One of the big surprises for me this Xmas was an amazing die-cast toy from my daughter and son in law.
The Jeek Tunneln from the UFO Commander 7 range by Shinsei of Japan circa 1976.
Its a beautiful thing, almost a work of art with many moving parts and a gorgeous blue, red and silver colour scheme. When I first handled it I thought immediately of Popy type die-casts.
The cockpit bubble elevates as does the rear attachment.
Two side launchers can be stood up and rotated. Mine is minus its missiles.
The huge drill bit at the front rotates too with a satisfyingly ratchetty sound. It is a tunneller after all and worthy of a place in TB2's pod!
I've just seen on Pinterest that it can do this as well, which I didn't know and for the life of me can't work out how its done! I've tried!
Here's the Shinsei Jeek Tunneln its is classic blister box, an image I found on Worthpoint, reminiscent of those wonderful Grip and Edai die-casts.
I can't imagine anyone else but the Japanese coming up with such a fantastic design. I'm sure there's some Gerry Anderson influence there and all in all it looks like a homage to everything we loved in Thunderbirds et al.
Here's the full range in a shop display courtesy of Chogokin - the Star Wars effect clearly visible in the marketing.
Interestingly there's a cloned range by Empire, the successors to Tarheel Industries, the American Project SWORD toy firm. Empire released Star Mites in the mid-Seventies and here's there Jeek Tunneln. I wonder if they had a licence from Shinsei?
Do you have any Shinsei UFO Commander 7 or any Empire Star Mites toys readers?
Is there a Manga/ Anime connection?
Sorry but this doesn't appeal.
ReplyDeleteIt just looks like some kind of plumbing fitting or vacuum cleaner attachment, and not an interesting space ship or vehicle. It needed more design input.
haha, plumbing and a vaccy! I like that Mish. Sorry you dunny like it. I adore the thing and its taken pride of place in my cabinet of cool!
DeleteI had Jeek. It was the only one of the UFO Commander 7 toys that appealed to me. The toys were designed to have a similar look as if they were from a manga or anime series but alas there was no anime. Manga on the other hand, the answer is kind of. Each toy came with a small comic book illustrated story to help flesh out the universe they were in.
ReplyDeleteYour pic from Pintrest is of a broken Jeek. IIRC the cutter disc is actually riveted in place. Looking at the pic, the hole it would have occupied is rather jagged, as if someone broke the rivet. The blue shaft in the pic is partially obscuring the drive gear that spun the disc. That gear was tied to the wheels the treads rolled over to give it movement. The gear fit inside the red backing of the cutter disc and meshed with the teeth along it to transfer the motion IIRC. In all the years and play mine went through, I never managed to break mine, not even the fragile plastic chromed pieces.
Fascinating Lance and thanks for your insights as always. I didn't know there was a comic book too. As for the Pinterest picture I think you've solved it. Yes, it would appear that the toy has been taken apart at the front like you say and pictured in a strange position. You're mention of the toy's motion had me intrigued so I pushed mine along on its tracks and lo and behold the cutter revolves! Yes! Result! Thanks!
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