ED'S FOSTA ROCKET BANK

Zigg made mention of how much he liked the rocket ship pictured in my MB 16th birthday greeting.

The bank is from the 1950s and stands 10"H and is a variation on the 'pointy tube with fins' rocket design with the fins being quite long.

From Vegas Base

Ed

*

PS. From Arto:

As an addendum to my comment on Ed's fabulous post about the Foster Grant Rocket Bank, here's a snapshot of my Fosta bank along with two Tudor Rose variants (and friends). The red rocket bank is the one pictured in the seminal book on plastic space toys, Blast-Off!

Arto

Helsinki Base

MARSMAN WANTS YOUR MONEY

 

I remember these springy balls dangling.

I think some looked like aliens.

Some may have appeared IN ALIEN along with the nodding bird but I'm not sure.

This one, Marsman, is also a money box! I imagine when a coin is dropped in the Marsman jumps for joy!

Is it something you remember readers?

EITHER OR'S FUNZIES

 Messing with my Or.

Enjoy!

SUNDAY SERVING

Feels like ages since we visited a Sunday car boot sale, but today we braved the Autumn cold and headed to Wetherby, where stalls of goodies and a small fry-up awaited.

The breakfast café fry-up was frugal but tasty - me and the Missus are on a diet called 'intermittent fasting' - no food now till this evening!

The stalls were interesting too.

What do you think of my meagre catch readers including some freebies?

LtoR; British Rail book [free], Action Man Jeep £1, BR Diesels book [free], Sculptor photo [free], Photography Year Book 1963 [free]. Torchy The Battery Boy Book £1, brass scope and other optical ring £2 

the free photograph, from a huge pile of free prints, is unusual. It shows a sculptor showing his work to someone, whilst the sitter who is being sculpted sits.

The sculptor has a distinctive 'artists' beatnik-style tash and beard.

The bust appears to be nearly finished.

On the back of the print is this Glasgow address for the photographer, John McLean.

Does it follow that the sculptor was in Glasgow too, maybe in the 1950's or 60's? 

Anyone recognise anything in this picture?

EITHER OR: MY HOME-MADE OR FROM ORION FIGURE

 Totally gobsmacked by John Eaton's original prototype Mattel Or from Orion toy I saw this week I thought I'd have a crack at making the little alien.

Here's John's original and unique Or figure 

on his fabulous Major Matt Mason blog.

Here's my Saturday afternoon, my very own 'Or'. Small and neat, putting it together from scraps - a bead head, micro toothbrush arms and the rest bits of plastic -  was a load of far out fun!

I call my figure Either. 

Either Or.

See what you think.

50 Years of New Zealand Cereal Toys 1950-2000: A BOOK REVIEW

"50 Years of New Zealand Cereal Toys 1950-2000, Stephen Summers & Peter Fisher, privately published in August 2006, Wellington, New Zealand. A4 size, 185 pages, Paperback."

I remember seeing a mention of this book when it came out in 2006, but I did not get a copy at the time, although I did borrow it from the library. It was not until 2024 that I finally found a copy, and grabbed it.

Only the cover is in colour, the contents are entirely in black and white. Picture quality is enough to show the toys and what they looked like, but does not allow a lot of detail to be seen.

There are three pages of introductory material, covering the history of cereal toys in New Zealand, and the main players. These were Sanitarium, Kellogg’s, Timaru Milling, and Cereal Foods (later Nabisco).

The book covers mainly plastic toys, along with comics, and the cardboard cut-outs often featured on the back of cereal packets. Cards and stickers are not included.

Toys that were included with other products are also included, along with Sets of Unknown Origin. Some are one-piece mouldings, others are small kit sets.

According to the book, the toys included in NZ cereals were produced either in New Zealand or Australia. Some of the Australian toys originally made by Rosenhain & Lipmann were produced in NZ by Consolidated Plastics Limited in Auckland.

Generally the toys were produced in sets, and each toy came in several different colours, so there were plenty of different toy/colour combinations to collect. Each set gets either half a page, or a full page.

Each entry includes the name of the cereal company that issued the toy; date of issue; the material used; number of toys in the set; and known colours; along with Notes. Then the photos, along with a name and number for each toy.

At the back of the book are period advertisements, and the various cut-out toys that were often included on the back of cereal packets. Then the index.

As we mainly had toast for breakfast in my house, I had very few cereal toys growing up, except for those given to me by family friends. Looking through this book, it is obvious that many of the small plastic toys I did have came originally from cereal packets.

I was very pleased to add this book to my collection. I doubt it is easy to find today, even in New Zealand.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Matteline 1967 Fantasy Box Art 14

Matteline 1967 has done another of his fantasy box art videos, No.14, showing kits that were never produced, but should have been. These are all from various TV shows of the 1960s and 1970s.

The Six Million Dollar Man, followed by a Doctor Who UNIT vehicles set - in 1/76th or 1/32nd scale. Airfix actually did a 1/76th scale Scorpion light tank kit, and there was a Short Wheel Base Land Rover in the Bristol Bloodhound missile kit - much later there was also a Long Wheel Base version, which was a re-issue of the JB Models kit.

Several rather obscure shows, followed by Fireball XL5, which mentions the Kitmaster/Airfix model which really did exist. Finally, the Galosphere from Space Patrol - I only know about this series thanks to reader Rob C.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4I93Uc1mHw

Paul Adams from New Zealand

SLANG FROM LANCASHIRE IN THE NINETEEN SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES

Here are a few slang words and activities I've dragged up from the chlorinated deep end of my Youth in the Sixties and Seventies. You'll know many more and have your own from your country. These are all from growing up in Lancashire, England. There are some that are too unsavoury to print but these are what's left!

Loo, Khazi, Bog, Throne room - toilet

Privvy - outside loo

Rag - newspaper

Cow Bite - a firm grip on the inner thigh, the then hard squeezing was agony! My brothers' favourite.

Snake Bite - two hands gripping the forearm and a counter twist created excruciating pain! The other older Brother's favourite!

Rib Drill - whilst being pinned down on your back, a single knuckle would be drilled into the middle of the breastbone. A killer! Both older brothers' specialty. 

Hickey, Love Bite - extreme mouth suction on one side of the neck creating nasty-looking bruised circles. A token of love that was everywhere in my school! Yuk!

Greeny, Grolly - a large blob of  verdant phlegm plastered on the ground

Bogey - nostril waste - as in Pickit, Lickit, Rollit, Flickit!

Crusty - hardened nostril waste

AA, Business, Biz, Numbers, Kack, Sh*t, Sh*te, - a poo, poo

Meat and Two Veg, Short and Curlies, Goolies, Gonads - the male testicles, to be protected at all costs during a skirmish with bad 'uns!

Shreddies, Underkecks, Grundies, Y-Fronts - underpants, usually white.

Skidmark - an unsavoury streak in the middle of your usually white shreddies

Tidemark - an unsavoury line on the neck denoting a lack of washing either above or below it.

Kick the Can - a game in which cans or footballs where kicked and collected whilst everyone else ran off never to be seen again.

Right on - righteous, as in Right On Man! That's groovy!

far Out - astonishing, as in That Tank Top is far out Mate!

Mate, Flower , Darlin, Love, Chuck - terms of introduction and endearment [ In Yorkshire: Cocker]

Pencil pusher - office worker

Lazy B*stard - a fellow prone to slacking

Idle Swine - a Lazy B*stard

Tosspot, W*nker, A*sehole, A*separt, Tw*t, See You Next Tuesday - a bad 'un or very nasty person

Cretin, Idiot, R*tard, Spaz, Sh*t for Brains, Twerp, Berk, numpty, Dope - all suggesting a lack of grey matter

Docile, Dopey - not one for fast movements.

Scalliwag - skeleton

Twit - a scatterbrained fellow

Talent, Crackling - the opposite sex, usually at the school disco.

Honey, Honey Pie, Sugar Pie, Tata Pie, Kidney Bean - what my older Sisters called me

Squirt, Little Squirt, Worm, Annoying Little Turd, Sp*nkbubble - what my older Brothers called me

Wiz, Waz, Pee, P*ss, Slash - to urinate, usually at the back of an old building in the Seventies

Spuggy, Bubbly, Chuddy - chewing gum, Anglo Bubbly being the go-to chew for kids my age

Clobber - clothes

Kecks - trousers

Herbert - an annoying person, as in He's a right Herbert

Belm, Thomas - a lie

Prannock, Pillock - a very annoying person

Bovver, Aggro - hostile goings-on

Cake Hole, Mush, Gob - the mouth

Soft, Mighty - a good thing

Split, Skidaddle - as in, to leave the school disco quickly because you've danced with someone else's bird!

Kaboodle, Tackle - stuff

Fettle - to sort something out

Second Shelf - hidden away, as in Up my A*se, Second Shelf

Pushiron - bicycle

Pad, Joint - a place, as in You're Wrecking the Joint.

Fleapit - old cinema

Flicks - cinema of any sort

Flick - a film

Wrinklies, Giffers, Oldies, Geriatrics - old folks, like me now!

TV, telly, box, Tellybox - the television

Wireless - the radio

Nosh, Scran, Tuck, 'Owt Yummy - food of any kind, preferably steak pudding and chips.

Dosh, Spondoolis - cash for things like Led Zep's latest LP

Schrapnel - small change for things like vending machines and bus fare's up town

Dweeb, Dork, Nerd, Geek - all words that came much much later from American TV.

Poser - someone showing off, usually with some very nice 'clobber' and a decent hairstyle

Bird - girlfriend

Get Stuffed, Get Lost, Get Stretched - as in No Way, You're kidding!

Pitch n Toss - chucking coins or cards against a wall to see who could get closest to it

Garden Hopping - sneaking through neighbours' gardens at night

Skool, Skoo - yep, school. the best days of your life and all that.

Deck - record player

Tunes, Sounds - music

Sound - good, as in He's Sound as a Pound that Jimmy Page.

Chavvers - young lad

Kushti - as in its all good

Toerag - a rotten person

Tw*t him - as in give him a good whalloping

A Good Hiding, A good Pasting - being beaten up, being tw*tted.

Clip round the Ear - a swift smack on the lughole usually by Mum or Dad, but basically anyone in the Seventies, as all adults seemed to smack us poor kids!

Lughole - ear

The Strap - corporal punishment in School consisting of a length of rubber brought down fast on the open palm .... at least it wasn't the cane or birch at our school, maybe because it was Catholic!

Redneck - catholic

Proddydog - protestant

Gaffer - boss

Elbow Grease, Hard Graft - all forms of toil and irksome work

Kip - sleep

Forty Winks - a short nap ....

Good idea, I shall have forty winks myself right now!

Which of these and other words do you recall readers?

A WORM IN MY OR

I was completely amazed by the real and unique Or and Orbitor toy owned by John Eaton and published on his Major Matt Mason blog [thanks Paul V.] 

Regarding John's Or itself, its such a cute and fragile-looking plastic alien creature in two attractive colours. Its a really appealing figure, almost Bruderesque and would 'sit' well among the Colourforms Outrer Space Men too, as well as its stablemates Callisto, Captain Lazer and Scorpio.

Seeing Or made me think of other similar insectoid robots. I couldn't find any contemporaries of Or from the 1960's but there are a few from later decades that have those creepy crawly robot chops.

There's the modern dancing robot.

Kenner's Star Wars droid with Or-like legs.

One of many Japanese candy premiums. I don't know how old these are.

The spinner itself, the Orbitor, recalls in looks my favourite Matt Mason gadget as a kid, the Satellite Launch Pak shown below. 

The concept of domed satellite spinners has been around a while. Below is the PLANET PATROL SAUCER ray gun set with domed rotors that fly from the end of the gun and is from the 1950's. Is that an alien inside?

And finally here is the LUNAR ORBITOR by NP of Germany. Although it has no dome, the centre is topped with a neat silver radar. I don't know the date of this. There are many more examples of satellite toys with domes and thingies stuck on top. 

There are more space spinners.

These uber-cool Stanzel sets even contain a tiny domed figure.

Closer inspection on Ebay shows its an astronaut and not an alien.

But their spinner went plastic too and became a Ziroid!

To cap this post off here's a neat seated robot piloting the M-50 Space Ship.

Have you any spinning discs with aliens or robots in a dome readers?

SAMURAIS THROUGH THE POST

 

Salvaged from Christmases Past, these are my two cast Samurai models hand painted in the early Seventies by yours truly.

Not much stuff from my early childhood has survived but some from when I was around 12 years old has.

In particular my martial arts stuff has. I put this down to two things: I collected so much martial arts material, mostly papers and small items, which I'd put in a large document case that's traveled with me throughout my life.

These short metal warriors are two of my most important surviving martial arts toys.

There's a naginata or halberd missing from the right one made by Rubin I think and the Ebira or arrow quiver has broken off the left fellow. 

I remember so clearly getting the figure on the left, a Rose kit, one Christmas in the early 1970's. 

It came in several parts in a small plastic bag and had a distinct and wonderful metallic smell once opened. 

Amazingly I have even managed to hold onto the colour scheme I worked out for this model, drawn on a school timetable! 

This has survived in an old handkerchief box I have pictured below, what I called the 'Budo Box'!

Also in the box is a postal order counterfoil for Miniature Figurines, which I kept after sending off payment for another Samurai model. A postcard from the company, ARGYLE, has survived too. 

It all relates to either the metal Rubin figure to the left in the picture above or maybe the small metal miniatures, pictured below, which have survived in a wooden Indian box my Mum gave me.

This box became the centerpiece of my Cha-No-Yu (tea ceremony) or Iai-do (Japanese Sword) paraphernalia back then when I was 13 and I wanted to be a Zen or Shaolin Monk! Happy days!

The metal figure to the left below is an Orc! I have some more Samurai model stuff [and tons of books] and will dig it out. 

Have you got any samurai models?

Major Matt Woody

 

There can't be much doubt that this Woody Spaceman has been inspired by Major Matt Mason.

What with the bendy arms and legs and the distinctive limb rings he could be Mattel's Man in Space!

Beyond infinity and into the realm of Colourforms Outer Space Men I could see Space Woody being converted into one of them.

Maybe Xodiac

Or Electron+

or maybe one of the modern incarnations like Metamorpho, designed by Mel Birnkrant back in the Sixties but it took the Four Horsemen to release it around 2010.

                                                                                                        Kastors Korner

Do any of you collect Outer Space Men readers?