Aurora's Sealab on the Moon

Hi Woodsy,

I am currently reading a wonderful book called Aurora Monster Scenes – The Most Controversial Toys of a Generation, by Andrew P. Yanchus (who worked at Aurora in the 1960s and 1970s) and Dennis L. Prince, StarComm Publications, 2014. 

While it is mainly about the Monster Scenes kits from 1971, there is a lot of information in it about other Aurora projects.

In the 1970s Aurora was looking for ways to cut costs, and get some additional use out of its older moulds. One of these was the US Navy Sealab III underwater research facility.

This kit, of a real underwater research base, had not sold well, and the moulds had been expensive. According to Andy Yanchus, some thought had been given to ‘providing a new Moon terrain base and some space-suited astronauts’, to turn the kit in to a Lunar outpost.

That sounds like a great idea to me, but it does not look as though this was ever more than a suggestion. There are no illustrations in the book of what the proposed Lunar Outpost might have looked like, or what colour it might be.

The Sealab kit has a copyright notice on the underside of its seabed base for Aurora Plastics Corporation, 1970. Kit number 721-400 (the price extension to the number means that this was a $4.00 kit), was only in the Aurora catalogues for 1970 and 1971.

In 2017 the kit was re-issued by a company called Masterpiece Models. As the original mould had been destroyed, a new mould for the kit had to be created.

The kit was again re-issued by Doll and Hobby Georgia in 2024, so you could make a do-it-yourself version of the Lunar Outpost. The only problem might be finding some suitable Astronaut figures to go with it, as the Sealab was moulded in the odd scale of 1/93rd.

There might be some 1/87th scale HO model railway figures that would work with the kit (perhaps modern firemen in fireproof suits and breathing gear ?). It might also work with HO/OO Airfix Astronauts, if these were posed in the foreground ?

Two photographs from Worthpoint

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Jefe's Pistola Submarina

 I'm in love! 

It's a Spanish metal toy harpoon gun!

 Seen in Todocollecion.

I don't think I've ever seen anything as beautiful!

James Bond's harpoon is paella!

You Little Squirt!

I love this little water transistor pistol. Just the kind of toy I loved as a kid in my eternal struggle with two big brothers! 

Did you have anything like this?

RISING GUN: THE JAPANESE TOY SUB MACHINE DR. WHO WATER PISTOL

 I recognised this as soon as I saw it online. A Japanese version of ....

... the 1960's Dr. Who Anti-Dalek Jet Immobiliser toy gun!

This Japanese version is green. My substitute "Billy gun" was blue.

This one is labelled Water Sub Machine Gun on the header ...

and on the toy body as well. Its got a bar code so its not that old.

Anyone got one of these?

William's LEM Sealab Explorer

Hi, I purchased one of these Sealab aquarium items today at a thrift store. I came across your website mentioning them. 

It doesn't appear to have been removed from the box as it looks tied down inside. The box says 1971. There is still plastic around the box as well.

Can anyone tell me anything more about it?

Thanks!

William B.

DEEP RISING: RISEN TWICE

I watched Deep Rising last night. I've seen it before but seeing as I'm a fan of sea monsters and always have been I thought I'd give it another whirl.

Deep Rising - which sounds like a baking term - is basically a combo of Under Siege and The Abyss. Its leading man is Treat Williams, a reliable B-lister, who I remember mostly from Hair, Flashpoint and Mulholland Falls. Amazingly he had an uncredited role in The Empire Strikes Back too.

The other actors include Anthony Heald who played Dr. Chilton in Silence of the Lambs, Famke Janssen who we know better as Jean Grey [she was also a Bond Girl but I didn't know that] and Kevin J. O'Connor, the gratingly whining Beni in the Mummy [his discordant whining voice being similar to that of Bobcat Goldthwait, the little guy who get's fired at the start of Scrooged].

I enjoyed Deep Rising second time round - a second wind you might say - and its appeal seems to have grown over the years generally. I imagine part of this is the involvement of Star Wars imagineers ILM and Rob Bottin the effects guru. The special FX in the film are top notch and I really like the slithering ravenous beastie as it plunges along the corridors of the stricken cruise-liner.

I understand that Harrison Ford was tipped to play the lead, which would obviously have given it blockbuster chops, but he turned it down.

Its original working title, Tentacle, isn't too bad. There was a schlocker called Tentacles in 1977, which is probably somewhere on the net to see.

The monster in the film is called Octalus, although I never heard the name used. It's a big fella that's for sure. I couldn't find any toy or kit versions of it, which is a shame.

Do you like Deep Rising? Can you recommend any other sea monster movies?

FILL IT UNDER THE TAP

Hi, this is my wife's Godzilla water pistol from the 80's.

Anyway, the next time you're talking about water pistols, I'm sure this would fit right in!

Cheers, 

Looey

Oz

Woodsy asks: has anyone else got any water pistols?

THE COUSTEAU

 

I thought this was a neat little carded set I saw on an old auction site, the Cousteau by Real Action. Could be quite modern.

A real mash-up with frogmen and a NASA space shuttle. Looks like they're looking for pirate treasure on the artwork!

I used to watch Jaques Cousteau on the telly when I was a kid too!

Would you have liked this set as a kid?

PROTECTING THE EGGS

Yesterday's playing involved dinosaurs too!

Missus Moonbase had hydrated some water balls last week and they made fantastic ....

dinosaur eggs!

Junior looked on in admiration just like all the dinosaurs!

In their true colours you can see how glossy they are. Talk about slippy!

We'll let the balls dry out now ready for next time we need to rehydrate them.

Maybe we should all do that for 3 months.

Dry out and then rehydrate!

kev's sutcliffe atomic sea wolf submarine

One toy I had as a kid that saw a lot of action in the bath was the clockwork Sea Wolf submarine. This would dive and surface due to its diving planes. Here are a couple of pictures of the one in my collection, including one of it in the bath!

Kevin

in a bit of a lather

Did vintage toys fare well in the baths of our youth?

What about Action Man? Did his joints loosen after lengthy dunkings?

What about a toy made for bathtime like the Billy Blastoff frogman? Did Billy stay intact or was it a bad idea by Eldon?

I never had any Sea Devils but they look like they could spear a rubber duck no problem. But were their aquatic credentials all Mattel marketing spin? Did they live for the water?

What's your experience of bath toys readers?

it'll be soapy this christmas!

After wrapping prezzies and sweeping leaves we've settled down to watch Nightmare Before Christmas, one of my must-see DVD's during the festive break.

Tim Burton really hit the nail on the head with Nightmare and its a well-deserved classic already, as much a part of Christmas TV as Raymond Brigg's The Snowman. The songs are simply wonderful and the characters to die for. I'm surprised its not been on tour as a musical ... or should that be gruesical! ha ha

The three Trick or Treaters in their bathtub always remind me of one of the first toys I found as a collector at a car boot sale on the early 1990's, a small Snoopy lead in his bathtub full of soap suds and scrubbing his back with a back brush! 

It was basically white plastic with red and black parts and friction drive. It was marked underneath with some odd Company name but I can't recall which. I adored that Snoopy!

Shortly after meeting Snoopy I came across a plastic cat sat next to an upturned water tub. He was dining on a large fish. It reminded me of Top Cat eating al fresco in an alley way and I fell in love with it.

It was only years later that I realised that the kite monogram underneath meant that it was a Jack Rosenthal toy, but by this stage I'd sold it! Should you ever wish to search for an image of this then be warned! - 'feasting pussy' is a porn search! Always include the words vintage, toy and plastic as well!

Any thread about large toy tubs can't not include that great cauldron of the Sixties featured on the Witch model by Aurora. 

The Witch was the last of the monster models that survived mine and my Brothers' childhood from the Sixties and Seventies. It came with me as a built-up to my first flat when I was 17 in 1978.

My big Bro moved in with his motorbikes, where he lived happily with the Witch on my wardrobe till 1983, when I returned from three years away in Europe to find it gone, missing, vamooshed! My big Bro had no idea where she'd gone and it marked the high tide mark of our monster model childhood.

My final dip in the water is a find I made in Germany a couple of years ago. Alas I found this but had no way of transporting it home so it remained on the market seller's table! 

The toy was a dolls' tin and plastic bathroom by the German toy maker Martin

Fuchs of Zindorf. Somewhere on it will be the small red fox face logo. 

 [puppenhausmusuem.de]

It really is a thing of beauty and I regret not dipping deeper onto my wallet but it was rather a few too many Euro's. 

Fuchs also made tin and plastic kitchens and other household items for dolls and the attention to detail is stunning.

So, as we unwrap our soap on a rope sports car this Christmas give a thought to the old toys inspired by water butts and bathtime and let me know if you have any like Diver Dan, The Mouse Trap tub, a Squirting toilet, any custom tubs you made for GI Joe or Major Matt and not forgetting Billy Blastoff!

SPLISH SPLASH SPLOSH: VINTAGE BATH TIME TOYS

Reading Richard's enthusiasm for aquatic toys, I thought I'd have a look at a few. I suppose I have to start with my old mate the Billy Blastoff Frogman. How I loved this little fella, who often joined me for soapy adventures in the bath! Eldon's accessories were just wonderful: mask, a little boat and my personal favourite, Bill's own underwater camera, which, powered by his trusty battery backpack, lit up my rubber duck's bum from beneath! ha ha!

Scuba Billy's big brother often joined him on longer expeditions. I am of course referring to that frogman extraordinaire of the toy world, my spelunker of choice, the Action Man Frogman. Again Palitoy left nothing to chance and garnished the set with fab accessories like a dagger and sheath, a watch, beautiful silver air tanks and my own favourite, his orange candle grenades. These cute munitions were often placed strategically around the Palitoy shark which terrorised our bath times. Happy days!

Action Man Frogman and Billy were often joined by Action Man Deep Sea Diver and Jungle Explorer with his bright outboard-motored orange raft. However there was a group of ace American aquanauts who never made it to my house and may in fact have stayed clear of a lot of UK households owing to their relative scarcity [I may be wrong]. I am speaking about the brilliant looking Sea Devils by Mattel released onto bath times in 1970. Not to be confused with the Dr.Who monsters of the same name, they were like Major Matt Mason underwater. Made of wired bendable rubber, the Sea Devils had tons of accessories and fab vehicles. There's still a place near my soap dish for a Mattel Sea Devil!

My final instalment is another toy range I never had at the time, largely because I was too old. I would have loved them as a kid and they fitted right into my world view back in the Sixties. I am talking about the BHS Explorer 12 Ocean series. A bit like SpaceX, divided into different mini-fleets, the Ocean crew had their own vehicles, figures and book, which appears here courtesy of Joe Lang's uber-cool fan site.

What are fave underwater toys readers? Do they compare with space toys?