New Toys 1957

Hi all

Here is a very short British Pathe film clip of the 1957 toy fair, with a revolving animated cartoon viewer - which seems to be mounted on a record player. There is also a money box which spins the coins around before gobbling them up, and an air power rocket that looks like a V2. Pathe certainly covered some interesting subjects. Unfortunately Pathe never identify the makers of the toys in these clips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPmOM1HBe5A

Paul Adams from New Zealand

KING OF THE BUNDLE: TOY TARZANS

 I've written about small plastic Tarzans a few times. It's a minor blog legend really.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2019/08/fierce-toys-zoos-jungles-phantoms-and.html

I was chuffed when I found a Tarzan at a boot sale last summer.

Its amazing where this classic figure turns up. Besides the Phantom Jungle set here's another vine swinger in this Kindergeburtstag bundle bag of party favours I saw on Ebay so I saved the pics. I wonder if the King of the Jungle is in the public domain?

Have you got a Tarzan or a Jane in your life?

MONITORS AND PREFECTS

There used to be jobs at school when I was a kid. Secondary school I mean. the two I remember where Monitor and Prefect. Like Project SWORD ranks, they both had badges.

I think Monitors checked whether you had all the equipment you needed. Pen, pencil, ruler and so on. I'm not sure if they had spares - like an ice-cream vending person at the cinema? Maybe they monitored other stuff too.

Prefects were altogether more important than monitors. Fifth year Marshalls these Young Guns for hire patrolled the dark corridors of the institution searching out miscreants and forcibly pointing out the errors of their ways with a clip round the ear. A  bath full of scorpions was preferable to a corridor full of Prefects! At least that was my experience in a mid-70's Catholic High School in Preston. So much for saintliness!

Prefects also decided how much and what type of food we got. With one of this breed sat at every table like a dinnertime Sheriff they ladled out the meals and the puddings. If you said you hated swedes that's mostly what you got. I learnt not to say I hated skin on my custard. I learnt to keep stumm pretty quick!

I was never a Monitor nor a Prefect. I just watched them.

Were you one readers? Were you something else at school?

Eldon Scenics Kits Update

Hi

          I came across an old ad for the Eldon Scenics kits that have appeared before on Moonbase, and did a little further digging. There is not a lot of information on these kits. This is what I found.

First up, from the Alamy site, which seems to be professional stock photos for publishing, a full-colour magazine ad for the Moon Survey set. The sets were 19 inches by 12 inches, and came with a frame, curved backscene, as well as Testors paints, cement, and thinners.

Vintage Toy Advertisements of the 1960s (Page 3) (vintageadbrowser.com)

Eldon have been mentioned a couple of times before on Moonbase Central, these are the posts.

Pages from an old catalogue, showing the kits.

MOONBASE CENTRAL: THE ELDON ARMOURY (projectswordtoys.blogspot.com)

A short film clip of the 1968 British Toy Fair, with the Eldon Sea Lab kit on the Wells Brimtoy stand, I assume they distributed the kits in Britain. Shown at the start of the clip.

Toy Fair (1968) - YouTube

Now a post showing the assembled Moon Survey kit, and an old magazine ad from the American magazine Boy's Life for November 1966 'announcing a new hobby', so I assume these kits were released in late 1966, just in time for Christmas ? 

This ad says that the Sea Lab kit is also available, and that there will soon be a Prehistoric Kit, with more Scenic Kits to come. The only pictures I could find of the actual kits were for the Lunar and Sea Lab sets. Despite being shown in the Eldon catalogue, I am not sure if the planned Prehistoric kit was actually released.

There really does not seem to be a lot of information around on these kits. They are not mentioned on the Scalemates or Old Model Kits sites, and I could not find anything on You Tube. The fact they were shown in the Toy Fair video at least suggests they were sold in Britain.

Here are the references I could find.

Say; Hello Spaceman: Eldon 3D Scenic Moon Survey Model Kit (1966) (sayhellospaceman.blogspot.com)

Then some items from Worthpoint.

RARE 1966 ELDON 3D SCENIC MOON SURVEY MODEL KIT | #156172983 (worthpoint.com)

1960's Space Eldon 3D Scenic Moon Survey Model Kit Complete with Two Astronauts | #418722888 (worthpoint.com)

RARE 1966 ELDON 3-D SCENIC SEA LAB KIT COMPLETE, UNUSED MONTGOMERY WARDS EDITION | #1879755386 (worthpoint.com)

That is about it for now. Take care.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

MY TOP THREE TASTES

I have had to reconsider my taste top three owing to discovering a new drink flavour in the chill cabinet at Lidl.

Its Chocolate Fudge Brownie milk shake and is really quite moo-vellous!

This has knocked down a drink flavour I've had at the top since I was a kid!

So this means my new top three drink tastes looks like this:

1. Chocolate Fudge Brownie milk shake

2. Lime milk shake

3. American cream soda

As a kid I adored Sarsaparilla drink too but I haven't had it for decades. Is it even still available? 

What are your top tastes readers?

DOUBLE SPACE GUN BOX ART MYSTERY

 

I saw this on Spain's Todocoleccion and wondered if anyone knew where the graphics come from on the box art? Is it a Japanese anime?

DIGGING UP THE PAST

 

As a kid in the Sixties I wanted to be a paleontologist.

I had a boxed fossil hunting kit, which looked a little like the above box. It contained a small hammer, an ammonite, a magnifying glass and a booklet about fossil ID's.

I've never seen another one like it since but this modern T-Rex set reminded me of it, especially the T-Rex box art.

Did you have a fossil hunting kit readers?

COMIC ADVENTURES WITH STINGRAY ARM FINS

 Occasionally I do find myself buying the odd item that is really quite superfluous to my toy or model collections, but, nevertheless still has a strong nostalgic pull.

One such item is this bagged set of 1960’s Stingray Arm Fins from Morlaine ltd.

Now, they’re not something I’m planning to use anytime soon, but I remember them being advertised in TV Century 21, back in 1965, so I thought I’d take a punt!

The red plastic fins are supposed to help you swim faster ‘like Troy and Marina’, and are designed with ‘supersonic speed holes’ to’ help you speed along’ in the water!

Obviously these swimming aids are highly unlikely to enhance your swimming speed to Mach 1, but back in 1965 I can imagine a young Stingray fan bobbing about in the local swimming baths who might have  felt there was a definite improvement to his, or her swimming technique while testing the things!

The Fins came with a free ‘WASP underwater agent’ badge, automatically making the wearer a Stingray swimming ace. Mine is plastic covered tin, although some sets apparently came with just a cardboard version.

Another plus point for me is artwork on the header card which was done by artist, Rab Hamilton.

Rab was also the artist who drew the comic strip adverts promoting the Stingray Arm Fins, featuring the Stingray crew using the Arm Fins to get them out of underwater trouble.

When it comes to the artist, I can’t say I know much about Rab Hamilton, : A web search revealed his real name was Alex Hamilton, and occasionally used the name Robert or Bob Hamilton.

As to Rab’s contributions to Gerry & Sylvia Anderson’s TV series spin off publications in the early sixties, I know Rab is credited as one of the artists in the 1965 Fireball XL5 annual, and he worked on several of the TV Century 21 specials and annuals. He is probably best known to TV Century 21 readers for his work on the Agent 21 strip.  He did work on some other Stingray related publications during the sixties too, including illustrating the Marina comic strip in Lady Penelope comic, and working on both of the sixties Stingray annuals and the 1965 TV Century 21Stingray story book.

So, anyone else have aquatic adventures wearing a set of Stingray Arm Fins?