MADE FROM GIRDERS

 

I had to chuckle at the artwork on this pinball. Besides all the fab spaceships, there's an astronaut floating through space with a huge girder! ha ha.

What are they building?

STAY SHARP!

I've always liked pencil sharpeners.

A popular thing with kids, many sharpeners are novelties.

Space sharpeners have appeared on MC before and other sites too like this one, Sharpenking - I love the LEM at the end of its page.

https://www.sharpenking.com/contents/en-uk/d258_Miniature-Space-travel-Pencil-sharpeners-collection.html 

Checking for more sharpeners around the world here's a nifty gallery. Which do you like?

Have you got any sharpeners? Pictures welcomed!

Globes and more globes. They look so damn cool!

A whole landscape with a plane and a train!

Metallic Shuttle

Not sure what happens here!

Now that's cool!

I like the little covered wagon, it reminds me of my Hot Wheels Zowie!

Popeye gets the point!

I think this is a radio that looks like a camera

Pippi Longstocking on TV!

Now that's a space race TV screen!

Plain but what a name, Dux, makers of the legendary robot Astroman!

My favourite has to be this Spanish Sacapuntas, Count Dracula. 

Ouch!

Vintage Avon Commercial - Get to know your Avon lady! - 1970s

A further bouquet of Avon products for you!

https://youtu.be/FlzXtDx6tOo?feature=shared 

Do you still use Cologne or after shave?

Watch this Space

 

I love the way the astronaut is checking his watch on this card art!

These Guisval watches from Spain sum up the twin delights of the space race and owning your first watch.

Do you recall your first watch? After several toy ones, mine was a Timex I think.

RAIDERS COACHES: GEORGE BARRIS AND CO.

The stage coach was a horse-drawn passenger vehicle, carrying fare-paying passengers on a fixed route, with one or more changes of horses along the way. Then someone decided to replace the horses with an engine (or two).

It has recently struck me that there have been a number of model and toy versions of these motorised stage coaches, or Motor Stages. At least some of them were based on real-life Custom Cars.

I am sure these are not the only models, but here is a quick look at those I am aware of. Two plastic kits; one wood and plastic hybrid kit; and one die-cast.

Paul Revere and the Raiders were an American band of the 1960s. Their gimmick was to sometimes dress up in Revolutionary War uniforms.

Their Raiders Coach was a George Barris design, which made its TV debut in 1969. It had two Pontiac GTO engines, mounted side by side, in the tractor unit.

MPC released a 1/25th scale kit (copyright date 1969), which included figures of the five band members.

 The kit was re-issued by AMT/Ertl (copyright date 2001), but without the figures. 

It was recently re-issued again, under the MPC name.

Laramie Stage Ghost was a 1/16th scale plastic kit by Pyro, copyright date 1970. This had an engine at the front, while the crew comprised skeletons in cowboy gear, fighting off an Indian attack.

The kit was moulded in several colours of plastic - the main body parts were in fuchsia pink, including the skeletons, which is a bit of a shock. The interior and fittings were sand, with lots of chrome, a small clear sprue, and black 'rubber' tyres.

This kit is sometimes described as a copy of the real Stage Fright car, with a few tweaks, but the Pyro kit appeared several years before Stage Fright.

After Pyro left the model kit business, their moulds went to Life-Like. The Laramie Stage Ghost was certainly shown in the 1973 catalogue (which can be found on the Box Art Den site), but I have not found any listings for a Life-Like version of this kit.

Sticks and Slicks was a range of Wild West Hot Rod wagon kits, which used a mix of wood, plastic, and fabric parts. I have already covered these kits, but here is a quick re-cap.

The three kits were released under the Craft Master name, with MPC providing the plastic components. Both companies being owned by General Mills at the time.

All were designed by Harry Bentley Bradley, best known for his early Hot Wheels designs. The copyright date on the boxes is 1971.

Power Stage "8" was a custom stagecoach, with an eight cylinder engine, and eight wheels. It does not appear this kit has ever been re-issued.

Stage Fright was a custom car design by Jack Keef, which first appeared in 1975. The engine was inside the stagecoach body, which tilted up at the rear for access.

Hot Wheels released a die-cast version in 1978, which lasted until 1983. All versions were brown, like the real thing, but the shades did vary.

Six photographs from Worthpoint.

What do you think?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Surprise Space Rocket By Tom Smith

I've bought Tom Smith Thunderbirds crackers before so I was curious when I saw this on the Bay in the UK and wondered what on earth it was.

A surprise rocket!

Is it like a big cracker?

The instructions say stand on a table and pull the ring!

Seems to be full of small toys and stuff!

Has anyone seen anything like this before?

TAI HING CHUN: MORE DISCOVERIES

 This is a page from the Tai Hing Chun catalogue from 1986

Having ID'd the yellow submarine, I've had a go at finding individual examples of these toys online.

Here are my latest discoveries, which look very similar to the toys on the page.

*

Snap Froen from Denmark. 

Not sure its Tai Hing Chun though [top right on the above page called Flip A Froggie].

Gyro Cycle.

not sure of the maker [top left on the above catalogue page, called Devil Cycle]

Pictures of the other toys on the catalogue page welcomed from readers!

THE ACE TEAM

 At Sunday's boot sale I had great fun rummaging in a box of old stuff  - all 25p each!

Having bagged my booty, as always I've begun to think about what I left behind! The booter's curse!

The box contained a a couple of cheapo helicopters labelled Ace Team and I think Air Team. Clearly A-Team knockoffs, both were small black die-casts.

These were not the toys I was looking for and I left them behind in their dusty casket for someone else.

Looking up these cheapo choppers I could only find Ace Team and only the van, which wasn't at the sale. 

There's one on Ebay and it says the maker is Szetoys, which is new to me. 

Googling further there's even a version of this with Mr. T pictured on the roof.

What I did get from the sale was the real McCoy, a Rough Riders A-Team Enforcer van, which needs a bit of TLC. Here's one I saw on Worthpoint.

Have you got any A-Team toys or knockoffs readers?