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
The painting oozes creature character, Bill. It would be at home in a Bleep & Booster style storyline, or as the cover art of a children's book. Nice to read this vintage post, Bill :)
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