MATT HELM SILENCED

 

This Spanish toy catalogue from 1968 had a page of spy and detective toy guns.

Matt Helm was not on my radar as a kid in the Sixties at all. In face I don't think I'd heard of him until I started collecting old paperback novels in the 90's. I recall one called The Silencers maybe.

Matt Helm was big enough in Spain in '68 to have his own toy weapons set with silencer and all. is this a re-issue of an American set?

Did you have any Matt Helm toys or collectables?

MATT HELM VINYL AND SCHMEISSER

 

Beginning a look at Matt Helm collectables I start with this LP record I spotted. Its on You Tube of you want to listen, the Theme from the Silencers.

I love how the producers have thrown together the cover image, two starlets wearing hip little next to an artexed wall and brandishing hefty weaponry.

The presumably real machine gun on the right - a Schmeisser maybe? - reminds me of the plastic toy rifle seen in an old blog legend of ours, the wonderful Gerry Anderson Starcruiser Mission Kit by Thomas Salter Toys.

But the schmeisser isn't the toy gun that made it to the shops.

I'll load that one later this week!