An ICBM under the Floor!

Hello,

Attached a couple of photos of an empty box for an Atlas space rocket, which I bagged from a Finnish auction site Tori.fi. 

After purchase the seller told me that it was found under the floor of they house during renovation. And the house was originally built in 1951!

According to internet hits it seems to be quite scarce. Shame that the rocket has not survived, but the box has great graphics for display.

Is this something you have seen before?

Arto

Helsinki Base

The Zython Figure in Mattel's 1977 German Catalogue

Cor! Here's Arto's original Mattel Zython figure, as it first appeared on the Catacombs website, stood in front of two fabulous Star Maidens dolls.

Here's the image link.

https://catacombs.space1999.net/main/merc/toys/ivmtmattelzythonfinland.jpg

and Arto's recent happy development and very lucky for the blog  -  after years and years of being stashed away, he managed to locate his rare Mattel 1977 German Spielzeug dealer catalogue, showing Mattel's Space 1999 action figures including the elusive Zython.

Enjoy these special photos.

[two above images: courtesy of Arto H.]

AURORA, MEGO AND CO: ARTO'S FANTASTIC JUTHBACKA FINDS

Arto has been kind enough to share pictures of his recent and amazing haul of vintage goodies at the Juthbacka vintage fair on the western coast of Finland.  The Juthbacka fair attracts sellers from Sweden too. 

A super post to end the summer, Feast your eyes!

*

Aurora long box monster kits and Mego monsters, Super Heroes, Star Trek/ Space 1999

Assorted Super Heroes: Batcopter, Secret Wars, Super Powers and an Italian Diabolik figure, a candy box top!

Micronauts, Choc Rockets and Car [I have cropped this image and removed an amazing item that, with Arto's permission, will feature on the blog's anniversary  - our 16th bloggiversary - on September 15th. Watch this space!]

FOR ARTO IT STARTED IN EDINBURGH – WITH A SCREWDRIVER!

Soon after my toy collecting began in 2002 and whilst browsing the internet wonderland, I stumbled upon a Project S.W.O.R.D. Checklist compiled by one Paul Woods. 

I was instantly smitten with the colourful fleet of concept space vehicles, and with the fervent enthusiasm and good humour evident in the toy depictions by the checklist’s author.

July 12th, 2003. Edinburgh, Scotland. On the previous day at the Hamilton Toy Museum in Callander, we were given a tip about a toy shop worth visiting in Edinburgh. It was called Now and Then, at 7-9 West Crosscauseway. On the street we were greeted by a simple a-frame sign with a word “TOYS” written on it. Very promising!

The shop itself was a set of adjacent rooms connected by narrow passages, brimming with all sorts of antiques, including the best collection of old toys we had seen so far. Although most items were placed in display cabinets, there was an air of sweet disarray which added to the magic of the place.

The shopkeeper Alan and his girlfriend Hetty were very friendly, helpful and infinitely patient with my endless questions about toys related to Century 21 and Gerry Anderson’s output. I was such a newbie! As our discussion turned to Project Sword, my friend remembered catching a glimpse of a red arrow-like toy plane in the shop window.

There it was, the Re-Entry Task Force 1 in all its sleekness! My first-ever Project Sword toy contact was true! Alan was not aware that the plane with simple “T1” decals was part of the Sword toy line, so I was happy to reciprocate at least that bit of information.

But there was a downside to this discovery. TF1 was missing its rear exhaust. Huge disappointment! Suddenly, Hetty remembered that there should be another example of the same toy somewhere. Having located it, we were able to see that its nose was broken off – but the black rear exhaust was there.

Solution? Alan handed me a small screwdriver, with which I moved the exhaust of the broken example to the incomplete but otherwise fine TF1. My first-ever Project Sword toy, mended by myself! I was overjoyed, paying £50 for it plus three chosen C21 annuals. Hetty gave me a green Clarks shoebox where this prized possession travelled safe for the rest of our journey. (Still have the box too.)

From there on, I would continue to augment my Project Sword collection through eBay purchases. It would take six more years until I made another significant contact, with one Paul Woods, our Woodsy, through the Moonbase Central Blog he had just started in 2008. The rest is (personal) history!

Arto

Helsinki Base

'Project SWORD' Excerpt from my travel diary   

ARTO'S AWESOME ACQUISITIONS

Woodsy

Sending you these piccies of my recent antico mondo acquisitions.

First up is the X-50 Space Racer, a rare carded version. The blister is in tatters and the racer is missing its nose spike.



Space Capsule & Flying Saucer set on the other hand is in pretty neat condition. I think the combination here is better than the sum of its parts.

In addition, a couple of HK bin toys I came across on the Cleaning Day last Saturday.

I just love this pair of small Power Squadron speed boats, both the colours and the flower stickers. Anything with a flower on it, and I am sold!

Topo Gigio Circus presents Topo the trapeze artist. These kind of HK toys are quite common, but not too many have survived bagged.

What do you think?

Arto

Helsinki Base

See-Through Jumbo

Sorting out my load of Jokimaa car boot sale finds, I wanted to share with you this most interesting discovery and a bit of HK toy salvage - A 747 See-Thru Jumbo Jet!

Made by a Hong Kong manufacturer SN with item number 308 C, the Jumbo Jet has folding wings to fit it into the window box with an illustrated airspace insert.

The see-thru section of the two-floor cabin shows both passenger seating and upper lounge area.

This particular example seems to have been a salesman's sample, judging from the partially removed sticker on the box header.

I just love the idea of see-through / cross-section toys. Puts me instantly in a Nuclear Ferry mode!  Enjoy!

Arto

Helsinki Base

Satellite of Love

Some things a worth the wait.

Even a long one.

This one took me more than a decade!

The Satellite money box was made by a Finnish money box manufacturer MK-tuote in the early 1960's and was probably one of their first designs. 

Even though there are at least five colour variants and an illustrated box it came in, they very rarely come up for sale. 

Complete examples are even more hard to find as the soft plastic antennas are detachable and there is a separate clear plastic display stand too. 

The orb measures 9 cm in diameter.

Hope you like it.

Arto

Helsinki Base

Lorem Ipsum! The Latin Doll's Box Mystery

I thought you might find this case interesting. 

On our way back to north, we stopped at an inaugural Vääksy Antique Fair. A popular event from the start, as you may witness from the photo attached.

At the fair, I came across this British Airways Air Stewardess doll made by Rexard Dolls in the late Seventies - early Eighties.

What caught my eye was a couple of text passages in Latin on the backside of the box, starting with "Lorem ipsum dolor sit nonnomy..." and followed by "ullamcorpor suscipit lab..." on the lower part of the box.

Is British Airways trying to promote Latin as a high-altitude lingua franca? How odd and exciting!

Unfortunately, the answer is quite mundane - and therefore twice as exciting!

Lorem ipsum is a long textual passage of corrupted Latin, a kind of gibberish used by graphic designers as a placeholder for texts to be added later on. In other words, lorem ipsum passages should never end up in final products, as they are only indicating the place where the proper text should be added.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum

Ergo, the box embodies a significant lapse in quality control - a veritable lapsus linguae one could say!

Do you recall a similar case readers?

 Quite unique I would think. I find these kinds of unintentional lapses or errors most interesting - and collectable too!

This last picture is from eBay showing a later, corrected edition of the box back.

Arto

Helsinki Base

ARTO'S UPDATED T IN A CIRCLE/ TAI HING TOYS CHECKLIST

Here's the updated Tai Hing Checklist. 

If any corrections / additions come to mind, please let me know. I have tried to stick to confirmed sightings of names and markings on the toys & boxes.

Arto

Helsinki Base

FUN IN FINLAND

Arto's fabulous collecting never ceases to amaze me. Finland really is the centre of the vintage universe. Its quite incredible what turns up in the far North.

Some of Arto's recent finds include a rare Finnish Flintstones cornflakes teepee and the blog legend that is the 'Space Boat' [Ebay]. This is only the second one Arto or I have ever seen. This second example is yellow rather than the white we saw decades ago.

Arto also recently visited Vintageland, a huge Spring fair at Aino Arena, where all sorts of goodies were on offer. Here are two of Arto's snaps and also the venue's own promo [Petri Matero].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ve2w6sw_cM

What do you think readers?

Are you going to a collectables, vintage or toy fair this year?

ARTO'S ATOMICS

To celebrate my first two original darts for the Tudor Rose Atomic Ray Pistol, I took this group shot of my arsenal by far. The green one and the black ones are 1950's Finnish clones by Deborex.

Enjoy!

Arto

Helsinki Base

READERS SPOTTING TOYS: ARTO'S SEVENTIES TOYS IN SEE NO EVIL

Just watched See No Evil (1971), a cherry of Brit horror of the early Seventies. Not sure if you are aware of these toy shots in the opening credits, at 0.55 mark on the YouTube clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELkRmGb-NzU

Arto

Helsinki Base

SEEING RED: ARTO'S SECRET SERVICE FIELD GLASSES

I was chuffed to come across this little children's Secret Service Field Glass toy at a local antique shop.

Made in Japan, it even has a small compass helping the user to orientate.

Surprise! It turns out to be a Washington D.C. souvenir! What better disguise for a secret agent than an innocuous tourist eyeing the sights! How clever - How wicked!

Agent Arto

Helsinki Base

PS. I Cannot make the shop name on the price tag. The Union - ?

ARTO CLEANED UP!

Last month's bi-annual Clean-up Day was quite productive, finding this 1/12 scale Bandai Ferrari Flat 12 kit from 1968. 

I was a bit gobsmacked to come across such a rare bird, unstarted and all!

What do you think?

Arto

Helsinki Base

ARTO'S SPACE GLIDERS

 To complete this year's Space Glider thread here's Arto's beautiful fleet too.

From L to R:

Orange Hover NASA Space Tract*, Tarheel Grey Space Glider*, Durham Green Space Glider, Century 21 Grey Space Glider, Hoover orange Space Glider.

*= Not in the Moonbase Fleet.

Have you got a Space Glider?

OPERATION FINLANDIA: A BIRTHDAY DOSSIER

Earlier in the year Arto got hold of the Probe Force 3 forerunner, the Hover Rocket XL9.

Sadly it had no fins.

Wanting to see it complete for Arto I whipped up some plans based on known examples and sent them to someone who's fab work we know!

Modelling maestro Kevin took it from there and from nothing he created three lovely new red fins complete with riveting!

Here they are tested on Kev's own Probe Force 3.

and fin-ally here they are looking just great in situ on Arto's new Rocket XL9 ....

... in Helsinki Base,

Finland!

BLOGGIVERSARY MYSTERY: Arto's De Havilland Vampire by Telex

Telex was a prolific Finnish toy manufacturer in the 1950's, with a famous slogan "Telex For Your Kids Too!".

Most of their toys were (most likely unlicensed) copies of designs by British and American manufacturers such as Palitoy, Marx and Renwal, but also of Siku in Germany. Their claim to space toy fame was the clone of the X-300 Space Cruiser by Pyro / Kleeware.

Some time ago I came across this hitherto unknown model by Telex, of the British De Havilland Vampire jet fighter. It is a small plastic airplane of only 9 cm in length and with a wingspan of 11 cm. It came on a foil-coated backing card measuring 15 x 15 cm.

It does not have any maker's mark, only text VAMPIRE on the underside. For such a minute model, it has quite an elaborate retractable landing gear - the fact that is stated as a sales pitch on the backing card. The wheels glow in the dark too (they still do!)

Most of the Telex toys have been traced back to their origins abroad, but this one is still a mystery. Any suggestions welcome!

Arto

Helsinki Base