I've never seen Blakes 7. I know Kevin's a big fan. I am interested in toy guns and box art though and I've been looking at the Jotastar Blakes 7 toy pistol, the Neutron Space Rifle.
I expect all the research has already been done on this toy. There appears to be very few pictures of it on the net, mostly the one from Alphadrome so I hope Brian doesn't mind it reappearing here.
The crouching boy top right caught my eye. Dressed in black he looks very James Bond. I wonder where they got that idea from?
The Aurora James Bond kit art has dark clothed 007 in a sort of crouch but it's not the same.
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The little boy illustration really does ring a bell. Any clues? Star Wars?
As for the toy itself, Jotastar appear to have made very few ball guns. I certainly couldn't find another version of this one or anything remotely similar. The generic search term 'ping pong gun' brings up a lot but nothing like Blake's 7, nor does the name on the toy, 'pop o matic'.
The only observation I have is the similarity of the grip to that of the Star Wars blaster rifle, seen here in toy form, so not much.
I wonder how many of the Jotastar Neutron Space Rifles were actually sold? I bet there's more replicas than the real thing!
Have you got one?
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Postscript
Re. The boy at the top of the Blake's 7 rifle box, consider this, one of Mark Hamill's Star Wars photoshoot stills, 1977. Maybe there's one exactly like the boy?
Blake's 7 dark uniform
That Blake's 7 gun is beyond rare. I did have one and getting rid of it is a big regret. When I did have it, only 3 were known to be in the hands of collectors. I've only ever seen one box ever and it didn't have the gun in it! The kid maybe in black because Federation troopers wore black and so did some officers, Space Commander Travis being one.
ReplyDeleteWow, you had one Kev! I noticed on a forum that one Chris Tarrant was after one. Is that THE Chris Tarrant perchance?
DeleteI've never heard of him as a collector, but I suppose it's possible. You once published a guide to Blake's 7 merchandise from a DWB compendium, the gun in that was mine it was missing the stock.
DeleteAh, yes, I remember that. I've just seen an online update for B7 merchandise. I'll post the link.
DeleteThat art looks a bit like the Aurora Ilya Kuriakin UNCLE kit. But that's a full crouch, maybe the artist adapted it. Google Lens was no help at all!
ReplyDeleteYes, I thought of UNCLE Looey. I'm leaning towards Star Wars and the Mark Hamill black and white photoshoot. See the image I've added. What do you think?
DeleteHmmm, re-think. I've re-read Kev's initial comment. Looking at the troopers in Blake's 7, like Kevin said, the box art boys dark suit is probably a reflection of those, which makes more sense than borrowing from Star Wars. Picture added above.
DeleteAccording to Aurora Model Kits, by Thomas Graham, artist Mort Kunstler did the box tops for both of the two James Bond and two Man From U.N.C.L.E. kits.
ReplyDelete