraset and had to make sure I knew which side to rub on!

The rubbing I enjoyed but I found it nigh on impossible to line up the letters in a straight word. They were allover the place! 

Still it was nice to do some rubbing again and it brought back memories of similar motions as a kid.

I remember sets called Action Transfers, which came with a colourful card background and a selection of transfers that could be rubbed down to stick on the card. Sadly none have stuck in my mind as time has rubbed out the memory although dinosaurs and space ships do ring a bell. 

I also enjoyed rubbing transfers onto things like my arms and bedroom cupboard. Peace symbols, monsters, Kung Fu characters and so on. There were also water transfers which slid off when wet. The exact physics elude me now but I know I had some water transfers on the back of my hands at some point.

Further rubbing took place to create imprints of coins and flat brasses. In fact I think this art is called brass rubbing. A similar technique could also be used to rub a pencil over the imprint of hand-writing on a note pad to reveal what had been written previously. Very James Bond! Basildon Bond even!

Did you do any rubbing as a kid readers?

Toy Police Boat in New York

Hello Woodsy, 

Here is a picture of the police launch. The NYPD have some this colour.

In the Spring will go out on the pond!

Terranova47

NYC

Belated Birthday Message for Bill from NYC

Sweeping Up My Dairy Milk Crumbs with My Plastic Toy Broom

I've just been watching a Gtech AIR Ram advert on TV. You know the one, where the inventor Nick Grey promises that you'll break free. It still looks like hoovering to me!

It did remind me of something though. I'm pretty sure that there was a toy hoover in my parent's house. Now I can't swear to it being mine but it would make sense as I was the only small kid in the house. I did have some younger nieces so it may well have been theirs.

I don't have a problem with hoovering as a lad but imagine that gender-based toy buying was strong in the Sixties. 

To muddy the water even more I know that I had access to some toy sweeping brushes, a hand brush and a dustpan. I can see them now but again they may not have been mine.

Another household gizmo in toy form that I recall was a plastic iron. It had a dial and a cable with a suckered plug on the end.

One gadget I did own was a plastic telephone. It was an old fashioned BT payphone toy like those once found in BT phone-boxes [what's happening to those - no-one uses a pay phone now surely?]. It was a great toy with a phone dial and a slot for shoving in plastic money. I knew I'd got this from a lodger called Len who lodged in our house along with other lodgers. 

I had thought they were dockers from Preston docks nearby but my Sister told me last year that they were GPO workers. GPO stood for General Post Office and was the state-owned supplier of mail and phone services until around 1980 I think. This made even more sense as I can well imagine a GPO worker giving me a toy payphone.

For some reason this has reminded me of a lovely thing I also had. It was a chocolate vending dispenser made of red plastic. It stood up and when you pushed in a coin a little bar of Dairy Milk chocolate popped out the bottom! It stood up and I suppose it was a money box as well.

Did you have any toy household items like these readers?

Comet Miniatures Mekon in the Big Apple

Hello Woodsy, 

What a grand entry you've made of my submissions to the blog. 

Comet Miniatures models are in these two shadow boxes. 

The left one is Anastasia and the right one is The Mekon. 

There are a number of 'garage based' UK businesses that sculpt and produce lead/pewter figures especially military and railway related. 

They are found on the Internet and that seems to be the future as mass produced plastic is China's bailiwick now. 

The three Dan Dare figures facing off against The Batman are Irregular Miniatures listed under 42mm Retro Science-fiction. They may even make things of interest to you. 

Regards, 

Terranova47

NYC

A Birthday Message for Bill from Houston

Sea Birds Surfacing From the Hong Kong Sea

Years ago I acquired a plastic Sea Bird, a lovely sleek submarine-like speed boat.

I recall that the battery operation didn't work but Bill managed to fix it.

I parted company with my Sea Bird some time later. Then two more, including a yellow one, surfaced in 2015 in Ferryman's collection.

Recently another pair appeared on Ebay, this time with gorgeous boxes.

You can see the make as well on these boxes. Its a new one on me, Cosmo.

Have you a Sea Bird or any other Cosmo toys?

A Fantastic Mess Or Not? Hong Da's Space Search Toy

In 2016 I branded the Hong Da Space Ship "Is this the Ugliest Space Toy in History?"

A true Frankenstein space toy. We discussed it and then it was forgotten.

Until just this month American reader Lance reminded me of it's Taiwanese quirks.....

*

Heyas Woodsy. I've managed to escape from the ice here in Houston and stumbled upon this lovely gem of a toy [Ebay].

Obviously the base toy is inspired by the Proteus from Fantastic Voyage, probably copied from a model kit of the sub. 

But then it goes south. It seems to have been rammed by an X-wing and got a couple of large booster rockets up the backside. 

Not sure if you were aware of this one so thought I'd share!

Lance

USA
PS. Happy birthday to Bill from Houston!

Inspired by Lance's observations I had another look myself and realised that its ...plastic!

I had thought that it was tin-plate but no, its an honest-to-garden plastic space toy from Taiwan!

The detailing ain't half bad either. Look at the effort Hong Da have made with the cockpit dashes and consoles. They're almost Major Matt Masonesque.

I think I'm going to revise my original sentence that this is the ugliest space toy ever and give it a stay of execution for now.

What do you think readers?

Its for Bill from Mark J

Hey Bill‎, happy birthday wishes from the future!!

Regards

Mark J and family

Mars Celebrates

Thank you everyone for the birthday cards and messages, much appreciated! Heres a selection of the wonderful, thoughtful gifts I received!

Bill "Wotan's" First Ever Post on the Blog 18th September 2008

During the space age of toys, rubber monsters were popular as a pocket-money collectable. Among these, I found as a boy a range of six space creatures. These were apparently sold in the US as 'Moon Goons' or similar and in the UK alongside the 'Teachers Pets' monsters. 

Each one had a suction cup under it and was generally molded in a browny gold coloured silicone, and painted greens and blues and yellows on top. Among these six was one large 'bell shaped' alien that I as a kid always thought would be the boss!

As more and more space toys hit the market, i began to find these same aliens in other guises, as tiny chrome coloured figures to threaten the golden astronauts in Apollo Moon Exploring sets and also on keyrings and other knock off rubber toys. 

Recently I decided to immortalise my favourite alien in a painting, the classic space creature of my childhood. Having so many different versions of the same toy, I wonder if he appears anywhere else - maybe as a cereal premium ? 

The picture shows my painting above and original alien on far left, silver Apollo set aliens and various copies. Large yellow figure is a solid plastic keyring.

Posted by Wotan

18th September 2008

Its a Card for Bill's Big Day from Tony K

A Birthday Message from Brian F for Bill

A Birthday Card for Bill from Paul V

A Birthday Message from Evil Ed

🎂

Wishing Bill a Happy Birthday!

Best wishes as always.

Evil Ed Murray

👻

A Birthday Card from Ed Berg

Happy Birthday Bill from Kevin

It's Bill's Birthday!

Manchester Evening News Saturday November 27th 1982 UK TV and Cinema Listings

I found this old Manchester Evening News newspaper from 1982 in an old family photo chest.

What interested me were the Saturday TV and cinema listings. I was 21 at the time and living in Germany.

In Britain these were the days of just 4 TV channels and countless small town-centre cinemas.

Interestingly they included a Saturday night thriller, which I assume was a TV play, 2 horror films - Fiend Without a Face and The Strange Door, a prime-time episode of Shogun and an episode of Cannon.

TV stations also ended early in the morning for the night as signified by the word 'close'.

What else catches your eye?

The cinema listings are a revelation and reminded me just how many cinemas there were showing both popular and in some 'blue' movies.

Films being shown included Zombie Creeping Flesh, the Warriors, the Entity, American Werewolf in London and Flesh Gordon.

Interestingly The Fall were playing a gig at Manchester's Lesser free Trade Hall. The influential lead singer Mark E. Smith, hailing from Salford, has passed away this week aged just 60.

 The suburban cinemas around Manchester were showing an even more eclectic mix of thrillers and sleaze with films like The Thing, Brimstone and Treacle, Poltergeist and Hot T-Shirts.

They were also showing Wolfen, one of my fave horror flicks of all time.

What would you have gone to see?

Sears Rocket Base Mysteries

Eagle-eyed reader Tony K alerted me to this superb example of the Sears Rocket Base he spotted on auction.

I don't have this toy set so looking at the excellent images I noticed a few things.

The base-plate has a mirror beneath the rocket's engines. In fact the engines are reflected in it. I assume that this feature was to make the smoke emission even more dramatic by reflecting it in the mirror too. Is this correct?

The gantry, which looks like its made of tin, has two levers, which can rotate either way.

I can only guess that the right hand lever draws the whole gantry forwards and backwards on the metal track which is visible.

The second lever on the left presumably moves the elevator up and down the gantry tower.

Could a plastic astronaut figure fit in the elevator?

What is the grey mechanism at the bottom of the chain in the above picture? A lock? Could the rocket itself be moved backwards and forwards on this movable gantry?

Last but not least is the image of the rocket bottom. Since this example is missing its engine window panes its possible to see inside.

What's visible is a cylinder with holes. It looks like its made of metal. Am I right in thinking that this is the unit that creates and distributes the smoke?

You can see the word SMOKE at the top of the switch.

If you own one have you ever had yours smoking?

Mystery toys in Thunderbirds Give or take a Million

I noticed these toys in the Thunderbirds episode Give or Take A Million.

On the left side you can see a toy rabbit and a toy vintage car.

Anyone any idea what they are?

D R O D E

A  rather sombre little Lovecraftian speech on my favourite local field at dusk.

I call these dreary odes drodes.

Well, you have to do something when your dog-walking and Blue just keeps pestering for bigger roles. In the meantime .....

PS. let me know if you have any problems viewing this video please.

Colonel Hap Hazard Rack Toy 1970

Located with an East Coast US seller, I noticed this unusual spaceman late last year. This is the picture from Ebay.

Its a Marx Apollo Astronaut carded set from 1970. The figure is names as Colonel Hap Hazard.

It all looks so familiar and I may well have had one of these sets. I was 9 in 1970 and 10 that Christmas. 

But I can't help thinking that all the accessories look so much like Major Matt Mason equipment that that's what I'm actually remembering. Its hard to say. I suppose I'm now wondering whether Marx simply cashed in on Mattel's success with Major Matt. What do you think?

There are also countless knockoffs of this Marx set especially in Mexico where the body has many colour variations and different heads including Callisto like these from the amazing Madhunter collection.!

Interestingly Marx released Colonel Hap Hazard in an earlier guise as a tinplate robot in 1968.

Here's some footage on You Tube of the robot by gfu collectible.

Do you have any Hap Hazard toys or knockoffs?

Space on The Brain

I've clearly been going on Moonbase Central far too often, I see spacecraft in the simplest things!

Mark J

*

Ha ha, love it Mark!

I'm the same.

When I see a toilet duck all I see are red Thunderbird 2 engines!

What do other space stuff do you see readers?

Mini Mobile Explorers

A chance purchase on ebay, brought home these three neat little vehicles made by south American company, Apollo. Dating from the mid 80's by the look, the pack must have spent some time in a damp place, as the rubber tyres have begun to break down slightly and stain the packaging. Similar to several early years toys available from Mothercare etc, these little vehicles have sprung suspension and decals on the back. They are just nicely scaled to fit with the Apollo Moon Exploring toys.

Have You Ever Made a Fanzine?

Did you ever make your own fanzine?

The worlds of Gerry Anderson have generated many many fanzines and these are fabulously detailed in Dennis Nicholson's Memorabilia Guide, which I'm pleased to have.

The worlds of horror films also generated countless fanzines and these are similarly well catalogued in the newer version of the Monster Magazine and Fanzine Collectors Guide, which I also have on my bookshelf.

I didn't create a fanzine for either of these genres but I did produce a home-made joke and sketch book a bit like a comic circa 1970 ages 10. 

It included copies of gags in the funny pages of Beano and Buster, as well as some of my own made-up stuff. 

Somewhere in the cobwebbed eves of the attic lies this very thing. As for now all I can muster is the name, What a Heap of Laughs.

Have you ever made a fanzine, comic or indeed a magazine proper, either as a kid or maybe even professionally?

Dinky Incerceptor? Could it Take Out Toy Soldiers?

I watched this You Tube clip to remind me just how powerful the missile was on the Dinky UFO Interceptor.

I remember it taking out loads of Airfix soldiers stood on our carpet.

How many could it flatten?

Could it overturn one of those prone sharp shooters? I can't remember!

Anyone got any footage of plastic soldiers being blasted by the Interceptor?

Toy Train Ride Through The City

I'm not a big toy train fan like some of you but I do see the appeal.

However, I was mesmerised by this fantastic toy train ride through a toy city on You Tube!

Its three minutes of a train-held camera hurtling along the plastic miles.

Do you like it?

Did You Like Sports at School?

Did you like doing sport at school? I know I didn't. I'd much rather have been home playing at the Apollo Moon Landing with my SWORD and Major Matt Mason!

I disliked all sports with equal vigour and was derided for being useless at them on a weekly basis. Picked last in the ritual humiliation of team selection, football was a particular bete noire of mine and I joined a special team of misfits called the Duffers.

Worst of all the active horrors though was cross-country running. To this day I cringe at the thought of having to run in the countryside, prefering to walk at all costs!

Cross-country running must have been invented by a maniac. Who in their right mind would sprint through mud and gunge in the pouring rain wearing only plimsolls, elasticated shorts and a school PE shirt? 

I wouldn't mind but the land we ran across at school was a lame excuse for countryside since it was basically the rough scrub, marsh and woodland at the far ends of the playing fields. I hated every minute of it and only the thought of a hot cup of bovril and a mess with my Space toys when I arrived home got me through the winter ordeals.

Did you like sports at school?

Dark Shadows Werewolf Meets Glow Gorgo!

Hi Woodsy.

Things are beginning to thaw out here and I'm returning to the everyday grind,but I enjoyed the downtime by finishing these models.

The Werewolf and Gorgo have glow in the dark parts and I did little or no painting on them. I also finished painting these 3 dinosaurs from an earlier post.

Brian

NJ.

Ideal Astro Base 1960 : How Brilliant is that!

This is a decent video demonstration of the functions of the 1960 Astro Base by Ideal. Its a You Tubed sales pitch from 2010 by a chap called Dezertdude but ignore the sales talk and focus on the amazing movements and actions of this early and complex space toy.

Why am I particularly interested? Well, its because the astronaut and scout car cockpit are the earliest examples I know of toy parts that eventually became incorporated into the Century 21 Project SWORD  line 7 years later in 1967, specifically in the Moon Ranger.

Having watched the clip I am now wondering of there is any evidence of the 'ring' on the back of the Project SWORD Moon Ranger astronaut? The same goes for the American Moon Ranger by Tarheel or indeed the earlier Japanese Moon Ranger by Nichimo?

Anyone want to look and let us know?

Mystery Painted Stingray Model

Further to the mystery Portuguese Stingray I posted earlier this month [still unidentified] here's another mystery Stingray model toy I found on You Tube.

The short clip from a collectables outfit is over two years old so presumably the owner has worked it out but what do you think readers? 

What make of Stingray is it do you think?

Did You Play Post Office?

Did you play Post Office as a kid?

I loved playing it and lets face it, stationary was made for kids to mess around with.

It was easy to whip up a post office counter. There was always a stack of envelopes and paper in the house. I liked to use those thin blue Air Mail envelopes and pads of paper by Basildon Bond [Jame's brother!].

Another essential tool was a stamp of some kind as any decent sub-postmaster loves to stamp every bit of paper in sight.

Cash could also change hands over the counter and I found Monopoly money ideal for this as well as a bag of plastic shillings.

The counter was usually a dining chair with me stood behind and my customers - mates, family, action man - queuing in front.

Obviously toy companies cottoned onto the appeal of the play post office and some toy sets were released during my childhood.

I had one particular set, pictured below from Ebay, and I must say seeing it again it is a thing of beauty. Everything was there including loads of different bits of paper. Heaven! I so recall that red anti-drip ink well made of red plastic! The make may have been Berwick or Merit. Not sure.

Years later  in the late Eighties when my own daughter played Post Office she roped in an assistant, her pet guinea pig Jonny!

Jonny Pig, bless him, would always give a little snip to any paper you help near his mouth! Like a hairy hole punch!

Did you play Post Office?

more bubbles in the bath: recycling mattel's sea devils

I got loads of Matt Mason at Christmas in the Sixties.

My rubber friends were never far away.

But sadly I never got any Sea Devils.

Maybe they were harder to find in the shops? I dunno.

But you got a second wind with the Devils though. Some of their bits re-surfaced in Mattel's vast ocean of toys and its briny haul of clones.

OK. Remember the Aqualander? It was the Devil's amphibious jet car shown here on the left as seen on Ebay.

Well, a similar miniaturised version of it floated up in the SpaceLink line shown below, which Bill first introduced us too. SpaceLink was a sc-fi based wing of the bigger Capsela brand.

Next comes what I think is a clone of the figures themselves, although I'm unsure. 

Recently seen on Ebay this bubble carded toy below, surrounded by real Devils, looks a lot like a Sea Devil and is branded as such but the makers mark - a sort of red and blue triangle in a white circle seen on the left of the card - is not Mattel. I've no idea what the make is. You?

Interestingly, the three small faces shown in these two pictures were described as pre-production pieces from Mattel itself! There are a number of pre-production Sea Devils on the net so they can exist.

We now come to the Devils' bellows.

These, a purple concertina of thin plastic, attached to a slender pipe to create bubbling in the bath [they shouldn't have bothered, we could all create them!]

Here's Chuck Carter with his bellows attached to his air tanks.

But the pumping doesn't stop there. Those purple bellows popped up with Mattel's Callisto too. In fact he may have had them first for blowing his string through his shoulder gun.

Scorpio got the pump next. He used it for blurting polystyrene balls from his chest canon

Who knows where the bellows went after that!

Big Jim?

Do you know of any more Sea Devilment? Did you have any of the range?