The Day of the Attic

Secret Sam took the call in his attic office.

The Moonbase toy collection had to be protected at all costs. Stop.

The mission is go! You're on your own Sam.

Over and out.

The Secret's Out: My Custom Topper Secret Sam Rifle and Attaché Case

 As a young agent I adored my Secret Sam attache case by Topper.

The black plastic case contained all the parts to make the secret rifle, together with a high scope, a message missile and camera.

The camera and toy bullet-firing pistol could be operated even when the case was shut! 

The camera actually took real pictures! 

One of the best toys I ever had, the rifle put together was a thing of beauty.

Here's the 1960s black and white TV ad.

https://youtu.be/5DkYTRYB6tU?feature=shared

After having so much fun on the Golden Sniper, I thought I'd have a crack at Secret Sam. 

I bought a suitable toy rifle on eBay for a tenner.

And I dropped on with this old Delsey briefcase for just £2 on eBay.

So, after a good few hours tinkering, sawing, glueing and painting, I came up with this:

The spirit of Secret Sam: scope, orange bits, chrome discs: I tried to get them all in. 

A car booter gave me two black plastic pipes earlier in the week and I just had to use them as a massive silencer. I know it's outside the 'scope' of Secret Sam, but hey, it's junior espionage! 

You can see the DIY orange message missile below the barrel.

I was going to saw off the stock to replicate Topper's detachable one, but it would have meant cutting through good battery wiring in the rifle, which powers some amazing light and sound effects, so I opted to leave it as is.

Besides, the rifle was a fit for the case, albeit very snug.

For the sake of completeness I made a white case tray and a small Sam pistol and added some toy bullets and an instamatic camera courtesy of my late Father in Law.

Oh, and that DIY message missile, which I forgot to put in.

Hope you like it.

Case closed!

Home Run! Our Secret Sam Bazooka Bat

 Here's our latest custom.

Topper's Secret Sam Bazooka Bat.

The wonderful card art is by Bill and I sourced a modern plastic beige baseball bat and white ball, emulating as far as I could the originals. 

This custom take on the bat concludes our Secret Sammery and, together with the Cane Shooter, form our personal homage to the mighty Topper.

Here they are as a pair. See what you think.

Now in the transit station - our bookshelf - before going into storage, here's one more Topper shot.

Next up, the Man from UNCLE Pistol Cane.

Secret Admirers: our Secret Sam Cane Shooter

 With our Lone Star swords done and dusted, here's the first of our two Secret Sam homages.

This is our updated Topper Secret Sam Cane Shooter.

Rather than a golden lion's head, this cane has a rather snazzy modern golden snake's head.

As usual, Bill's wonderful card art makes all the difference. I sourced the pharaoh's sceptre from a joke shop on eBay and shortened it.

Hope you like it. The secret's out! 

Nobody Does it Wetter

 I'm pretty sure my Missus was a secret agent in a previous life. She has field craft. She just knows stuff.

Last year she left matches in a caravan loo we were sharing with friends. Apparently lighting one rids the smallest room of unwelcome nasty niffs! Who knew!

This year I am looking at wet paper balls.

 What are they? Well, turns out that soaking sensitive documents in water and rolling them shredded into balls renders them impossible to read. Once dry they can bec Chucked in the recycling bin! 

Obviously if you have a shredder or incinerator then the above wet work is unnecessary.

I am planning on issuing my Missus with a Secret Sam Attache Case before SCMURSCH blows her cover!

This post will self-destruct after a short nap.

AN OLD FLAME: FIRING AND PUFF PIPE

 This was the kind of cheap spy rack toy I loved as a budding agent. The Bullet Firing and Puff Pipe by Woolbro. I think I saw this on Etsy so saved a pic. The grey plastic ammo looks a lot like the stuff you got in Redbox spy toys too.

And look at that header art! I'm shaken and stirred!

You?

SPANISH SAM

Being a huge fan of Secret Sam I was intrigued by this Spanish Sam lookalike rifle bottom left in the above catalogue page.

You can just about make out its name, Pery Nauta.

Browsing a bit more I found these snaps of a different Pery Nauta box and the toy rifle, translating as a space rifle.

Looking good, I still prefer the Secret Sam lookalike and hope to find better pictures of that one too.

Did you have a Secret Sam toy rifle and case?

SECRET SPAM

 I couldn't help noticing these items labelled as Secret Sam, which of course was the name of the famous Topper toy spy case.

Completely unrelated we have here the Secret Sam CB hidden auto antenna!

Probably more akin to the Topper case here we have a Secret Sam Super Snoop by Kingsway!

Which other famous toy names have another life? Johnny Seven? Strange Change? Spirograph? What do you reckon?

THE SECRET SAM CAMERA: A LICENCE TO CLICK!

 As a secret agent kid in the Sixties I adored spy toys.

One of my favourites was the 1965 Secret Sam attaché case by Topper.

I can see it now, a large black plastic case jam packed with spy gold like a fully compartmentalised rifle with detachable pistol and orange secret message missiles. The case even fired plastic toy bullets from the side! How damn cool was that!

Nothing really brings back the Sixties for me like Secret Sam!

Did you have a Secret Sam case?

As a collector and toy trader I've loved getting back various Secret Sam cases. I've completed a couple of incomplete sets and sold one or two cases on my old toy stall, which was fun, discussing classic spy toys with customers - in hushed tones of course!

I think only my Topper Johnny Seven One Man Army rifle topped my Topper Secret Sam case!

Here's a vintage Secret Sam TV ad from America when kids met other kids in trench coats and handed over attaches! How fab!

One of the neatest features of the Topper case was the secret camera. Real pictures of dodgy bad guys could be taken by clicking the button on the side of the case ...... and it really WORKED!

The detailed instruction sheet explained everything about the working camera and how to insert the film, standard 127 roll. No film was included in the case but it was widely available back then I imagine.

Alas I don't recall ever getting the film or taking any photographs, despite clicking that camera till it hurt.

Fortunately the Secret Sam camera is still popular among camera buffs and you can still see what sort of snaps it took online! I could only find black and white results but I understand the camera also took colour snaps too.

Here's a fabulous example of a modern Secret Sam camera enthusiast on Flickr, Tony Kemplen and his gallery of superb monochrome Secret Sam photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_kemplen/49459668008/in/photostream/

Out of curiosity I tried to find some 127 film available to buy now but found it hard to locate. One rare stockist, Analogue Wonderland, had this bundle for £14.

I wonder of any of you ever took any Secret Sam photographs?

Do you still own one of the 127 film cameras?

The Secret Sam camera also appeared in another Topper set, the Secret Sam Camera Book, a toy I have only ever seen in pictures online. 

Did you have one?

THERE'S MERIT IN BEING A SPECIAL AGENT

 I'm fond of the old Merit Special Agent set. I didn't have it as a kid but later as a collector I found an incomplete one at a car boot sale. I spent a good few years trying to complete it but with only a little success, replacing the retractable knife only.

So it's always a thrill to see complete sets still around and here's one I clocked on eBay so I kept the pics.  Doesn't look like there's anything missing!

I discovered that Merit released the toy sprung knife separately on an Army header card. I never found anything else released separately.

 The last picture shoes this set appearing in the Argos catalogue in 1974. It was for sale at £2.25. Wow! Did you have one?

Did you have a set like this?

SECRET SUE OOAK

Check out this custom Secret Sue doll set. Its one of a kind aka OOAK. Have you come across Secret Sue from the Sixties?

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/k.e.s_kloset/17367735

I assume Secret Sue was the dolly answer to the more weaponised Secret Sam, who's attache case was one of my all time faves as a kid!

HAYNES' SECRET SAM CAMERA

My friend has just bought the Hayne's make-your-own camera on Amazon.

After a couple of hours this is what she came up with, a cool looking boxy reflex plastic camera.

I was amazed how much it reminded me of my own boxy plastic camera housed in my beloved Secret Sam attache case when I was a junior spy.

Did you have a Secret Same case?

Here's its original TV ad courtesy of You Tube. How cool is that!