REDBOX SPACE ACTON ASTRONAUT

I saw this online and it brought back memories of my own Redbox astronaut and deep sea diver in their characteristic triangular carton.

We've featured many of these over the years and they always make me think of Christmas, getting one on Christmas morning back in the mid to late Sixties.

Did you have one?

Did you have any other Action Man type figures?

LIGHTING UP CHRISTMAS: THE 707 REDBOX LIGHTER

 

I so remember these Redbox 707 mini-pistols and the plastic bullet-firing cigarette lighter they came in. Completely steeped in spy mania it came straight out of James Bond's toy box.

These two plastic pistols featured on online sale so have safety stoppers pushed in.

Here's a neat little see-through case of the Redbox plastic ammo.

Did you get something like this one Christmas readers?

BIRTHDAY SPECIAL! PAUL WATSON'S REDBOX ASTRONAUT - COMPLETED!

Hi Woodsy 

A few new photographs of my final iteration of the Redbox astronaut. Some of this set was purchased for me in 1970 when my parents couldn't find the official Action man suit.

It was played with to virtual destruction and then 45 years later I went looking for the other bits to make it up again.!

A couple of people have insisted that it had a large KO space sled with it BUT I only remember the near copy of the Action Man astronaut set.

Hope they're of some use to those chronicling the range.

ATB

Paul Watson

Return to Base

The Cold War may have been a trying time for adults in the U.S, but for space crazy kids, it was a boom time. A little inconvenience like the threat of carpet bombing by enemy aircraft or ICBM's dropping out of a dawn sky was not going to stop toy manufacturers making a fast buck before a nuclear holocaust affected consumer spending. As a result, companies like Remco, Topper and Deluxe Reading produced some amazingly complex and involved toys, themed on the idea of countering an enemy missile strike. Needless to say, these expensive toys were slavishly copied by the small Hong Kong manufacturers to be snapped up by an eager audience.

A fine example of this plagiarism is the Delamare Rocket Launching set, blatantly ripped off from Remco's Voice Control Rocket Base. The Delamare set uses elements from the Apollo Moon Exploring range, such as the conical rocket, which unusually, has been produced in bronze, with two upper sections to extend the body and give it a more missile like shape. The anti aircraft missile bank on the left, has been fitted with two non-firing launchers taken from the LP Moon Bus (themselves copied from Lone Star Modern Army series years earlier). The lifting arm between them is also featured on one of the Moon Vehicles sold in abundance too: https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2010/01/strange-tractor.html

The whole set is neatly finished off with some grey astronauts helpfully glued onto the superstructure, a miniscule green Helicopter fixed to the pad, a small army truck and a flight of three chrome silver F111A swing wing fighters, hideously out of scale, glued to the back of the box. My example came in a battered box, with a Xmas Greetings sticker still attached. Its plain that the toy had never been removed from its pack, the base was securely wired in and everything was in place. Its amusing to see the note on the front reads - THIS IS A TOY - just in case the buyer was tempted to try and defend his personal airspace.

Next on the copyists list comes another Missile Array from Redbox Toys. Originally made by Topper Toys for the Cape Canaveral set, this little battery also appears as part of the Apollo Moon Exploring series, by Imperial, but exchanging the rocket launchers for Radar Dishes.: 

http://www.triangspacextoys.info/SpGAderv/APEX/ApEx304F.html

I originally had this, the Atlas Gantry and a Rocket Transporter in the seventies, each coming separately window boxed with a handful of white figures. The semi circular Atlas Gantry actually fires the missile and the three carried by the transporter could be used with it. Unlike the big Topper base, the transporter only came with a single missile design, although Multiple Toymakers did 'borrow' one of the other types for a slightly larger 'Titan' missile in a rack toy.

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2014/08/failure-to-launch.html

Deluxe Reading probably produced the great grandaddy of all rocket bases with the elaborate Operation X-500, which took all the elements from previous releases, beefed them up somewhat and added extra features like lights and moveable controls. It fairly bristles with rockets and gadgets and even has a train to deliver the interchangeable nosecones to the gantry, to be lifted by crane onto the rocket! Its complexity probably worked in its favour, as to my knowledge, the Hong Kong companies never managed to reproduce a small version of it, although they did come close!

Finally this fine Cape Kennedy rack toy, with powerful spring launched rocket and ejectable satellite!

The gantry helpfully rolls back from the rocket and a large well-detailed radar dish tracks the ascent.

Card artwork is especially fine, with clear renditions of Mercury Redstone type rocket and instructions for use on the inner pack.

Safety conscious, the rocket was tethered to the launcher by string, the upper stage springing out to push the circular satellite into space as the rocket is stopped in its rapid ascent by the string. Quite a powerful ascent it is too, untethered the rocket can easily reach a good twenty feet.

REDBOX SPY

Pic; Rob T

PROJECT SWORD? NO! PROJECT MARS

S.W.O.R.D wasn't the only project around.

There was Project Mars!

This lovely plastic rocket was launched by Red Box ... or is it Redbox?

T in a Circle [Tai Hing] did something similar called the Apollo-X.

I associate Red Box more with spy attache cases.

There's a whiff of the Project SWORD Probe Force 2 fuselage as well now I'm looking at it.

Have you got a Project Mars toy or similar?

Pics borrowed from Worthpoint.

RED BOX GYROSCOPE

I like this Red Box Gyroscope Space Ship. The picture was on Worthpoint.

I had something similar as a kid but I don't think it was Red Box.

Anyways, I like this toy and the box art.

Did you have one?

ACTION DIVERS

Tony's action guys are quite superb so here's two more divers to add extra fizz to bath-time. 

Below is my boxed Deep Sea Action Diver by WF, which I had as a young spelunker and fortunately still have one.

It looks like a relative of the action astronaut, which Tony featured today and has the same triangular box along with the side card art.

A quite beautiful toy full of detail and accessories and clearly inspired by its dearer Action Man original, which I also adored as a kid.

Reader Ferryman has another type of Action Deep Sea Diver of the diver.

This carded figure set was the much simpler blow-moulded Deep Sea Diver by Ary.

I like the look of the backing card art. This was on Ebay years ago.

This one co-branded Laurie Toy appeared on Worthpoint revealing the attractive backing card art.

I actually sold a loose version of this for a friend years ago too.

His face normally looked like this courtesy of Worthpoint.

and this one featured on Marianadieti.com and looks almost Action Man like!

Did you have any divers?

TONY K'S HONG KONG MEN

The Deep Sea Diver is a 12 inch action figure by Redbox. 

Sadly, a red valve is missing from the dive helmet of this example. Just like the GI Joe and Action Man Deep Sea Divers, the Redbox copy was also equipped with tubes enabling him to dive and resurface. 

The 8 inch Action Parachutist box is marked M Toy and BBRB, Hong Kong. The actual figure is identical to the one used above and was probably a cheap generic HK doll which was readily available at the time. 

The outfit was probably inspired by the GI Joe Fantastic Freefall set. Basic parachute toys, many from Hong Kong, were ever popular with kids. This one being more detailed than most. 

The smaller 8 inch Astronaut in the pics is the twin of the one now enjoying new adventures on Moonbase. 

I had three originally. One was launched into orbit as part of the eBay Expeditionary Mission some years ago. The other two were put away until now. 

The larger Astronaut is also a 12 inch action figure by Redbox, marketed as 'Operation Astronaut'. This version was influenced by Mattel's Major Matt Mason, although other versions, with different designs also were released.

Tony K