Ive begun to realise that there were at least four generations of kids who were immersed in space and space adventure.
The first was that Forties and Fifties US generation who were exposed to Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Steve Canyon and Space Patrol. There were loads of toys associated with them too.
The next, certainly in the UK, were the Fifties Dan Dare and Eagle kids. These guys had a superb comic with its Pilot of the Future and the Mekons. Again the subject matter generated tons of ace space toys.
My own Sixties baby boomer generation went potty for TV21, Thunderbirds, Project SWORD, Major Mat Mason etc and it stretched well into the Seventies with UFO and Space 1999, not to mention the Moon Landing in the summer of 1969.
The last generation of space children, at least to my mind, were the originsl Star Wars kids who saw the movie in 1977 and enjoyed the blizzard of toys it and its two sequels produced. They perhaps had more space toys than any of us.
Obviously there were other major space series, ranges and movies - He Man, Thundercats, ET in the 80's and X Files in the 90's but in my personal opinion they didn't galvanise a whole generation in the way space travel and adventure had done previously.
These are just my own observations and as always I would be interested in what you think on this subject.
Very interesting and apt classification Woodsy, the one that would place me deliciously between the last glimmering rays of the 60's (not to forget Star Trek!), stretching out to the first Star Wars trilogy.
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing The Last Jedi & having said my goodbyes to Star Wars as George Lucas invented it, this is a very comforting place to be.
Woodsy, I would have to say that for the U.S., we actually started earlier. People were thinking Martians as early as 1897 with release of H.G. Wells 'War Of The World's' but I don't know how this affected the toy industry. But certainly, we started the space craze in the '20s when Buck Rogers hit the scene in 1928!! By the time the '30s rolled around (and with the advent of Flash Gordon) space toy sales were already rocketing!
ReplyDeleteI'll vouch for that, Ed,there was a War of the Worlds diorama made in 1925 by a maker of toy soldiers named Henri Mignot.I've seen pictures of it and I can tell you it's pretty impressive.
ReplyDeleteYes Brian, I know the one you're talking about but couldn't remember when it was made - certainly much earlier than the '40s!
Delete