THE INTERCHANGABLE LIMBS OF A SPACEMAN

 

This blow moulded spaceman is amazing! 

So simple, so angular!

I'm unsure it looks like a spaceman though!

What do you think?

CARZOL PLASTICS

Wotan onced mentioned a company or product called Carzol. Until then I had never heard of the company. Well, apart from an insecticide, what I came up with was a Canadian toy company.

Carzol Plastics Corp., Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Apart from the Carzol name, some of their products were marked C.P., and Made in Canada, or Carzol - Canada. Some versions of the address say Carzol Plastics Corporation, Montreal, P.Q. (Province of Quebec, or Province du Quebec), with no mention of Canada. I do not know the dates the different versions were used.

They made toy vehicles, toy soldiers, tea sets, plastic musical instruments, at least some TV related toys, and sold American Pyro plastic kits in the Canadian market - the ones I have seen on Worthpoint all have the name CP rather than Carzol on the box top, but Carzol Plastics Corp., appears on the side of the box.

Scalemates only list one kit, a 1930s Hall-Springfield "Bulldog" Thompson Trophy Racer, as kit number 1102, with a scale of 1/32nd. Ex-Pyro.

Worthpoint also has the Laird-Turner Pesco Special Thompson Trophy Racer. Kit 1103. Ex-Pyro.

A Japanese Fishing Boat was kit 1106. Ex-Pyro.

Carzol also produced versions of the Pyro Design-A-Plane and Design-A-Car sets. The plane set was sold in Britain by Eaglewall.

From Alphadrome, an undated Carzol catalogue, giving the address as Carzol Plastics Corporation, 8490 Jeanne Mance St., Montreal, Canada. It also shows some of the other products the company made.

http://alphadrome.net/forums/topic/23533-carzol-plastics-catalog-canada/

The Antique Toys Library shows a wonderful, and very colourful Paladin Gold Mine Adventure set, based on the US television programme Have Gun Will Travel (1957-63).

https://antiquetoyslibrary.com/toys/carzols-1959-paladin-gold-mine-adventure-no-1119/

Various other toy figures and vehicles are listed on Worthpoint and Ebay. Other than that, there is very little information around on this obscure company.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Plastic Games of the Sixties

Back in the day childhood was full of brilliant games and sets.

There were so many in the Sixties I find it hard to remember them all.

Fascination was one. Two players each got a plastic hand-held maze tray and the first to get a ball bearing to the end would light up a small light on a stand. Oh what fun! Fascination sums up my tender years and I still have a set.

Crossfire was one too. A huge table-top game, in which steel balls were fired at a rolling puck. The balls were loaded into plastic pistols. I remember playing it so much with mates that zi got a blister on my inner trigger finger! I still have a board but no other equipment.

Casdon Soccer was another game I liked. Endorsed by Bobby Charlton, it was a sort of subbuteo on a plastic pitch. Instead of flicking each player twisted knobs to make ruddered players turn and kick. Great fun and a tough chunk of plastic, which has easily survived right up to press. I've owned a few.

I could go on. Which games do you recall?

PLASTIC GUILT?

The recent backlash against plastics is making me feel guilty.

My entire childhood was filled with plastic toys and plastic items were all around my parents' home.

I'm not entirely sure what to feel about it now with the anti-plastic lobby gathering pace.  The Blue Planet images of plastics scattered all through the oceans were quite terrible.

I enjoyed getting plastic toys as a kid but maybe it'll be a thing of the past one day. Did our generation simply have too much?

Are you feeling plastic guilt?

CAKES ON A TRAIN

I used to see these boxed cake candle trains all the time at car boot sales in the 1990's. I even bought a whole mint lot and sold them on my toy stall at toy fairs as they appealed both to the miniature train and the novelty toy collector.

I always found the neat combination of the box and the item really nice particularly as everything is in miniature.

A similar set turned up again on a blister card. It's interesting but it doesn't hold a candle to the boxed set!

You can even get the set nowadays but the box seems to have gone up in a puff of smoke..

Would small plastic novelties like these appeal to you readers?

BIG TOY VEHICLES

I've blogged about larger friction toy vehicles many times [here and here]. I've included large plastic versions of the Popeye Paddle Wagon, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Bat Boat. There's just something fascinating about them.

Well, after another trawl through the murky depths of the oceanic web, here are a few more larger toy vehicles that tickled my fancy.

First up is this cool Spanish version of something we've seen before, especially as it has Gerry Anderson credentials: the Trans Continental Express, which appeared in Stingray [you can read about this and more on the blog here].

This AUTOBUS A FRICCION was made in Spain by JYESA toys and is model number 252.

Next up we have another Spanish  example, an A Team van, El Gruppo De Accion con Friccion. The blue toy van doesn't look much like the one on the box so I'm unsure if  its the real thing.

Spain again, this time the nicely boxed CARRO ARMADO or Armoured Tank by Sanchis.

Sanchis again, the CANON AUTOPROPULSADO or Self Propelled Canon in an excellent photo-art box

and the related HELICOPTERE AUTOSPACIAL by Sanchis. Note the Self Propelled Canon [above] on the lovely photo box-art.

and finally the over to the USA and perhaps my favourite from this plastic assortment, the BEVERLY HILLBILLIES CAR by Ideal no less. From 1963, what a fabulous rendition of the Oldsmobile Model 46 Roadster it is! So colourful and plasticcy! I want one!

PLASTIC CLASSICS: VINTAGE CHARMS AND NOVELTY TOYS

Its too soon to talk about the Big Day so I won't but the onset of the dark month of November has got me thinking about the promise of day-glo party favours and Hong Kong novelties. My childhood was chock-full of little plastic toys and vending charms, so here are a few that have been picked up by that big claw in my mind:

Plastic pipes: the classic Dad shape and the three-pot bubblers: blub!

Plastic pea shooter: tchooom!

Ball floater: pfffft!

Plastic catapult: Yeoooow!

Skull key rings: Yikes!

Skeleton key Rings: dem bones!

Top Hat Skull: the Bone Daddy!

King Kong figures: Grrrrrr!

Super Balls: zzzzzooooom!

Strange Change Lost World cubes: plup!

Which plastic toy thingies do you recall readers - from Birthdays, parties, holidays, Thanksgiving or trips out?

HILLBILLY OUTHOUSE TOY

I've always loved plastic novelty toys and as a kid I had quite a few. Many I got from the Ellisdons mail order catalogue but some where bought in normal shops.

One of the strangest and most memorable was a Hillbilly Outhouse. Basically it was a plastic shack with a hatted country boy stood inside. 

On opening the front 'door' and swinging it back the figure would turn round and promptly pee all over you!

After a good soaking you could re-fill the tank by removing a red stopper and by way of a small funnel pour in extra water.

A true classic! Did you have one readers?

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

As part of a sort out to make more room at Moon Base I found this plastic toy Indian elephant and rider in the loft. I know its from my past but I've no idea when. It could be early childhood or much later. Does anybody recognise it?

I do recognise this wooden roadster though! I should do, I made it at a wood work night school I went to in Germany during the early 1980's. It used to have a plastic windscreen. I remember cutting my hand open during its creation and fainting in the workshop! How embarrassing!

Have you got stuff in the loft from years gone by readers?

CORVETTE CACHE

I picked up these little plastic cars in an antiques centre in Rotherham today. Very cheap and colourful, I find then very endearing. The corvette is my favourite recalling the curves of Red Line Hot Wheels. The purple Dune Buggy is by Lone Star. The little flower appears on many toy cars. Does anyone know its significance?

CORY GURMAN'S PLASTIC YELLOW MOTORBIKE

What luck! I've been spring cleaning my inbox and found these pictures of  'my' red motorbike but this time in yellow and boxed, kindly sent in some time ago by Cory Gurman of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Thanks a lot Cory! I once thought this might be JR Toys but this and my own example do not have a makers mark, although they do have the same model number, 303. Can anyone make out the date on the post mark and does anyone else have this toy?

MY RED PLASTIC MOTORBIKE

Thought I recognised the motorbike toy in this British Pathe still from the Sixties. I have the very same toy in my display case. Here it is in all its glorious red. Anyone know anything about this plastic toy bike?

SHOCKING FLOCKS

My parents were definately part of the plastic generation. Plastic was everywhere in the Sixties and even the garden wasn't safe. I remember plastic chairs, tables and tablecloths. But most of all I recall plastic birds like pink flamingos and herons stood high above the begonias! They populated the flower beds and always had there beady eyes on me whilst I was playing outside with my Action Men! 

They seem to have remained popular as here are some I found available online today! Did you have plastic stuff in your garden or yard as a kid?