Whistle And Ill Come To You

Fresh from the shores of Australia comes this marvelous little premium, the R & L Tootprobe Shuttle. Spotted earlier this month by the ever watchful Woodstock, I managed to win this sucker on ebay. Apparently part of a small line of premiums including an F1 Racing Car and a plane, this cool little two piece kit is also a shrill sounding whistle.

Despite being really tiny, a lot smaller than I anticipated, at about an inch and a half long, it's well detailed. Following the form of early shuttle concepts, its unusual in that it hasn't been modelled on the standard NASA shuttle design we are all familiar with and gone for the more streamlined approach. Probably dating from the early seventies, judging by its shape and the design of the other premiums in the line, it's the first time i've come across this line of premiums.

R & L or Rosenhain and Lipmann made most of the cereal premiums from the sixties and seventies from a factory in Melbourne, Australia. In the late seventies, the owners sold the company and operations moved to Mexico. Today, a lot of classic cereal premiums are made available in repro form at the mexican operation.
The Shuttle sits well with the original Space Age Kelloggs premiums, which included the space station, Molab and Rocket Transporter.

Rifle Rack 21

Being the progeny of Baby Boomers and brought up during the Sixties crazes for Military and Spy toys, I have always loved vintage toy rifles. Probably not at all PC these days, my pride and joy was the Johnny Seven One Man Army rifle, the pinnacle of the toy armoury and capable of stopping even the biggest of brothers at a hundred paces! About 10 years ago I was lucky enough to re-acquire a complete and boxed Johnny Seven at Birmingham's NEC. At £300 it remains the single most expensive collectable I've ever bought and was easily the most exciting purchase of my adult life!

Like many Anderson fans during the Sixties my parents supplied me with the small pistols emanating from the TV shows: the Thunderbirds cap and water pistols and the fantastic Joe 90 Brief Case [re-released by Vivid Imagination Toys in the 1990's] to name but a few.

CAPTAIN SCARLET RIFLE

It's only as an adult collector that I became aware of the toy rifles associated with Anderson's TV output. Few in number and all incredibly rare, I have only ever seen them in magazines or online. The first one I came across is the fantastic Captain Scarlet Anti-Mysteron Rifle by Lone Star. The stuff of legend, it was pictured on the cover of a cool mail order toy sales catalogue [below] I used to get in the mid-1990's from the pioneering TV Toy Zone company, whose proprietor was one Andy Foley of Caterham in Surrey. Needless to say the price for the rifle was the hugely impressive 'POA' or price on application, which I imagine had several noughts in it!

The rifle, which appears to be die-cast, incorporates the Lone Star pistol, which was sold separately. Amazingly there's a colour picture of the rifle on the forum of the superb Alphadrome site run by space toy supremo Brian Hayes http://danefield.com/alpha/forums/uploads/post-1392-0-48102200-1296531838.jpg Feast your eyes!

THUNDERBIRDS RIFLE

The second rifle of note is also the stuff of collectors' dreams, the Thunderbirds Rifle by Crescent Toys. I've only ever seen this as photographed on the Wants List on the excellent Vintage Thunderbirds Toys website http://www.thunderbirdsvintagetoys.co.uk/WantsList.htm. The rifle appears to be a much more traditional rifle shape with a large scope and came in a long box. Wow!

FIREBALL XL5 RIFLE

Third up is the equally scarce Fireball XL5 rifle, which I know very little about. Much more cosmic in design, it may have only been been issued in Spain under the name Capitan Marte, the Spanish Captain Mars/ Steve Zodiac. There is a boxed example pictured on the comprehensive Mark Bergin Toys sales list http://www.bergintoys.com/sp_guns/current/Capt%20Marte.jpg. There is also a loose example in the Sold section of the fabulous Metropolis Toys sales site, but it looks the same as the Spanish rifle http://www.bergintoys.com/sp_guns/current/Capt%20Marte.jpg. Alphadrome, the space toys database and forum, interestingly note that the rifle is the same as the Japanese Tommy Kick by Tada http://danefield.com/data/displayimage-search-0-3663.html#top_display_media.

TOMMY BUSTER

Last but not least in this Anderson armoury is the wonderful Tommy Buster, pictured above and as advertised in the pages of TV21 no less. I covered this elsuive toy in some detail two years ago on the blog, containing further links, which you can read here http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/agent-21-birthday-mystery-3-tommy.html.

POSTSCRIPT:

It's ironic that, although Century 21 didn't manufacture any of the above rifles, there is a toy gun named, albeit coincidentally, the Century 21 Space Gun! Brought out as part of the official 1962 Seattle World's Fair, the sleek and futuristic rifle was made by US outfit Stalco. Wotan covered it way back in 2009 http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/toyless-in-seattle.html.

So, Swordies, are there any other Anderson toy rifles?

The Death of Big Box Video

Last Sunday I went to the Doncaster Keepmoat Car Boot Sale with my Brother and his Missus. It's the first boot sale I've been to this year and I enjoyed getting out in the cold May sun. There was a time when I would have bought tons of old toys and come home with two bin liners' full, but these days I prefer to browse and enjoy the bustle. To be honest there just aren't that many vintage toys at car boot sales anymore here [maybe I bought them all!]. There was one decent one on this occasion with an interesting mix of stuff like a loose but excellent Marx Chief Cherokee with accessories for £15 and a boxed Matchbox Stingray Marineville Headquarters [OK, it's not really vintage]. I didn't get the price on that.

What I was actually looking for were old big box VHS or Betamax videos, which I collect. I was amazed how few there were - just a solitary one, amongst countless modern video's, which nobody wants anymore. I love video, it's history and, like Super 8 before it, the impact it had on home 'cinema'. It was revolutionary and now it's all but faded. We are literally witnessing the death of a technology. Big Box and Betamax were it's beginning and they are inevitably the first to disappear, only to exist in the future on collectors' shelves like mine. One day DVD will go the same dusty way, just not sure when.

Anyone else collect films in home formats like 16mm. Super 8, Laserdisc, Video or DVD or the players they're played on?

Repair in Earth Orbit

An atmospheric and moody piece of original art by Andy B.

FAVE 1

What's your favourite thing of all time? It could be toy, a record, a film. It could even be a song, a memory or a holiday! It might even be the future! Whatever you like!

Lost in Robots

Woodsy, in case you are still on robots. This is the cover of the old Aurora Lost in Space robot, now by Polar Lights / Moebius. There was a larger and a smaller kit - the latter is apparently 3 inches high (and the only one I might afford...).

Andy B

(NOT Generation Jones!)

 

Woodsy says: originally sent January 2012. Thanks Andy. Sorry for the wait! I love Aurora. Anyone else?

Kevin D's DC9

Hi Woodsy,

I dug out what is possibly my oldest toy (in that it was actually bought for me when I was a kid and I've still got it!). It is a TN Toys Douglas DC9 airliner. This amazing toy is battery operated and goes through a repeated cycle of taxi, stop, open door, lower steps (at which point a stewardess appears in the doorway), raise steps, close door, rev up engines (which pulse with red light as a jet engine sound is made), then taxi again. All achieved without a microprocessor and, it still works! I really must post a youtube clip of it! Thought people might like to see it.

Take care,

Kevin D

Woodsy says: originally sent to me November 2011. Slowly getting through all my emails. Sorry for the wait.

Space Scout on Patrol by Ed Ice Berg

Woodsy,

I got bored and started playing on the 'puter today. Using a shot I took of last night's Supermoon I thought it would be neat to add the Pyro X-100 Space Scout on a patrol of the sector. I haven't posted this to my blog yet so if ya like it you can use it on Moonbase Central.


This next Saturday I'm starting to do a modest series on Supercar! Specifically the 1/64 scale Johnny Lightning versions.

Cheers!
Ed "Ice" Berg