A quick whizz through that Italian UFO magazine archive and I found a couple of toy adverts for the Atlantic range of army toys. Atlantic are a range of models in various scales, made of soft polypropolene, like the early Airfix toy tanks and figures. Of interest to UFO fans is the Shado Mobile ripoff model, seen crossing the Pontoon vehicle. I was lucky enough to find most of these Atlantic kits in the 1980's, some of which, such as the T-34 Tank and ONTOS Rocket Tank came with two models in one box. The larger ones are single issue.
The Shado 2 mobile has been copied in other ways too, such as this larger friction powered vehicle by an unknown Hong Kong maker.
Atlantic Laser Command Vehicle and other toys from the same range.
I remember the Italian Atlantic models, which were in the shops around the 1970s/1980s for a few years, at least in New Zealand. Their ancients and Wild West figures were far better than the WW2/modern sets. These often bore little resemblance to any real vehicles, or to the box art. Being HO (1/87th) they were a lot smaller than the 1/76th scale Airfix or Matchbox models. The figures were also very thin. However they did cover some unusual subjects. The US M50 Ontos tank destroyer (according to Wikipedia Ontos is Greek for 'thing', no idea if that is correct) is not equipped with rockets, but 106 mm recoilless anti-tank rifles. Six of these single-shot weapons were mounted, giving six cracks at the enemy, after that the crew had to dismount to reload. The type was used by the US Marine Corps from 1956 into the early 1970s, and saw action in Vietnam. Strange little vehicle.
ReplyDeleteSome nicely obscure models there - I had the "Frog" missile launcher in the bottom photo - no idea where the armoured launcher ended up but I've still got the missile
ReplyDeleteFenton
Thats primarily the attraction for me is the unusual vehicle designs. They also made a couple of rocket and missile batteries, which were rather nice too. I always assumed Ontos was an acronym tbh!
ReplyDeleteTheres a nice Frog style rocket launcher in the 1970s Hamleys catalogue, top of spread 4
ReplyDeletehttps://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2010/11/xmas-at-hamleys-1970.html?m=0
"Ahhh,I remember the kits on Hamleys lower ground floor!... It ain't like it were when I was a nipper..."
DeleteGrumble...
i have again some of my atlantic soldiers,how many battles on the floor!thanks for sharing!! ew
ReplyDelete