I've been looking into a load of old toy plastic pistols I have from my toy fair days years back.
There's a few different ones including two Japanese Sekidens, which I adored as a kid, strafing my big brothers will those little silver balls!
One gun really caught my attention, which hadn't previously. Its this, the largest toy in the picture
Its the P-38 by HG Toys and has a large barrel mouth and a slot for a scope. It also has a hole for a stock on the back of the grip as pictured below far left.
Delving deeper I found out that this is quite something for Man from Uncle toy gun enthusiasts as in its complete state its seen as a better representation of the TV series' weapon.
You can all about this Man from Uncle knockoff, part of the HG Toys Ultra Force 1 range, on this excellent resume here on The Uncle Archives website right at the bottom
Plaidstallions carries this brilliant example of Ultra Force on their site. My P-38 is in the middle, Secret Agent.
and again on Plaidstallions the Secret Agent also came in a mock card attache case. Looking further down it appears to have been re-used in the Vegas Private Detective set too!
Does anyone have a complete example of this Uncle-inspired 1979 toy?
The only Man From Uncle toy I had was the Corgi toy car, which I loved, but even as a kid, thought the idea of putting your 'Top Secret' organisation's logo on the bonnet was a bit stupid.
ReplyDeleteMish.
ha ha! Top bonnet! Everything was top secret back then Mish especially my plans to take over the world! Oops, I've told you now!
DeleteAlmost as stupid as the Simon Temlar Volvo Saint car. The registration plate was ST 1. and the toy added the Saint stick figure to the bonnet/hood.
ReplyDeleteThe reason the Roger Moore Saint drove a Volvo was Jaguar didn't have an E-Type to give the production company as they were backlogged with sales orders to fill.
An E-type would have been a headturner for sure Terran. Did the Broccoli's find it easy to get hold of an Aston Martin? I thought they might have wanted a Rolls for 007.
DeleteIn the books Bond was a Bentley owner. No idea if Aston Martin supplied the car especially or whether it was simply purchased and modified by the movie company to suit their script.
DeleteReally! Wow! I loved old Bentleys ... and Daimlers .. as a Kid! Used to see them around back then. Not so much now. I suppose the B on the front of the Bentley was a nice touch for Mr. Bond!
DeleteA Bentley appears very briefly in the picnic scene at the beginning of From Russia With Love, and a model of it was included in the James Bond Car Collection partwork. Bond does not drive the car, and it remains parked throughout the scene, however he does use the car telephone. David Niven does drive a Bentley in the horrible Casino Royale from 1967. As far as I know there have been no official models of the cars from this film, and it was not covered by the JBCC, which only included vehicles from the official Eon films.
ReplyDeleteAston Martin lent Eon two DB5 cars for filming, one of them the prototype, which was a modified DB4. Best marketing move they ever made, given everyone on the planet knows the Aston Martin name.
Thanks for the info Paul. Poor old David Niven, his Casino Royale does not get good fan mail does it! Obviously not canon!
DeleteOh, the Sekiden pellet gun!
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten that! I had one (although the balls that I bought were gold!)
I remember how those pellets were made of a clay like material that crumbled into a greenish powder if stepped on. I remember finding a pellet out in the garden after a wet night and it had swelled up, the gold surface was covered with deep cracks and fluffy green stuff like mashed potato was oozing through!
fabulous memory Looey! ha ha, the swelling sekiden ball! I remember having sekiden battles at home with my older brothers. Balls flying everywhere! Great fun!
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