MOONBASE CENTRAL

Sunday, 28 January 2018

A Fantastic Mess Or Not? Hong Da's Space Search Toy

In 2016 I branded the Hong Da Space Ship "Is this the Ugliest Space Toy in History?"

A true Frankenstein space toy. We discussed it and then it was forgotten.

Until just this month American reader Lance reminded me of it's Taiwanese quirks.....

Heyas Woodsy. I've managed to escape from the ice here in Houston and stumbled upon this lovely gem of a toy [Ebay].

Obviously the base toy is inspired by the Proteus from Fantastic Voyage, probably copied from a model kit of the sub.

But then it goes south. It seems to have been rammed by an X-wing and got a couple of large booster rockets up the backside.

Not sure if you were aware of this one so thought I'd share!

Lance

USA
PS. Happy birthday to Bill from Houston!

Inspired by Lance's observations I had another look myself and realised that its ...plastic!

I had thought that it was tin-plate but no, its an honest-to-garden plastic space toy from Taiwan!

The detailing ain't half bad either. Look at the effort Hong Da have made with the cockpit dashes and consoles. They're almost Major Matt Masonesque.

I think I'm going to revise my original sentence that this is the ugliest space toy ever and give it a stay of execution for now.

What do you think readers?

Its for Bill from Mark J

Hey Bill‎, happy birthday wishes from the future!!

Regards

Mark J and family

Mars Celebrates

Thank you everyone for the birthday cards and messages, much appreciated! Heres a selection of the wonderful, thoughtful gifts I received!

Bill "Wotan's" First Ever Post on the Blog 18th September 2008

During the space age of toys, rubber monsters were popular as a pocket-money collectable. Among these, I found as a boy a range of six space creatures. These were apparently sold in the US as 'Moon Goons' or similar and in the UK alongside the 'Teachers Pets' monsters.

Each one had a suction cup under it and was generally molded in a browny gold coloured silicone, and painted greens and blues and yellows on top. Among these six was one large 'bell shaped' alien that I as a kid always thought would be the boss!

As more and more space toys hit the market, i began to find these same aliens in other guises, as tiny chrome coloured figures to threaten the golden astronauts in Apollo Moon Exploring sets and also on keyrings and other knock off rubber toys.

Recently I decided to immortalise my favourite alien in a painting, the classic space creature of my childhood. Having so many different versions of the same toy, I wonder if he appears anywhere else - maybe as a cereal premium ?

The picture shows my painting above and original alien on far left, silver Apollo set aliens and various copies. Large yellow figure is a solid plastic keyring.

Posted by Wotan

18th September 2008