Jippo Moon Jeep by Arto

Paul, attached a couple of piccys that brought back memories, a Finnish version of the French "Pif Gadget" magazine for young people, featuring a variety of serialized comics, quizzes, games and whatnot. Every issue came wrapped in plastic, including a cheapo, easy-to-build gadget. They varied from soda-powered submarines to simple gadgets for magic tricks, among them some space-related ones like space telescope & carousel, moon globe, and this rolling Moon Jeep with a canine astronaut. I remember this particular issue, possibly even buying it, back in '77. The gadgets were included only for three years 1977-79 and then replaced by simpler cardboard airplanes etc. These early issues a very hard to come by unopened, with all the parts still attached to their sprues.

Did you have anything like this in the UK? In its day it felt quit trashy (still does), but today even the simplest of designs has its nostalgic silver lining.

Sorry about the reflections caused by the flash on the plastic. I do not have a loose copy to show you the cover with the Jeep on a lunar landscape, but you can get the idea from the back cover photo.

Arto

Big Boxed Rockets

I don't know, I just like the look of these two rocket boxes placed together: the Cape Kennedy Set and the MPC Titan model kit. They have a sort of symmetry.

Minor Matt Mason

Pictures courtesy of Ferryman from his recently acquired Miniature Apollo Exploration Set. Note the influence of Major Matt Mason ansd SpaceX. I love the box art - the flourescent lava and the swirling space background. Is that painted? Anyone else got this old set?

Bandai 21

Heeding my call for a close-up of the bandai Century 21 sticker, Arto has kindly provided this beauty from his vintage Bandai Zero-X. Looks like it says © I.T.P. [Independent Television Productions?] - [thanks Terry!]  Anyone know anything about these 1960's Century 21 licenses to Bandai?

PS. The same sticker in gold appears on the original 1960's IMAI Kits for Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet[Terry Harle].

It's my Century 21 Aston Martin DB5 Mish Moneypenny

Here we have the sleek and beautiful plastic Aston Martin DB5 by Century 21. In immaculate condition it comes with a red racing stripe and friction drive. With its obvious 007 heritage it really is a cool toy. The scalextric-like box shows a red Aston numbered 1. The actual toy is white and numbered 4 so it does beg the question whether there are other colour variations out there? I wonder if the Scalextricness of this car (compare with a real Scalextric DB5 below - the white DB5 - the real Bond car was silver - was only ever sold as part of the Scalextric 007 set) ran further than its looks and along with the JR21 Typhoon Motorbike posted here were there more formal links between the two companies? What's for sure is that this is just one of a bigger fleet of Century 21 toy cars.

Originally posted on my JR21 blog 2009

Century 21 Moguras

Some digging around [excuse the pun] for more Moles, after seeing Wote's cool JR21 toy, unearthed these neat vintage Bandai Thunderbirds toys. The header card clearly shows the Mole or Moguras. Anyone got a a pic of one? These toys were clearly licensed by Century 21 - you can see the round sticker on the bases of the cards. Anyone got a close-up pic of this sticker? I wonder why Century 21/ JR21 never made their own big Mole toy?

JR21 POD MOLE

In response to the post about the J21 Pod Jeep, heres some apologetically rubbish shots of the little Mole from the Rosenthal Thunderbird 2. My original TB2 has disappeared into the ether now apart from the two red nacelles and part of the upper hull of the Mole, but this baby was a lucky find on ebay.us recently.

Again, theres no visible branding on the molding apart from small part numbers '1 and 2'.

One thing that always struck a chord with me was the similarity between the lower crawler half of the simple model and the magnetic crawler novelty that came with Clarks Wayfarer Shoes in the late sixties.

Century 21 Huff 'N' Puff Train Set

Keen-eyed Jim Lewis spotted this bit of Century 21 Obscura on Ebay UK recently, the Amazing Huff 'n' Puff Hill Climbing Engine! A new one on me and continuing evidence that Century 21/ JR21 spread there wings beyond the mega-toys of TV shows and comics. BTW Huff 'n' Puff is not to be confused with the 1960's US TV puppet show, HR Pufnstuf starring Britains young star, Jack Wild ( yes, the Artful Dodger no less). Not sure if it was ever shown in the UK - I never saw it. Finding it very difficult to spell for some reason, I can find only 1 toy on the whole of Ebay US, namely a flute and none on the UK site. So I assume it didn't spawn many.

Whilst watching my favourite film of all time tonight, Enter the Dragon starring the late great Bruce Lee, I came across this doppelganger of the above, this time on Ebay US and made by NASTA, 1971, battery operated, made in Hong Kong and in a large box is measuring 15 x 8 inches. I've come across NASTA before I think - possibley a plastic lorry. I'll have to look it up but for the minute I'm engrossed in Enter the Dragon! After Space and Monsters came Kung Fu! there was a time when my parent's house cellar was my dojo and I what I didn't know about Kung Fu and oriental arts wasn't worth a shuriken!

I've a kwai chang cane of a collection of books, mags, comics, paper cuttings, photo's and LP's. To think, back in the early Seventies when Bruce hit the big time and Gung Fu (it's other spelling) went global, I'd have rather read Inside kung Fu or Karate and Oriental Arts rather than TV21 anyday! By the time I was a teenager and had seen Enter the Dragon, at which point I became a shaolin monk in all but name, virtually all my childhood toys had been chucked - the entire SWORD fleet including Zero X, all the Colorforms Outer Space Men (I know!), the Billy Blastoff range, the Major Matt universe, whole Airfix armies and if all that wasn't enough, a boxed Johnny Seven One Man Army Rifle. It's beyond a joke! I should have court-marshalled my parents on the spot!

Posted originally on my JR21 blog 2009