Arto's Wait of 15 years is Over: The Telex X-300!

I've finally obtained a complete example of the X-300 Space Cruiser made in 1955 by the Finnish plastics manufacturer Telex!

Finding a complete one has been my quiet obsession for the last 15 years, and now that it is finally here I took a X-300 family photo! 

Enjoy!

From left: Pyro (US), Telex (FIN) with box, Kleeware (UK).

Have you an X-300?

Arto

Helsinki Base

Our 'Lone Star' Tarzan Custom: Painted, Carded and Blistered

Here's our ' home made' version of the fabled Lone Star Tarzan set, the rare original a blog legend now.

From first seeing this set in black and white on a magazine cover nearly twenty years ago to making a custom, it's swung through the jungle and come full circle.

 Diarised here since starting this project, my re-modelled figures look better than I expected all painted up and Bill' terrific backing card really brings the whole thing to life.  

The sushi lunch box blister was the icing on the vines!

Not perfect but a decent go.

Happy days at Moonbase International Toys!

See what you think readers.

For fun, here's the the reference material, an original toy as seen on auction online.

SWINGING FOR TARZANS

 Passing the village of Greystoke last week as we wended across Cumbria to Keswick, I had yet to settle on my latest project.

Having decided, its to try to recreate a blog legend I first saw years ago on the cover of a Plastic Warrior Magazine, the fabled Lone Star Tarzan set, with its waving Tarzan figure.

I'll update the blog about this specific project as it swings into action.

Meanwhile here are some further sightings of vintage waving and other Tarzans hiding in the cyber jungle, all of which I would have loved as a young chimp back in the 60's!

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Jungle Set

Dschungel

Zoo animal set

Wentoys Safaratiere

Dulcop Tarzan

Dulcop Zoo

Fleetwood Tarzan Safari

Blue Box Safari Set - is that the same as the Fleetwood Landrover above?

Tarzan in the Valley of the Dinosaurs [image: Plaidstallions.com]

Original Tarzan Figuren with monkey alphabets by Bildschriftenverlag or BSV.

see also https://www.bsv-archiv.de/pages/sonstige-publikationen/tarzan-figurenset-blister.php

Ador Arte Tarzan bag from Argentina

Primitivos by JC of Spain

African Hunting for Wild Animals bags

The waving Tarzan repainted as The Phantom in his Jungle Play Set by Larami

and finally, a 12 inch Tarzan cheapo, which may well be a future knockoff chest beater of mine.

Which set do you like?

Do you like Tarzan in any of his media?

Has Tarzan had his day?

Have you any collectables?

Probe a Bit More: Lucky Toy's Lunar Probe No.1

 A few toys only ever appear once or twice; online, in books, on auction, on here.

This is such a one.

The Lunar Probe by Lucky Toys.

I think it's first appearance on MB was probably 15 years ago at the start of the blog.

This one [it could be the same one] surfaced on Ebay last year [I think the seller was ZZRobot]. I kept the snaps.

Very similar to the rocket at the rear of the JR21 Rocket Transporter, its a fabulous space toy and worthy of Project SWORD livery I think. It even has those X-series silver rocket exhaust fins.

There's an unbranded silver grey version from Eastern Europe as well.

Lucky is the word, as its not a rocket we see often at all and as such, its a blog legend. 

Have you anything like it?

ITS TIME TO LEAVE THE CAPSULE

 This is a beautiful toy space capsule I saw on auction.

Not one I have but I can appreciate how nice it must be to have in a collection.

Simply called SPACECRAFT this large plastic toy was released by blog legends T in a Circle aka Tai Hing of Hong Kong. Their moniker is the T in a circle pictured on the side of the box.

There are some gorgeous art panels depicting radar stations, lift off, lunar activity and splashdown.

The main box top is particularly attractive with a painting of a capsule and spacewalk.

The toy came with a small astronaut on a wire circling round the cockpit.

Let me in!

Is this one you like readers? Have you any capsules?

FUN IN FINLAND

Arto's fabulous collecting never ceases to amaze me. Finland really is the centre of the vintage universe. Its quite incredible what turns up in the far North.

Some of Arto's recent finds include a rare Finnish Flintstones cornflakes teepee and the blog legend that is the 'Space Boat' [Ebay]. This is only the second one Arto or I have ever seen. This second example is yellow rather than the white we saw decades ago.

Arto also recently visited Vintageland, a huge Spring fair at Aino Arena, where all sorts of goodies were on offer. Here are two of Arto's snaps and also the venue's own promo [Petri Matero].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ve2w6sw_cM

What do you think readers?

Are you going to a collectables, vintage or toy fair this year?

LIKE A LEGEND HOVERING OVER THE MOON BASE

 We don't often feature Hover's window boxed Moon Base sets on MC nowadays, largely because they so seldom appear anywhere else. Google image search doesn't recognise them either. A Goggle text search brings you to ... Moonbase Central and that's it! [apart from the 'borrowed' [hmmm] posts of mine on Planet Diecast back then].

A shame, they appear to be lovely sets straight from the space race.

For a while, over a decade ago, we enjoyed a feast of Hover. Click on the Hover label below.

So, I was excited when I clocked these two boxes a while back and kept the snaps. They could well have appeared before so I apologise if so.

Space Adventure features a fabulous ship with a ball in the middle. I've often wondered if it rolls. It recalls the overall look of Marine Boy's simple sub, with its central dome and narwhal spike. Maybe even the Jetsons flyabout. Anyone got one?

The Space Tank set includes a fabulous scramble bug toy, the so called 'tank'. I love the look of this toy but I've never seen one in the flesh. Incredibly Bill had one and the last remaining orange wheel he gave me years ago!

I assume all these Hover sets - there are more - were inspired by LP's output of Hong Kong space plastic.

There's also a small blue Hover Lunar Rover as part of the series, which Bill owned too.

Having searched the blog it's clear that the packaging of the Lunar Rover hasn't ever appeared here and I've never seen it anywhere else. You?

I might as well ask, has anyone got any of these Hover sets?

LONE STAR TARZAN: BLING OF THE JUNGLE

 Years ago I blogged the elusive Lone Star Tarzan set, a small carded blog legend.

First seen on the cover of a 1995 Plastic Warrior magazine decades ago the scarce rack toy has fascinated me ever since.

Well recently I found this colour picture of the set, the very first time I've seen it in colour. Alas I failed to note down where I saw it but here goes. I assume it was an old auction.

Feast your eyes!

Googling further for Lone Star Tarzans I came up with this holster and pistol set on the very same card, which is a little strange. Anyone know this holster set?

There's also a Lone Star badge with the same letter Tarzan lettering.

Can anyone shed any light on Lone Star's Tarzan output?

BLOG LEGEND UPDATE: THE LONE STAR CAPTAIN SCARLET ANTI MYSTERON RIFLE REPRO BOX

Decades ago another blog legend was born, something so rare hens' teeth start to chatter.

Way back in 2010 I blogged about my first sighting of the Lone Star Captain Scarlet rifle as it appeared in my beloved copy of the TV Toy Zone catalogue.

The rifle has surfaced again a few times on Moonbase over the years. The toy itself has become a bit clearer but the box remained a bit of a blur inside a display.

This week, however, I found this site, Retrotoyrevivals.com, who specialise in professional toy box reproduction and lo and behold there's the Lone Star Captain Scarlet Anti Mysteron Rifle box!

Even a repro box is something to behold! I doubt anyone can tell the difference!

Do you like repro toy boxes?

Have you got pictures of this rifle?

 https://retrotoyrevivals.com/products/boxes-and-parts/rare-items/

SWEET TWO

Further to the sweet filled flying saucers, here’s my JR21 Rosenthal TB2. The sweet filled one. 

Actual sweets long gone! 

Will O.

UK

Did you have one of these?

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Woodsy adds:

Way back in 2009 I blogged about this amazing JR21 variant of the TB2, when reader, contributor and Thunderbirds collector Steve sent me pics and info of his own example, the first I'd ever seen. Click the label below for more, Steve's Sweet TB2. Its something of a blog legend now, not often mentioned these days. Nice to see Will's all these years later.

The Japanese were great ones for filling cool toys with candy and chocolate. Again, we've enjoyed some over the years on MC such as an SPV and most of the Thunderbirds fleet filled with sweets. 

How cool would it be to get something like this this Easter!

IMAI SPECTRUM COPTER

Imai made some magnificent model toy kits in their time and this Spectrum Helicopter is no exception! Here's some footage of it working in its Japanese home.

 Have you anything like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6US7sOT5aY

BIRTHDAY LEGEND UPDATE: THE TRANSCONTINENTAL BUS USED AS A CENTURY 21 PROP

I've blogged about the Trans-continental Express friction toy many times.

Its a blog legend.

Alas I don't own one. Do you?

Released in the early 1960's by both OK and Telsalda and also available in Spain this long tin and plastic toy beauty was used like many other toys many times by Century 21 modelmakers as a versatile prop in Gerry Anderson's TV shows as far back as 1964 in Stingray.

All the various shows it appeared in are mentioned on different sites on the net so taking their cue I've tried to find video clips on You Tube of the toy's different incarnations. I've found four.

If you know of any more do lot me know please.

City of Fire

Thunderbirds 1966

Red Fire Dept Fire Tender

In the above video clip your'e looking for the fire tender that looks like the front long trailers and long vehicle in this modern model display below. You can see that the bus has virtually vanished under all the additions. These modern models were created from scratch by the super talented modeller Mike Delamar a few years ago.

Rescue from the Skies

Stingray 1965

Pale blue long vehicle

[no You Tube video clip available]

A Nut for Marineville

Stingray 1965

Red Fire Dept Fire Tender

Loch Ness Monster

Stingray 1964

Yellow Stingray transporter.

I think this is my favourite prop version.

Which one is yours?

I wonder what happened to these old props?

TENTH BIRTHDAY BLOG LEGEND UPDATE: TELSALDA ROCKET FIRING SPACE CAR

Back in the mists of time I blogged about the Rocket Firing Space Car.

A single internet entry was all there was, a grainy picture of the box and car from the side.

Its so long ago I can't find that forst post that started a blog legend: where there any more out there?

Here's that first picture though.

The only other image was this much clearer one of the box only.

So I was stunned and excited when this year the toy and box turned up on Ebay!

The seller was ZZRobot, ace space toy collector who's amazing stuff has appeared now and then here on MC.

Needless to say I am not the new owner but I did save the auction pics, so without further ado here is the Telsalda Rocket Firing Space Car in all its plastic glory!

Its Japanese design origin was discussed by both myself and Ferryman four years ago, Super Jetter, a really old monochrome anime TV show from 1965.

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2014/01/telsalda-rocket-firing-space-car.html

I assume Telsalda execs must have seen the show, although I don't know if and when it was shown in the UK, Hong Kong or America.

What do you think?

The vehicle, a time machine, was called Ryu-Sei-Go or Shooting Star.

Here's the black and white intro of Super Jetter from 1965 courtesy of You Tube.

Later episodes were in colour.

Here's the shows short Wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Jetter

There are various model kits of this vehicle available and here's the box art of the Imai Ryu-Sei-Go courtesy of Rob C.



There's also an Imai die-cast version. This photo, which we featured on the blog 4 years ago, is the only one I can find online:

Recently I've since found this Japanese Hot Wheels version pictured online!

It doesn't appear to come with the figures but looks great nonetheless!

Here's a Japanese film about the Hot Wheels Super Jetter Ryu-Sei-Go, again on You Tube.

Have you got any of these toys or models or maybe you've seen the TV series?