I saw these Supertoys [of New York] EXPLORER III toy vehicles on auction a while back so I saved the images.
Being a sort of 80's type of SpaceX, the BHS Explorer 12 toy line has always found a warm welcome on Moonbase and these Woolworth specials have too.
Looking at the price stickers, they were clearly in a sale way back when and half price!
Mike Noble did the original BHS books artwork that went with the line. These Woolworth jobs look to be too simple to be Mike's work.
Deffo not Mike Noble work there! Its basically a repackage of the earlier Explorer 12 stock, which were themselves lifted from a simple battery operated Hong Kong toy from the early 80's. I remember seeing these in Woolies, back in the day, but never bothered. I have since collected 90% of the E12 series and have one of these models too. Bill
ReplyDeleteSo what were the earlier toys Bill?
DeleteBasically the same thing, but without the figures and the fancy payloads. A main tractor unit and a trailer. Sold in counter top boxes, in seaside shops along with stuff like Multimac toys and other star wars inspired rip offs. You can see others on Joe Langs site and they often appear loose on ebay
DeleteThese definitely hearken back to classic 60s designs, I woulda snapped them puppies up...
ReplyDelete