The Alien Quarter

Way back in the day, when I was helping Woodstock get the blog rolling, my very first post was about one of my favourite rubber aliens. This rotund little character first appeared to me in a counter top box in Woolworths, next to the standard rubber monsters. He then appeared to my surprise and delight in a boxed set of Apollo Moon Exploring toys along with his friends, the usual gray space rock and assorted other models. Since his blog debut, hes popped up many times and in many different forms, but always without the rest of his team. I thought it was about time I gave the other five aliens a shot a the limelight, so here they are! Again, these are exactly the same figures that crop up in Apollo sets, usually as grey or chrome plastic, but the same team can also be found on keyrings and other small toys. Each of these rubber versions is trademarked and has made in hong kong on the sucker at the base. The logo is hard to make out and has defied identification... anyone care to try ?

Slightly later than intended, heres a pack shot courtesy of Mike Speth Aka Astronit. Check out his utterly awesome Flickr site here.

TAI HING AND SWORD AT THE HONG KONG TOY SHOW

Flickr photographer Bonemask has kindly let me show you some of his pics of the Hong Kong Toy Show of vintage and bootleg goodies.  Amongst the stacks of the wonders is a SWORD Scramble Bug box skulking behoing the pop-up astronaut above.

There's also some T in a Circle/ Tai Hing in the shots like the large and beautiful green Military Helicopter featured above behind the menacing Japanese guard.

And finally, a little puzzle for you. What's in this piccy above that's been featured recently on the blog?

Check out Bonemask's other flickr photo sets too!

Economy of Scale

When I first found the Tri-ang Spacex series, it wasn't just the toys themselves which impressed me, I loved the packaging too. The little shots of other models on the back of the cards promised a world of fabulous space travel, with rockets zooming through multicoloured ethers and vehicles exploring the variegated landscape of other planets. Whilst the pictures beamed back from the live lunar landings were dull and grey, the Spacex world was bright and exciting.

I always loved the photos of the MEV2 and Prospector, rolling amidst strange, rock formations and collecting samples. The great thing about Spacex too was they were pocket sized, so it was easy to carry at least one vehicle around and sometimes sneak one off to school. In my primary school was a large tarmacced area of yard and at sometime in the process, water had crept in under the tarmac and a hole had subsided, about a foot across. As this wasn't really too much of a problem for the schoolyard, it wasn't filled in and gradually became populated with moss and other small weeds. When I came upon it one day while wandering about the yard, it reminded me of the landscape on the card back, a crater filled with coloured lichen and moss. I managed to smuggle an MEV in one day to explore the little hole and had a great time recreating the scene in my head. Real pictures of the planets and the lunar landscape still seem dull and unexciting now, as in my mind, space is colourful and exciting, just like those little card backs.

Big Little Men

The Coleco Starcom figures are some of the best astronaut toys ive come across. Intially released in 1986, way after the first true action figures appeared in the Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica lines, Coleco eschewed the standard 3.5 " range and went for a much small and in some cases, much more detailed figure. The Magna-Lock feature of including strong magnets in their boots added a distinctive weight to the tiny pilots, besides giving the facility to attache them to any ferrous metal surface, so zero-g conditions could be simulated with ease!

Each figure came on a lavishly illustrated card, with attendant bio, backstory and place in the various forces within Starcom.

The initial 23 figure line was divided into three units - Astro Marines, Starbase Command and Star Wing. Each cohort would be responsible for a certain section of the fleet, ground assault, base and space force. Some figures were only available in playsets or with vehicles.

After the collapse of Coleco in the early 90's, Mattel picked up the licence and distributed a few extra sets in Europe. Some of the figures were issued with re-decos and some in twin packs.

Even at the small size, about 5 cm high, each figure has excellent moulding, articulation and a lot of character. The Astro Marines look especially rugged and hard bitten and many of the figures have neat 'porn star' style moustaches!

One of the main failings - possibly the only one - with the figures was the visor. The fgure had a moveable neck joint and the moulded helmet had a tiny removeable transparent visor. Because the figures were small, playing with them or putting them into the confined cockpits of the ships, usually meant the little plastic visor came off and was easily crushed underfoot.

Next up Shadow Force! the baddies...

SPACEX FLIES TO SPACE STATION

I thought I was hearing things this morning. The BBC newsreader said that SpaceX will be sending a an unmanned supply ship to ISS or International Space Station!

Tri-ang predicted this rendezvous back in 1970! Check out their neat comic advert, above, emblazoned with the cation "Docking with the Photonic Propulsion Space Station...A Vital Manoeuvre in Outer Space Exploration"!

So Swordies, if you were SpaceX Supremo, which toy ship would you send full of food and supplies to the ISS from the SpaceX range or any other for that matter? And what would you fill the cargo hold with?

One Hundred

We have 100 signed-up members/ followers of the blog now! Thanks for all your support Swordies, it means a lot to us. As Project SWORD personnel say in the comics, M.A.C! [dunno what it means though - any ideas?]

Cargo Cult

Recent visitors to the blog may have noticed a few more modern toys creeping into what is usually a vintage toy showcase. The main reason for this is to highlight what I feel is possibly the best designed space toy ever made. This is a bold statement, considering it goes up against the likes of Major Matt Mason, Spacex and a host of earlier classic and well loved toys. But what sets Starcom apart from the rest is the amount of thought which has been lavished on the line, not just in terms of vehicle designs, but in the actual play mechanics and features of the toy.

Generally, contemporary space toys such as the Star Wars line and other action figure based toys went for the film tie in route. This meant that the toy was based on a 'real life' vehicle and either had to be made to resemble the real ship as closely as possible or to accommodate the standard 3.5 inch action figure which was sweeping the toy world. This meant that a lot of the Star Wars toys had to be distorted in shape to fit the figure access,  the X Wing for example became fatter and shorter to allow for a figure to sit inside it. Had the proportions been maintained , the actual toy would have become unwieldy and too big for a childs hands.

Starcom overcame this problem in two ways, one by dispensing with the direct tie-in angle and two, by using a much smaller action figure. Although the entire line of toys had a very limited run of two years in the US and then as a re-release in Europe, it is easily one of the best space toys available.

By being free of a direct tie-in to an external source, the toy designers at Coleco (famous for ColecoVision video games and Cabbage Patch Dolls) were able to create designs which were both practical and exciting. I can't do real justice to the entire line here, but there is an excellent resource detailing all the info about Starcom here.

Meanwhile, i'd like to look at one or two of the unusual elements in the range. Part of the genius of the line was its realism. The US Space Force was intended as a peacekeeping unit, combating the Shadow force of enemy ships. One of the larger Starcom ships has a large cargo bay in the rear which is designed to accept a standard size cargo container. This cargo became a pivotal element in the toy line and certain enemy ships had the facility to carry the same containers. Two other unique features added to this element in that all the astronauts have powerful magnets in their boots and all the toys have discrete metal panels on them, allowing the figures to securely attach to them. The second and most important feature was the 'power deploy' mechanism. This was a cleverly concealed clockwork motor which activated an action feature on each toy. Pushing a button allowed wings to unfurl, cargo bays to open and vehicles to open up. Closing the activated element wound the clockwork motor back up again without the need for keys or more importantly, batteries.

A prime example of the cargo pod/power deploy feature is the Tornado Transcopter Gunship. This small vehicle was able to fold up to standard cargo pod size and slip into the back of the larger Starmax Bomber. A touch of a button, and the tail and cockpit extended outwards and a few quick manual changes converted the box-like vehicle into a small heavily armed gunship. The Battlecrane is another cool example of the magna-lock feature, again a small cargo pod sized vehicle which opens out into a hovering cargo handling vehicle, with a magnet underneath enabling it to pick up the other containers and move them around the space port.

Deployed Battlecrane and Tornado Transcopter

Battlecrane Cargo Handling

Troop Carrier Pod and MedBay

Deployed MedBay

Field Maintenance Pod and Laser Rat

Keep watch, theres more to follow on Starcom soon!

The Valkyrie

CS recently supplied me with these lovely shots of a large film tie-in toy, the Valkyrie. Straight from the animated epic Titan A.E, which mixed computer 3d graphics with conventional cel animation, this is a large toy at about 18 " long.

 A Beautiful model from a largely overlooked film, the Valkyrie reminds me of the Probe Force series with the elongated fuselage and clustered engines.

The Valkyrie represents a combination of elements, sleek ship design which I love and electronic wizardry which I loathe in toys. The inclusion of 'speech chips' and sound FX represent a turning point in the production of toys. Whereas earlier generations of toys relied upon the inventiveness and imagination of the child to add the sound effects, electronic toys at once added a small selection of stock phrases and sounds, but equally meant that the child no longer had to 'play' withe the toy to get the best from it, it was all pre-packaged at the touch of a button. The unfortunate death of a child after accidentally swallowing a small missile from a Mattel Battlestar Galactica toy in the late seventies also meant that all future toys would be made safe and free from firing missiles, small parts and easily breakable elements, The inclusion of electronic 'FX' was intended to bridge the gap, but for me it just limits the need for creativity at playtime.