ED'S HAMILTON INVADERS MOSQUITO JEEP #466-1

Woodsy and Fellow Moonbasers,

Unlike so many of the toys I've shared with you all, I actually had the Mosquito Jeep as a kid. 

It was my 11th birthday - sometime around 1885  (just kidding) - and to my recollection, my mother had gotten me two boxed Hamilton's Invaders playsets. 

I believe there were two sets, but maybe it was one of the bigger double sets - REMCO made quite a few. In any case, I ended up with the Mosquito Jeep, Hornet Helicopter, Horrible Hamilton (the big bug), one or two of the medium sized bugs, and a contingent of Invaders (soldiers). 

Fast forward a good many years and I am now an adult collector buying back my memories: in comes REMCO's Hamilton's Invaders! I started collecting these some years back but ever so slowly. From what I gather in the fb (Meta) groups is that these were very popular toys. 

Sooo many people have commented that they either had them or had friends or relatives that had them. This popularity is evident not only by the prices they command, but also by the overall poor condition generally present in the toys that are for sale. 

Nearly every single piece I own (except for the soldiers) has condition issues: broken/missing pieces, broken mechanism's, etc., but as my budget wouldn't allow for the high-quality goods, it's what I ended up with.

Now that I've finally taken these toys out for photography, I can see where the issues lie. For the most part, they display well and this Mosquito Jeep is no exception:

-The pull-string motor doesn't work, as is the case with most of these toys (imagine Junior yanking back on that string with all his might, plopping it down to have it crash into things, then picking it up and repeating over, and over, and over again! These toys weren't built for that kind of abuse).

-The plating is worn off

-The gun mount is loose such that it won't stay elevated

-The front wheel set is so loose it just falls off, necessitating careful handling

-There's a chunk of plastic broken off near the canopy hinge, allowing the canopy to fall off easily

-The driver is missing

-It was very dirty (although I cleaned it up a lot, it could use another round of cleaning).

...But other than that, it's fine! 

There were actually quite a few toys in this series and I didn't have them all as a kid, and I don't have them all now as a collector - but I'm working on it!

From Horrible Hamilton's Cave,

Ed

USA