LP MUSICIANS

 Speaking of LP musicians, here's a small orchestra of them I saw on a Japanese site. They get around!

All numbered on the base, this harpist, A8, is also clearly showing the LP logo.

Have you got any of these Hong Kong musicians?

Bob's Space Construction truck Series by S.S. Kresge

Hi Woodsy,

I came across, and purchased off of Ebay (new toy to me) a space construction truck vehicle which appears exclusive to S.S. Kresge stores.

By the price tag, probably from late 60s. I could not find anything about it on the blog. It's friction powered. There appears to be three vehicles in the series.

Made in Hong Kong. It's similar to the more common Tomy Space Explorer (battery op) series of construction vehicles that's been discussed several times on the blog. 

Any info? 

 Pics attached.

Thanks,

Bob Aucutt

USA

LP FARMERS

These two mini farmer figures are so darn cute. The husband is carrying a lamb and the wife a tub of corn maybe.

(Pinocchio looks mean!)

The farmers, as far as I know, are part of LP's huge Hong Kong range of small plastic novelty figures, which includes musician animals and clowns.

Interestingly these two are numbered simply as A.

Have you any little farmers or any figures numbered with letters readers?

The Long Shadows of Late Summer

Here's a late summer pic of my old pops reading in the back garden. No idea what though. 

I think the object on the floor next to the chair is a tall glass.

I reckon the toy tractor had been mine but kept on for younger nephews and nieces. 

My guess is it was taken in the early 1970's.

Do you have any of your old toy photos readers?

Roto Jet that Cyclops!

I adored the little silver accessories like these from the Major Matt Mason range.

I especially liked the rifle at the top.

It was only as an adult that I found out it was a miniature copy of the mighty life-sized Lost in Space Roto Jet Gun. What a toy! I would have loved it.

Turns out too there were more like this, especially in Japan, who seemed to really go for the style of rifle.

 Did or do you have anything like this? 

MacGyver?

I saw this toy car online and was intrigued by the name MacGyver.

Is this the car that was used the TV show?

What Were Your Sundays Like as a Kid?

 I remember Sundays as a kid.

Calm. Family coming round. Another day to carry on playing with toys.

Then School, OK at first, became a drudge and I knew that Monday followed Sunday.

Nothing was open. No shops. Basically church was open. 

Family still came round. Sunny days with nephews and nieces. 

But Sunday wasn't Saturday.

The day drew steadily towards School on Monday.

The evening's TV were the weekend's epitaph.

Songs of Praise or Highway. 

There was no going back.

What were your Sundays like readers?

LP and Britains Space Set?

 There's strange goings on here.

This carded set in my old pics archive is a mixture of chromed LP Moon Platoon aliens and what appears to be a Britains Starguard figure, also chromed. 

Is this something you've seen before readers? 

Did you have a TV in your Bedroom?

I never had a telly in my bedroom.  None of my friends did in the late Sixties/ Seventies.

Up till 1970 our family TV was black and white.

All the great kids TV like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet was black and white too! 

 It only went colour at our house for the Mexico 1970 World Cup! 

What are your telly memories readers? 

Walker Rider

 I'm not sure about this, the Walker Rider.

Is it a generic thing for other action figs like Micronauts or is it a toy in itself, even a knockoff?

There's hints of Micronauts, Galaxy Riders and more!

What do you think?

My other Car is a Jaguar!

 Yesterday I saw a battered old Jaguar car at an auction house.

It made me think of the black jaguar on the Avengers Shooting Game target set.

A proper black vintage jaguar would look like these old beauties as found on the web.

Cor!

If I had one of these I'd just sit in it all day on the driveway! Ha ha

The black one on the Merit toy box is similar. Here's one on the Vectis site. I assume that's Emma Peel with Steed. What a fabulous toy. I'd have loved it as a kid.

Did they actually use an old Jag like this in the TV show?

MoonBase Verify: Somportex Sweet-Filled JR21 Thunderbirds

In response to my last post and Kevin's observations I've reposted this very first piece about the sweet-filled JR21 Thunderbirds toys.

Note that it's 16 years old and none of the links will work, sorry.

Hope it all makes sense. Looks like the motors were missing and the gap filled with the sweets.

*

Hello Woodsy

Thanks for the mail & the comments about my thunderbirdsvintagetoys
site.

The sweet filled TB2s - Christies worked a real flanker with
those. They were sealed in 4's - in brown paper.They wouldn't open them for
viewing so it was pot luck as to what was inside & the state of it. All 32
eventually ended up with a friend of mine. I got the best box etc but strangely
he kept the only bag of sweets still in their original 60s state. They were
spiders & bugs etc.

I never knew there was so much SWORD stuff.
I do recall a 2nd hand/junk shop in Nottingham having bucketloads of the stuff
in the late 80s @ 50p each - presumably from clearing old stock- I'd only
just gotten into collecting & wasn't wise enough to buy
it.

Sadly I cannot answer your questions about
SWORD but ......... I have put them & a link to your blog on my
site http://thunderbirdsvintagetoys.co.uk/ExternalLinks.htm

The TB2 you have found is not mine. There are quite a few of them about.
Here's another http://www.solnet.co.uk/metropolis/albumdet.asp?id=1035

The common thing is all the boxes are stained. Very few have sweets in any
state.

Dennis Nicholson loved the "with sweets" story too. The guy that told it to me is sadly long dead. I have no reason to disbelieve it. He worked for JR21 & Lincoln International too apparently.
A lot of the JR21 stuff that's around came from him. He - again apparently - handled shop returns & made good out of bad. And hoarded it. What foresight?

I believe the "Stingray Museum" site is long gone. I did
hear that the stuff was all sold & split up.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Regards,
Steve.

SWEET FILLED JR21 THUNDERBIRDS TOYS: re-printed from thunderbirdsvintagetoys with kind permission from Steve the site owner.

To get a set of JR 21 vehicles is hard enough? What about the RARER ones?

There's a story to tell.............and here's how it was told to me, many, many, many years ago- by an ex-employee of JR 21 Toys. And, of course, it might be a work of total fiction. Here goes..............

5
In the mid 1960s JR21 decided to move production of their toys from Hong Kong to England. When manufacturing in England was set up & in production it was discovered that toolings to make parts of the friction motors had not been brought over from Hong Kong. In order not to disrupt production nor reduce sales prices it was decided to compensate for the lack of a friction motor by including a packet of sweets within each box. All mention of a friction motor on the box was covered by a sticker saying "SWEET FILLED" (TB2 top picture)

6
So this was done for a limited time.......................

2 batches (as far as I am aware) of Thunderbird 2's containing sweets have turned up & been auctioned through Christies. As, over the years, the sweets had disintegrated & covered the boxes with a sticky mess, it was difficult to find good examples. Most of the boxes were stained.

I also have a Thunderbird 1 with the "SWEET FILLED" stickers on the box (bottom picture). There is no friction inside apart from the metal casing which held the motor. Presumably it was necessary for this to be there to hold the wheel axle.That being the case I can only assume that there were "SWEET FILLED" Thunderbird 3s & FAB 1s done? Anyone know? Anyone have one?

What a fabulous JR21 story Steve! Thanks ever so much for letting me re-use it. If you haven't checked out Steve's TB Toys site then get to it. Highly Recommended! Woodsy, 2009.

Thunderbird Chew

 A blast from the past this, the uber-cool JR21/ Somportex Thunderbird 2 sweet-carrying toy.

The Somportex label is clearly seen under the two detached wings.

Did you have one or any rocket filled with sweets or candy?

Sausages and Supercar in South Yorkshire

 In my ongoing quest to find novelty Hong Kong plastic toys I visit a lot of emporiums.

My mate calls it junking.

One place we visit is Harrisons near Rotherham. A massive hangar if what seems like a million glass cabinets and an auction house to boot. They do a mean sausage butty too! 

Today's trip didn't garner anything I wanted but there's always interesting stuff. Here's a few tasty morsels I clocked. See what you think.

Glass bead ashtrays that were everywhere in my parents' home when I was a kid. Do you remember them?

An interesting BMW radio!

Fridge deodorisers! Really? Where do they hang?

A proper little Hoover, an exact copy of the one in my folks' house!

This Snow White house is new to me. You?

I'm sure this image is in Action Man packaging. Is that right?

A Give a Show Projector starring Thunderbirds!

A, I assume older, Super Show projector starring Supercar and Fireball XL5!

Pelham ventriloquist's puppet. I didn't know they made those too.

A quarter of the hangar from above.

Unknown ceramic figures. Anyone know what they are? French soldiers?

Classic soda vending machine.

Classic one arm bandits.

A lovely garage, maybe home made. Where's Amersham?

Palitoy's finest and Barbie steward.

One of a huge range of mint boxed Corgis.

All pristine, factory fresh and so cheap!

And then my mate said:

They're re-issues! 

Really? Have Corgi reissued everything?

The Man from Uncle See Through Walls Pen by Hidden Devices

 Years ago I got hold of a Propmasters catalogue offering for sale the personal Man from Uncle memorabilia collection of David Oliver, Propmasters founder.

Listed was a rare UK version of the Marx Man from Uncle Counterspy Set from 1966.

Unlike the US version, this one was listed with a Big Pen included.

I've never known what that Big Pen was. 

This week I found out about a Marx See Through Walls pen offered as a US mail in in the Sixties. It's chunky, maybe that means big?

See what you think. Could this be the mysterious Counterspy Set big pen?