Arto's Sears Super Sonic Jetliner

Re. your blog post on the subject, I sent you these photos of my orange Sears Super Sonic Jetliner back in 2022. 

It came up here in Finland, in great working condition and with a survivor original box. It is an imposing, sizeable toy in its 62 cm long box.

Sad news, the Suomenlinna Toy Museum which featured my space toy exhibition back in 2017 has closed down after 40 years. Still reeling from the shock.

https://www.hs.fi/helsinki/art-2000011053511.html

Arto

Helsinki Base

ARTO'S RECENT FUN FINDS

The best find was the no feet "regular" Pez from the 1960's. In regulars, there is no head other than a simple mechanism to eject the candy. These are very desirable in good condition.

Have you anything like this?

I also found a stack of unused colouring books from the U.S. Wondering how they ended up here, the answer was simple: they were all printed in Finland! Must be samples preserved by some printing house. 

I picked up this Fun Time Coloring Book for its marvellous cover illustration, which reminds me of Maurice Sendak's wonderful children's book Where the Wild Things Are.

Arto

Helsinki Base

To LP or not to LP? That is the Motorcycle

Hi,

I picked up the the LP Space Motorcycle this new year. It is a wondrous beauty! 

The motorcycle itself is in mint condition, with handle bar still in a separate plastic bag (will I ever be able to open it, just to see the motorcycle complete - wouldn't bet on it). The box is wonderfully in shape, but has some slight water damage on one end and one picture panel. Still, the box displays nicely too

Only when I received the item, I noticed that there are two different box versions! Just compare the photos attached. My example has the LP logo and item number, #106, printed on the picture panel. while the Alphadrome example has none [below left]. 

I wonder which came first, and why there are two editions of this elusive space toy? The colour of the motorcycle dashboard is also different between the toys themselves.

Anyone else got one?

Arto

Helsinki Base

image: Alphadrome: LP and Spanish versions

Arto's Miniature TVs

Here's a small selection of miniature televisions in my collection. 

The flicker Mickey and the 1980's bank promotional flicker robots are sharpeners, the taller Mickey television has a rollable paper strip with various images.

The rest are View-Master type see-thru viewers.

Arto

Helsinki Base

Saved! Arto's Fosta & Tudor Rose Rocket Banks

As an addendum to my comment on Ed's fab October post about the Fosta 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! Have you got one readers?

Arto

Helsinki Base

BLOGGIVERSARY PARTY PIECE : ARTO'S FANTASTIC LP SPACE EXPLORING BOX SET #234

The otherwise dry summer of toy scouting saved the best for last. The Juthbacka mega fair which attracts more than 400 sellers from Finland and Sweden provided this rare Space Exploring set by LP, or Lik Be Plastic and Metal Factory of Hong Kong. A photo of its contents can be found in Hong Kong Toys '72 magazine (photo courtesy of Paul V's Triang Spacex Toys website).

With an item number 234, this beautiful space diorama includes a LP 104 Space Rocket with a chromed double-disc nose antenna and spaceman, white/orange moon base station, red Mercury capsule (missing hatch), two moon rocks and four golden astronauts. A bit odd an addition is the miniature army jeep (or "moon buggy") with a mounted gun. The box measures 23 x 10 x 10 cm.

What’s new about the box are the small promotional pictures of boxes of other LP space toys, namely LP 102 Moon-Explorer Car with a missile launcher (item number unknown for this variant), LP 103 Space Explorer, and LP 104 Space Rocket included in this very set.

Arto

Helsinki Base

Primrose Space Race Sweet Cigarettes Found!

Just wanted to share this totally unexpected find.

This packet of Primrose Space Race Sweet Cigarettes was placed between decks of playing cards at a local antiques shop. The empty packet with great graphics would have been the find of the day in itself, but with contents still there it is a little miracle!

As we did not have sweet cigarettes (but liquorice pipes instead) when kids, this was my first sighting of those cigs reminding me of little blackboard chalks with one end tipped in red. Also the collectable card, in this case no. 18 of 50, was present in the packet.

There seems to be a lot of these 1969 Space Race cards around, but not so many empty packets and even fewer full ones.

Arto

Helsinki Base

ARTO'S TELSALDA TOY CAMERA GUN

Last week reader and blog friend Arto visited Forssa toy fair and got this interesting plastic Telsalda 35mm camera. It says "Made in Hong Kong No. 201", on the inner rim.

Googling it, myself and Arto agreed it was the same as the more common Rayline toy camera gun.

The Rayline version was released on a blister card as Secret Camera Gun 7.

It was also available in the 1965 Rayline Secret Agent 707 Counter Spy Set, an unlicensed Man from Uncle knockoff.

This Rayline Counter Spy set appears to have been 'inspired' by the licensed Marx UNCLE Counterspy Outfit. This is its display as featured on Worthpoint.

In the mid-Noughties I set about putting together this set in its official card box, which I blogged about on MC previously in 2013, when I got everything I had out on the garden table.

Despite further googling, neither Arto nor myself could find any further info or images of his new TELSALDA version of the camera gun.

Can you?

We Were Talking about Pencil Cases .....

Hi Woodsy, 

here are some of my Giant robot/Anime pencil cases, mostly bought in the late 70's, to mid 80's. I have a few more, but this will give you the idea...

The ones on the left are very cheap construction, being made from vacuum formed styrene trays with a cardboard cover, heat sealed inside vinyl sheeting. They are almost all held shut with magnetic latches.

The more luxurious double layer versions boast two opening covers. These feature cover art with Bootleg Gundam, Southern Cross aka Robotech Masters and Arrivederci Space Cruiser Yamato.

The two edge on examples aren't Sci Fi, but both have much more complex locking systems. The lower has a toggle clasp and the upper a weird radio tuner style that requires the user to twiddle the knobs until the needles in the dial match up!

The Crown jewel of this small collection is this transforming Daitarn 3 robot which features a number of easily lost components!

See what you think.

Looey

Oz Base

SPACE CASE

 

Pencil cases were and are a staple of space race celebration.

Something every kid had, pencils and pens were the upright heralds of a brighter, sleeker future [did it arrive?]

This old Italian case by Regis is a fabulous example and I love how the perspective of the capsule is captured in the design. I saw it on auction.

Did you have a pencil case readers?

8

Arto has reminded me of his fab space pencil cases. Click on the label below, Arto's Pencil Cases!

ARTO'S PENCIL CASES

First up are some samples from a huge lot of unused pencil cases from the Sixties and early Seventies. 

These are salesman's samples saved by a purchasing agent of our largest department store of yore, Stockmann. They all come fully equipped with S.Y.M "Arabian" colour pencils and other useful items.

The set of four pencil cases has similar space motif but different locking mechanisms. Some of them still have salesman's tags on them.

The pencil case with an interesting curved form has a space ship on a mission on one side, a Jumbo Jet about to take off on the other. This one is marked S.Y.M on the inside, which I why I assume they all are by the same maker providing the contents as well. The patent number on this one is 749086. Could S.Y.M be a British (HK) company?

Anyone else got anything like these?

Then something domestic. The translucent rocket money boxes are by a Finnish company Prevex, presumably from early Seventies.

You got anything like this?

Arto