I came across a few old newspapers recently and scoured through them as a matter of course, to see if there was anything of interest. It was quite interesting to see the range of information tucked away. One of the most intereting finds was about the British Home Stores series of toys, Explorer 12. First of all, I came across the above advert from the late 80's in the Daily Mail, showing prices for the vehicles.
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| BHS EXPLORER 12 RANGE |
In a copy of the Times, dated 1987, there was a business article about the launch of the range, inspired by Terence Conran, which contains a major typo, in that the range is clearly refered to as 'Explorer 2'!:
BHS unveils toy
range with the Conran touch - The Times (London) August 25 1987
BHS, the former
British Home Stores which, as part of Storehouse, has been given the Sir
Terence Conran flair treatment, is launching a new range of toys from the
Storehouse chairman's design team. The range will go on sale in October.
BHS sees it - at a
time when Storehouse's future as a possible bid target remains unclear - as
strengthening the BHS label in the store chain's drive to change its image and
consolidate its position further up market.
The range of
Explorer 2 (sic) futuristic vehicles built on a non-violence theme is aimed at
the Pounds 140 million market represented by children aged between five and
ten.
Mr Mike Williams,
BHS's merchandise controller, said: 'There appears to be an arms race among
certain sections of the toy industry for who can produce the next more horrific
concept. Our children may love it but it has gone beyond reasonable levels.'
The new range, he believed, would be highly stimulating while diverting
children away from violence and destruction
Explorer 2 will be
backed by Pounds 250,000 promotional spending.
Mr Denis Cassidy,
Storehouse deputy chairman and BHS chairman and chief executive, said; 'The
move on toys means that we are at BHS now in all the major areas building on
our own strong brand.
More surprising again was a large advert in the Mail, for Woolworths, showing the repackaged version of one of the toys being sold as 'Explorer III' - This stand alone vehicle was not supported by any other of the range, or carried the figures. I have a copy of the boxed toy and it has neither BHS or Woolworths branding, but is shown as 'Supertoys'.
Its essentially a standard E12 truck, but in a pearly grey colour as opposed to the blue/green of the BHS models.
These are terrific - another series I never heard of. The British SF toy genre is apparently endless!
ReplyDeleteWonder if they made it to the States Zigg? Tandy/ Randio Shack picked up the design and made the Mars Mission. Wonder if that went Stateside? There was one on Worthpoint but's a British Ebay item https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-tandy-intertan-mars-mission-244575865
DeleteFab research Wote. I-m fascinated by the non violence angle so strongly taken by BHS. I wonder where the designs by Conran went? The non violent spun sets it apart from say SWORD and is much more akin to Spacex altho they did have missiles so maybe not. Didnt Conran have his own shops? I had a huge book of his called the Book of the House. Tons of rooms and furniture. Older than E12 but I'm gonna look for toys in the pics! We should tie your research together with the toys launch audio broadcast I found a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteSpun? Spin!
ReplyDeleteI think Conran's design team were involved with the project, rather than tez himself. There's a certain Habitat style finesse to some of the wagons, especially the fuel pods.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly had quality written allover it Wote. Tezzer Conran's house designing it. Mike Noble doing the books' cover art. What a team!
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