Friday 2 March 2018

Mystery Animated Spanish Space Cartoon: SOLVED! Its Il était une fois… l'Espace

I've been seeing this Spanish toy pistol for years on Todocollecion.

What I don't know is the meaning of the artwork.

It looks like a TV show but what?


Well this week I may have found a clue.

I stumbled across this still from what again appears to be the same and even more like an animated TV show.


Beneath the still on this Italian site was a phrase which maybe the name of the show:

Siamo Fatti Così



Does anyone recognise this?

*

POSTSCRIPT!

Eagle-eyed reader Kevin D has cracked it!


Its the BODY SENTINELS cartoon!


Its on You Tube too. Here's an episode.



But why use an educational cartoon for the card art of a toy space pistol in Spain?


Was it simply lifted or was the show popular in continental Europe?


PS. This explains it further! The series appears to have been initially French!


http://www.hellomaestro.fr/once-upon-a-time-life.html



POSTSCRIPT 2:

Kev's cracking of this particular case has lead to dig deeper.

OK, the original French-Japanese cartoon series was called IL ETAIT UNE FOIS ... L'ESPACE or Once Upon a Time in Space and aired in 1982.

In Spain it was called ERASE UNA VEZ .... EL ESPACIO meaning the same and this is what appears on the toy pistol's backing card. It was a TV-related toy after all!

You can read much more about the show in all its forms here on Wiki.

Many more toys and figures were released and here's just one example die-cast by Popy, the spaceship Libellule.




This has been a real education for me as I've never heard of this TV cartoon.

Is it something you saw or collect?

6 comments:

  1. Believe it or not, I recognize it from work! It is from a video called (at least in english), The Body Sentinels. An educational cartoon about the workings of the immune system. I used to show it in class.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Kev! Its been a revelation! case cracked! The blog at its best!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The original series by Albert Barillé, Il était une fois... l'Homme (1978), was big in Finland back in the day. The style is instantly recognizable, although never my personal favourite.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So it was in Finland as well Arto! I don't recall it at all. I assume L'Homme means Man and that this refers to the segment of the series about Early Man. The Body Sentinels presumably was a segment about the workings of the human body, which Kevin showed at school. Or was this L'Homme too?

      Delete
  4. Hi woodsy,

    Whenever you have some mystery stuff like this in Spanish or coming from Spain, you can contact me in my blog, and I'll try to help you. This one was very easy. The TV series was very popular here, as well as the other series from the same creators/ creative team.

    Cheers,
    Juan / Gog from toysfromthepast

    ReplyDelete