Moonbase has covered the R&L Outer Space series of breakfast cereal models many times like this fabulous group I saw on an Ebay auction.
Triang SpaceX/ Golden Astronauters will recognise the green and orange Moon Cars as the MOLAB.
Browsing the net I also found these sets I'd not come across before, Clip Fits. Courtesy of New Zealand's Flickrhivemind, there are 4 boxed sets of models: aircraft, cars, ships and our friends, outer space. I can't see a makers mark but I assume the models are repackaged R&L.
Outer Space comprises of the radar, astronaut, apollo capsule and the LEM.
It's a shame there isn't a MOLAB in there but they're nice sets nevertheless.
Does anyone know Clip-Fits?
The ships shown on the clip fits box were released as Sugar Smacks cereal premiums (I have a couple including the hovercraft). I had heard the space cereal premiums were originally from Australia/New Zealand.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the R&L models were ever advertised on TV Andy?
DeleteI assume Clip-Fits are related to Snap-A-Roos and Kit-O-Rama collections; consumer market versions of R&L kits.
ReplyDeleteI can't find a listing in one of my toy Bibles;
BREAKFAST BARONS CEREAL CRITTERS AND THE ROSENHAIN AND LIPMANN LEGACY by Craig L. Hall
This book is amazing, covering ALL the cereal premiums made by this company -although surprisingly, the Thunderbirds and Capatain Scarlet sets were not made by them!
Difficult to find, you can order the book from it's author here
http://home.iprimus.com.au/gking/craigsbook.htm
I dimly remember seeing these models in the shops, in the mid or late 1970s. Obviously the sort of small model that came in a cereal packet - I was not impressed, as by then I was building Airfix and Matchbox kits, which were much larger and impressive. Of course, I am now sorry I did not get them at the time. I think there were just the four sets, most of which contained four models.
ReplyDeleteLooking up the Aurora Snap-a-roos in my copy of Aurora Model Kits by Thomas Graham, this was a similar, but larger, line of mini-kits. The date given for the Aurora models is 1975, which is somewhere around when the Clip-Fits would have been available in NZ, as I began modelling in 1974.
The Clip-Fits World of Aircraft has the same contents as the Snap-a-roos Jet Liners set: Boeing 707 and 727; Concorde SST, and a Fokker F.27 Prop-jet (the American term for a turbo-prop).
The World of Ships is a mix of models from two different Aurora sets. The Queen Elizabeth, Canberra, Tugboat, and Hover Craft (two words) match the Snap-a-roos World of Ships set, but the sailing vessel Mayflower has been replaced by two models from the Harbor Fleet set, which both have slightly different names. The Police Launch has become a Police Boat, and the Car Ferry is listed simply as a Ferry.
World of Outer Space has the same contents as the Aurora Explorers of Space, but the Radio Telescope has become a Radar Station.
World of Vintage Cars is again a mix of models from two Aurora sets - assuming the larger Aurora range is taken as the baseline. The Morris Oxford, 1904 Mercedes, and 1915 "T" Model Ford are from the Old Time Cars set, but the 1926 Bugatti Grand Prix car has been replaced by the 1901 Oldsmobile from the Old Timers set.
As breakfast in the Adams Family house always comprised toast, I had very little opportunity to acquire cereal toys, and only ever had a few - never complete sets of anything. A book which may be of interest to collectors is 50 Years of New Zealand Cereal Toys 1950-2000, by Stephen Summers and Peter Fisher, 2006. I am not sure, but it may have been privately published, rather than being a commercial offering. I do not have this book, and tracking down a copy might now be difficult.
R & L were an australian outfit and a lot of the premiums still turn up in Oz. The little kits have been re-issued several times and the original molds were eventually shipped to Mexico, where R & L premiums were churned out as slightly inferior quality repros. Ive got a full set of the Totem Tribe heads, in horrible colour plastic. Mike Speth gave me the lowdown on R & L a while ago and is covered here: http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2011/04/mo-molab.html
ReplyDeleteI had the space set as a kid but I am not sure where I got it from. It was probably the boxed set as I recall having all of those models. My tracking station was white and fragile, way fragile with prongs of the focus tripod breaking trying to put it in and the 'girders' of the dish snapping as well later on. My astronaut was also in white and the helmet never went together fully and would fall off the figure easily an was lost early on. My LEM was grey and pretty solid other than a couple of nozzles on the manuevering jets breaking off during insertion. My Apollo Command Module was grey as well and the "hatch" was so loose it vanished almost as quickly as it was put in place.
ReplyDeleteI also ha the hovercraft in red. The prop was fragile and sat at an odd angle due to lack of clearance for the blades and the body.
No idea who the maker was though but thanks for sharing these!
I have a few of these that survived my childhood, some of them aren't shown here. A DUKW amphibious truck and a galleon type ship
ReplyDeleteLovely! Would you send a photo for the blog? Email me, address at the bottom of this page. Woodsy
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