WILL O'S TV21 TIE-INS: LINCOLN STINGRAY AND ARM FINS

 

TV21 comics and advertised toys from Will Osborne's collection

UK

Did you have either of these toys [both seen before on Moonbase, see the labels below]

COMIC ADVENTURES WITH STINGRAY ARM FINS

 Occasionally I do find myself buying the odd item that is really quite superfluous to my toy or model collections, but, nevertheless still has a strong nostalgic pull.

One such item is this bagged set of 1960’s Stingray Arm Fins from Morlaine ltd.

Now, they’re not something I’m planning to use anytime soon, but I remember them being advertised in TV Century 21, back in 1965, so I thought I’d take a punt!

The red plastic fins are supposed to help you swim faster ‘like Troy and Marina’, and are designed with ‘supersonic speed holes’ to’ help you speed along’ in the water!

Obviously these swimming aids are highly unlikely to enhance your swimming speed to Mach 1, but back in 1965 I can imagine a young Stingray fan bobbing about in the local swimming baths who might have  felt there was a definite improvement to his, or her swimming technique while testing the things!

The Fins came with a free ‘WASP underwater agent’ badge, automatically making the wearer a Stingray swimming ace. Mine is plastic covered tin, although some sets apparently came with just a cardboard version.

Another plus point for me is artwork on the header card which was done by artist, Rab Hamilton.

Rab was also the artist who drew the comic strip adverts promoting the Stingray Arm Fins, featuring the Stingray crew using the Arm Fins to get them out of underwater trouble.

When it comes to the artist, I can’t say I know much about Rab Hamilton, : A web search revealed his real name was Alex Hamilton, and occasionally used the name Robert or Bob Hamilton.

As to Rab’s contributions to Gerry & Sylvia Anderson’s TV series spin off publications in the early sixties, I know Rab is credited as one of the artists in the 1965 Fireball XL5 annual, and he worked on several of the TV Century 21 specials and annuals. He is probably best known to TV Century 21 readers for his work on the Agent 21 strip.  He did work on some other Stingray related publications during the sixties too, including illustrating the Marina comic strip in Lady Penelope comic, and working on both of the sixties Stingray annuals and the 1965 TV Century 21Stingray story book.

So, anyone else have aquatic adventures wearing a set of Stingray Arm Fins?