Looey's comment earlier today got me digging into Honey West's rack toys. Just what was the mysterious necklace that Looey recalls, which turned into a telescope of sorts?
Opening a top secret case I pulled a few strings and Gilbert provided the answer. The telescope thingy was most likely this:
You can see it carded in this accessories pack for Honey West bottom right. Its called the Telescope Lens Necklace. I wonder if this is what Looey saw?
As soon as I saw it on Worthpoint I thought of this Penelope Comic free gift from the Sixties, also on Worthpoint, which looked sort of similar. Its a chain necklace with a small pendant with hidden mirror. How cool is that!
Anyone have or had any of these?
Firstly, I am surprised there is so much available for Honey West, an American TV show about a female private eye starring Anne Francis, the girl in Forbidden Planet. This show never screened in NZ, so to me it is rather obscure. On looking it up, I discovered it was based on a series of novels, which I had not known. Back to Lady Penelope, surely the compact with mirror she used was actually a communications device, with a TV screen ?
ReplyDeleteThere'll be a short post about the Honey novels tomorrow Paul. Yep, that Penelope compact was a shoe-in for toy makers and Crescent released one in the Sixties.
DeleteOh Bravo! Another fragment of childhood memory vindicated!
ReplyDeleteHoney West was never shown on UK when I was a child, which seems to back up my theory that the Gilbert merchandise was dumped on the British market at a cut price, there was no "brand recognition" with the customers!
Your welcome Looey! I don't recall Honey West on UK TV either.
DeleteNever heard of her at all !
ReplyDeleteMish.
Poor Anne Francis. The series screened on US TV in 1965-66, and there were 30 half-hour episodes in black and white. It is available on DVD, and at least some of the episodes are also available on You Tube. I have just watched first of these, The Swingin' Mrs Jones, and it is great. Classic 1960s private eye, but Honey has an arsenal of spy gadgets to help her. She too has a secret radio in her compact, a listening device in an olive (?), and her earrings are smoke grenades. That also explains why a fashion doll had a selection of spy gadgets, they were part of the show. Honey is also a karate expert. So why did this wonderful series only last one season ? I would have watched it. I am sure the very lovely Anne Francis would have been popular with the boys, so what happened ? It really is a great, fun series.
ReplyDeleteYes, curious. Then again the Sixties were awash with spy shows. Some I recall and many not. Man in a Suitcase was dead popular and even my European Mother-in Law knew McGill the main character. Less well known, The CAT is another I personally don't remember but there are some fabulous and scarce toys released from it like a weapons set and a board game. I suppose like all crazes the spies ultimately tripped and fell into their own attaches and the case was closed!
DeleteI do not think Man in a Suitcase made it to NZ, I do not recall seeing it. THE Cat is even more obscure, but I do remember Robert Wagner in It Takes A Thief, which seems to have been along the same lines ? and the great Mission: Impossible, with its fabulous theme music and burning fuse.
ReplyDeleteNo, I've never seen the CAT or It Takes a Thief to be honest. Checking my two spy toy books, Spy Toys and Toys of the Sixties, there are loads of TV shows I don't recall but that could be my useless memory. Secret Agent, Danger Man, I-Spy and Get Smart to name a few. Obviously I remember the juggernauts of the genre, Man from Uncle and Mission Impossible and a strange series called The Champions although I'm unsure of they could be classed as spies. As with any craze countless knockoffs and general spy toys emerged on the back of the craze, which I imagine was fueled largely by James Bond films and Man from Uncle on TV. I certainly had lots and lots of spy stuff and weaponry in general like the Secret Sam Spy Case and the Johnny Seven Rifle but our house was just full of toy guns as I had two older brothers as well. Sekidens, snub noses, potato guns, cowboy cap pistols, the Airfix AN rifle and one I sort of remember them having, the Gun of the Golden Agent by Hubley 1965. I have a feeling we got lots of these toy guns at the local Newsagents Rileys and by mail-order from the mighty Ellisdons of Liverpool. I often wonder now if it was OK to have that many toy weapons around in a home but that was how it was back then. We haven't turned into gun-toting killers as far as I know. Having said that modern bargain stores are choc-ful of toy guns and some toy rifles even bigger than my beloved Johnny Seven so maybe its just the same now as it was then?
DeleteIt Takes A Thief was about a successful burglar and ladies man Alexander Mundy, who is black mailed into working for US Intelligence - work for us, or go to jail. Great series. Surely Secret Agent was the US title for Danger Man, if you mean the Patrick McGoohan TV series ? I think I saw I-Spy. I certainly saw Get Smart, which was James Bond played for laughs, as Control (the forces of Good) battled Kaos (the forces of Evil). Lots of gadgets, including a dial telephone built in to one of agent Maxwell Smart's shoes. The Champions did not screen in NZ until well after it was made, I would think at least a decade, but I enjoyed it. Yes, I would call it a spy series, three agents were given super powers after their plane crashes in Tibet. They worked for an organization called Nemesis based in Geneva. I have the series on DVD. Lancelot Link Secret Chimp, was James Bond with chimpanzees playing all the roles - no humans.
ReplyDeleteI did not have any spy toys, although I did have a few cap pistols, mainly cowboy revolvers, a plastic rifle, and an army sub-machine gun. Most of what I was able to hold on to were the smaller items, such as my Matchbox die-casts and Timpo figures. In 1974 I discovered plastic kits, and did not get back into die-casts until the 1990s. Moonbase has been educating me on more general toys. There is just so much out there.
Send us some snaps of those smaller items you have from your childhood Paul, Timpo et al.
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