Howzat! Continuing the Cricket Match

 The Spacex Base Patrol Cricket P1 is one of the most enduring models and seemingly one of the most often copied. The chicken and egg scenario rolls on though as a definitive origin still hasn't been established. Previous incarnations of the Cricket have been blogged already, but Mike Burrows was lucky enough to acquire a fine boxed version of the large Codeg model.

"It’s a lovely big toy and the big soft nosed rocket , reminiscent of a Zoom lolly takes off like an Exocet .  I reckon if  ‘Health & Safety’ had been as active  in the sixties  the Rocket Car would have been withdrawn quicker than you can say ‘it’ll have your eye out’!

 

I really love the unrestraint gaudy colours on the box, too. It seems to remind me of far off days as a kid on holiday in Morecambe or Blackpool as I’m sure these type of toys were only ever found in the windows of little back street newsagents or seaside souvenir shops.

       

I did have the smaller Rocket Launcher MkII toy as a kid and was chuffed at having a larger version of the ‘Cricket’.  I remember wondering at the time if other larger versions of Spacex vehicles were out there, but I never found any. I concluded that the manufacturer had simply ripped off Tri-ang. I never realised that it appears to be the other way round."

Catalogue, lost. Answers to the name 'Lucky'

While I was in the catalogue archive - sounds posh and organised, but its actually an old cracker box in my garage - I found a few odd catalogues shoved in with the more mainstream ones. Some of them, i've seen countless times and paid no attention to them as A) they weren't space toys and B) I didn't recognise the maker. Ill scan them and flag them up from time to time, but one such small single sheet is this rarity. Lucky Toys Catalogue, N0.1. My recent experience with Lucky Toys was the racing car I found on Ebay and this little sheet focusses on Grand Prix racers. Lucky have made the odd space toy too such as this wonderful rocket.

Gone to the Dogs

 Naturally after showing Dinkys efforts at TV and film related merchandise, we need to look at classic Corgi toys. There have been a number of James Bond models over the years and i'm sure were generally familiar with them and I have plastered my favourite, the Moon Buggy all over the blog previously. The Spy Who Loved Me gave us a large and small version of the submarine capable Lotus Esprit and a new Aston Martin. Moonraker offered us a redecorated Shuttle with a nice satellite, but nothing to get too excited about.

The TV series of Buck Rogers brought along a rather fine Starfighter in the large scale with firing missiles and a corgi junior version with sliding wings. One of Corgis most notable inclusions however was the wonderful Starship Liberator from Blakes Seven, although it only appeared in Junior scale, it was a surprisingly accurate and good model. Corgis artistic licence produced it in classic white and also later in a silver and yellow version. Yuk.

The Corgi 1985 catalogue was a real revelation for sci-fi enthusiasts, including all the above models, but headlining with a beautiful model based on a Frank Hampson design for a 'Dan Dare' car. Presumably to tie in with a proposed TV series again, the iconic fifties shape of the 'car' would have made a fine model in both large and small scales. I say 'would' because no trace of the toy ever appeared on the shelves and it disappeared from subsequent catalogues soon after as the show never got off the ground. 

Apparently based on the Aranjet Supersport Aquagyro from the Operation Saturn strip (and again ill defer to more educated Dare afficianados for confirmation!), the toy would have had a rotating 'radiator' grille and flip out wings. The bubble canopy and sleek red body had me at the outset to be honest.

After my Pa brought the catalogue home, I was on high alert to find this model for ages afterward, but soon realised it was never fated to appear. Does anyone know if a prototype or production model ever saw light ?

Classic Dinky

 Any conversation about toy cars must include the grandaddies of them all in realtion to Anderson shows. Dinkys early 1968 models of Fab 1 and Thunderbird 2 still look good today. Thunderbird 2s amazing playability - great design, removable pod, retractable legs and mini TB4 wasn't improved by the re-release of the shows support toys back in the early 2000's. Production values were excellent and detail was amazing for the time.

 The Dinky range quickly followed up with more wonderfully iconic models from Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 and later in 1971, UFO.

 The 1968 catalogue also included the Mini Moke from the Prisoner and the odd striped mini from 'Candy and Andy', another weird Anderson show!

Unfortunately for me it was at this point that the wheel came off it all slightly. Whereas most of the earlier models had been dutiful to the show and produced the toys as they appeared on screen, the Shado Interceptor was made in metallic green for some odd reason. The SHADO 2 Mobile was bang on the money and an excellent model, but a green interceptor ? Poor Ed Straker also had to drive about in a gold finish car too!

 Subsequent Anderson shows were picked up and the fabulous Eagle Transporter and Freighter appeared and in 1976, the rare Command Car and Coastguard Launch appeared from a never produced Anderson pilot, 'The Investigator'.

After Anderson ran out of steam, Dinky produced Star Trek models and then as Star Wars loomed, their own fleet of space vehicles. They also made possibly the dullest model of the shuttle ive ever seen!

Planet X

A beautiful minty blister carded Bandai OX courtesy of reader Ferryman. Note the C21 licencing sticker. Anyone got a loose version of this plastic OX?

And a luvverly blister carded version of the usually boxed X-30 Space Explorer seen on Liveauctioneers.

CORGI JUNIOR CATALOGUE

A little something for the weekend.

Record Player

Remember our friend the Schuco Amphibious car on which the T version was based? Well here's it's cousin the similar Schuco Electro Record No.5555 boat courtesy of You Tube. Beautiful! Anyone got one? A few more piccies found on Vectis.

Driving Me Crazy

Unearthing my old toy cars has been a real drive down memory lane for me, sifting through the battered remnants of my childhood collection and recalling the evocative names of the toys automatically as they appear our of the box - Hairy Hustler, Swingin' Wing, AMX Javelin... What I didnt really know as a kid was that a lot of the fabulous cars I was busily zooming around the bedroom floor were actually based on real designs for motor vehicles, even though some of the names were familiar, I didn't realise any of the toys had lifesize counterparts. It was after looking into the Pininfarina Modulo yesterday that it dawned on me that more than a few of the toys were built as concept vehicles by the major companies. Mike and Toad had expressed an interest in the Carabo and Manta, both designs having made it into real life vehicles.

The Carabo especially is awesome as the sleek chisel like front reminds me of the Task Force 1 ship with its dagger like body. Rather than waffle on about the delights of fine italian styling, ill let the picture speak for themselves..

ALFA CARABO CONCEPT CAR

HOT WHEELS CARABO

MATCHBOX ALFA CARABO AND CORGI BERTONE CARABO

CORGI ROCKETS WITH ALFA CARABO CENTRE

BIZARINI MANTA CONCEPT CAR

Corgi Junior and Corgi Rocket Manta

Corgi Electrorocket Manta

Alfa P33

Adams Probe 16 and Marcus XP

Corgi Rocket Bertone Runabout

CORGI ROCKET CATALOGUE PAGE

CORGI ROCKET CATALOGUE PAGE