Originally published for me in 2008 by Woodsy, before I came on board!
"Seeing all the Sword toys and spacex gear, really takes me back. At the time of their heyday, everything was geared toward space and the race to the moon. Breakfast cereal, sweets, comics, toys, TV - i lapped it all up and it has made me the person I am today. One of the most unusual items I had and have never seen since, was a pair of Clarks Wayfarer shoes. These were run of the mill school shoes, but they had a special secret compartment in the heel - something which seems to have been resurrected recently with transformers - this had initially a compass inside and animal paw prints on the sole, but later releases had a space themed sole and a small magnet in the heel.The magnet, when taken out could be used with the inside of the shoebox, which was printed up in a lunar terrain, to move a small space capsule or moon buggy around. These came free with the shoes and were simple flat designs, made of embossed silver plastic with a metal plate on the bottom. I spent ages dragging the little plastic capsule across the moonscape with my magnet, and leaving moon boot prints in the mud outside with my new shoes! Of course, school shoes never last forever and mine have long since hit the bin, and the capsule and moon buggy disappeared into some crack between the floor boards. But i did keep the box lid in my space scrapbook, albeit hacked out roughly with plastic scissors, as it featured some space fact files on the inside. Im showing it here, along with a rough impression of the twoplastic toys, to see if anyone else recalls them - i'd love to find them toys on ebay again!"
See the full background and the transfers here: http://www.action-transfers.com/html/a_articles/bata4moonshot.shtml
"Seeing all the Sword toys and spacex gear, really takes me back. At the time of their heyday, everything was geared toward space and the race to the moon. Breakfast cereal, sweets, comics, toys, TV - i lapped it all up and it has made me the person I am today. One of the most unusual items I had and have never seen since, was a pair of Clarks Wayfarer shoes. These were run of the mill school shoes, but they had a special secret compartment in the heel - something which seems to have been resurrected recently with transformers - this had initially a compass inside and animal paw prints on the sole, but later releases had a space themed sole and a small magnet in the heel.The magnet, when taken out could be used with the inside of the shoebox, which was printed up in a lunar terrain, to move a small space capsule or moon buggy around. These came free with the shoes and were simple flat designs, made of embossed silver plastic with a metal plate on the bottom. I spent ages dragging the little plastic capsule across the moonscape with my magnet, and leaving moon boot prints in the mud outside with my new shoes! Of course, school shoes never last forever and mine have long since hit the bin, and the capsule and moon buggy disappeared into some crack between the floor boards. But i did keep the box lid in my space scrapbook, albeit hacked out roughly with plastic scissors, as it featured some space fact files on the inside. Im showing it here, along with a rough impression of the twoplastic toys, to see if anyone else recalls them - i'd love to find them toys on ebay again!"
See the full background and the transfers here: http://www.action-transfers.com/html/a_articles/bata4moonshot.shtml
Once again, wow. I never had anything like these shoes, I wonder if they were ever available in NZ ? I do not recall New Zealand having the vast range of promotions and give-aways that were available in Britain and America. The only places you were likely to see these were in overseas comics and magazines - and now on sites such as Moonbase Central.
ReplyDeleteI remember them, having had them myself. I seem to recall the capsule having quite a bit of detail on it and I'd love to get one again myself. If you type Clarks Commandos into my blog's search box, you'll see the strips that appeared in the comics.
ReplyDeleteI never realised there was a comic strip to go with it! The capsul and crawler were a lot more detailed, but were talking a good few years back now, so my memory is ailing!
DeleteThe comic strip was for the Wayfinders, not the Moonshot shoes.
DeleteOops, my mistake. The Moonshot shoes were called Wayfinders too. I meant the animal track shoes, which had a comic strip, but was really intended as an advert.
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