It's a Dream: the Mattel 80th Anniversary Model

Hi Woodsy,

         The American toy company Mattel was founded in 1945, and 2025 is their 80th Anniversary. To celebrate, they have produced special Anniversary editions of various toys.

The first toy car ever made by Mattel was a large, friction-powered plastic Dream Car. This appeared in 1953, and was a 1950s version of what the cars of the future might look like.

To celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Mattel in 2020, a die-cast version of the Dream Car, now called the Mattel Dream Mobile, was released in the Hot Wheels range.

At first, this came in colours that matched the original, 1950s toy – red, blue, and green, all with silver trim. The Hot Wheels version is about a quarter the size of the original toy.

In later years the model was included in the Color Shifters and Color Reveal ranges. Color Shifters change colour when dipped in hot or cold water; while the Color Reveal models have an additional coat of paint over the top, which washes off when first dipped in water.

This 80th Anniversary model is in two-tone metallic red. The areas that are dark metallic red were silver on previous releases. The model has the word MATTEL inside the number 80 below the windscreen, and the date 1945 at the rear.

The interior appears to be grey, with smoke-tinted windows; and a chromed base, which includes the bumpers. Copyright date is 2019.

This Anniversary model is included in the HW Celebration Racers series for 2025, which usually covers things like Valentine's Day or Halloween. The Mattel 80 logo appears in the upper left hand corner of the card.

The Long Card style of packaging is the most commonly seen style in New Zealand, but Woolworths (previously Countdown) supermarkets have the Short Card versions. I managed to find both, which have slightly different graphics.

Do you like Dream cars?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

The Story of the Rings

My Granddaughter has made some gorgeous rings from plastic clicky rocks.

The top picture shows one ring, the bottom one shows off all of the rings. 

The end of each ring has a ships steering wheel.

They're called Rainbow Rings Special.

Hope you like them.

Brighton Toy Museum Video

Hi Woodsy,

I just discovered this interesting video on the Brighton Toy and Model Museum. It mainly consists of interviews with the people in charge.

You do get to see some of the toys – among them a Teddy Bear which belonged to the Father of the Museum founder; and a model he made of the ship on which he served in the Navy.

Most of the Museum exhibits cover the late 19 Century, up to the 1950s. The materials are mainly wood, metal, and fabric, rather than plastic.

The Museum is currently being refurbished, and there is some information on this. The Museum also has some very useful material on their website, such as old advertising and catalogue pages.

The Museum must be a great place to visit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjt0aAzRVis

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Just Visiting

This Argentinian Knockoff toy pistol caught my eye.

Two reasons: it says V on the grip sticker along with a small spacecraft from the show, a TV show I did watch and enjoy. Did you?

The card art may not be from V at all. Does anyone know?

The Klatu Quasar Mystery

I think we've seen this before on MC, a very unusual and mysterious money bank. 

With the sound of GORT's Klaatu Barada Nikto echoing round the memory banks, this is .....

..... The Klatu android money bank by Quasar Industries of San Francisco from 1975.

It's branded on the neck of its baseball head.

One outlet was National Airlines. I can't see a coin slot though!

Here's a bagged version with another name too, Alsco. Who are they?

The sticker label 'Robots by Quasar' hints at another story connected to this bank. Quasar supposedly used them as promotional items for their upcoming home android range, real home androids for sweeping, cooking and nannying. In some quarters it's described as a hoax.

Did Quasar make anything else?

But the robot nanny hoax may actually hold the key to its true origin.

Could the Quasar bank have been inspired by this nanny robot that appeared in the TV series Logan's Run? Was the robot also called Klatu?

They're very similar whatever!

What do you think? Connected?

There are more fabulous domestic snaps of the Logan's Run nanny bot on the Atomic Chronograph Tumblr site for you to consider readers. 

 https://share.google/xHgHoMyxj6X1w8e9u

In Case You're 007

 These four cases appeared on the Antiques roadshow the other Sunday.

They were props for the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.

The Universal Exports cases contained dummy components for assembling the autogyro called Little Nellie in the film.

They were valued at around a staggering £100K!

It didn't include Little Nellie as it's currently part of a charitable exhibit.

Icons of 007, have you ever seen these props readers or got any toys or kits relating to them? 

Tommy Gunn Ad 1966

Hi Woodsy

For those not familiar with the Internet Archive site, it contains a great deal of printed, sound, and film material which you can search for free. 

The trick may be finding just the needle you are looking for in a very large haystack.

Sometimes, you find interesting items by accident, as in this case. While going through the Internet Archive collection of Meccano Magazines from the 1960s, I found this ad in the October 1966 issue.

It is for Tommy Gunn – British Fighting Soldier, from Pedigree. The ad lists the doll, and the range of accessory Packs available, along with their prices.

While I never had a Tommy Gunn, or Action Man, they have been mentioned several times on Moonbase Central, so I thought this ad would be of interest. 

The Internet Archive is also worth a look, if you have not visited it before.

https://archive.org/

Did you have Tommy Gunn?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Suicide Squad: Were you Enchanted?

Caught Suicide Squad last night, the old one from 2016.

It's DC's anti-Justice League. It shouldn't work on screen but somehow parts of it did. 

Like Marvel, DC, being an old comics house too, has lots of lesser-known and in some cases completely unknown characters to fool around with. Slipknot is one. Who?

Yep, Suicide Squad is a ragtag of B and C-List jailbird metas tasked with disciplining the uber-evil slinky Enchantress. The squad includes interesting super-villains like Deadshot and Diablo. 

Besides Harley Quinn, Killer Croc is the probably most famous. The unknown Slipknot only lasts five minutes. Still, he did get a whole five!

But, predictably, it is Harley Quinn who steals the show. It might as well have been her film, played brilliantly by the screen-chewing Margot Robbie, clearly on a roll as she went to do more Harleying in Birds of Prey (yet to see it).

Other high points in SS were Jared Leto's Joker, which he does so well. After Heath Ledger's untimely death it was hard to find a plausible Joker, but Leto pulls it off superbly with his insane slow cackle and gangsta teeth.

Another treat for Affleck fans is the short cameo of our Ben's fantastic Batman, who, like Henry Cavil's Superman, defined the roles for a new generation.  I'm with them and a real treat to see the Bat again in this flick.

I've yet to see the latest bash at Suicide Squad. It requires payment so I'm waiting. This is Yorkshire!

Have you seen the Squad?