Flying Toadster

Toad's new Saucer!

Sweet!

[a Japanese character called Keryon?]

picture: Morphy Auctions

Auto 21

I while ago I posted a cool little plastic car from the Gooble Gang [below], which would have done Commander Straker proud.  Well here's another one on the ebay radar, an ultra-retro Futura 21. What an Andersonic auto. The 21 must be inspired by the Andersverse. Did anything like it appear in the shows?

Futura 21 picture: Fizzycat45

Little Big Man Sought

A reader has been in touch to ask the following: "Hi Guys,I'm on a quest to complete my Little Big Man collection. If anybody has the following MOC/MIB for sale, could you please let me know:

SETS: Sabotage, Tropical Combat, Underwater Mission. Paratroop Attack, Medic. ACCESSORIES: Sabotage, Tropical Combat, Underwater Mission. OUTFITS: Underwater Mission"

Let me know if you help and I'll put you in touch with the enquirer.
Ta
Woodsy

Tetsujin 28

Tetsujin 28 Rocket from our friends in beleaguered Japan.

I know nothing about Tetsujin but love the sleek SWORDesque lines of this.

Below is a very Thunderbird 1 - like Fire Rocket X-0077 by Yonezawa.

[pictures: Morphy Auctions 009]

This Week's Rollover

Amongst many treasures in this British Pathe newsreel from the Brighton Toy Fair 1968, there's some cool footage of our friend the Rollover Tank. Check it out around the 35 seconds mark. For a quick view of what's in the film click on the 'View as Stills' button.

Gasket Case: New Flying Saucer Mystery Solved

Back in October 2009 reader Ferryman flagged up a gasket mystery relating to a strange card template inside the New Flying Saucer at the bottom of the above picture. The gasket was sort of cat faced and pictured a speedboat in blue, black and white. The identity of this has remained a mystery.....

Until now! I was recently lucky enough to acquire a new T boat, the Dolphin Cruiser and lo and behold, the box art includes, you've guessed it, the blue, black and white speedboat picture on two sides! Mystery solved.

Below you can see the two pictures close up.

Did these card gaskets appear inside all three types of New Flying Saucer: T, JR21 and the German Welt Erkunder?

Completely Quackers!

Here's a new one on me, JR [21]'s Quacky Duck Car. OK it's not space-related but you know I'm a pushover for bit of JR. This is related to the Comicars series and follows them with model number 316. At 8 inches long it comes complete with a quack quack sound! Only occassionally upending onto Ebay, there's one floating about at the min from Vintagetoys72. As the Seller will say, the bills in the post!

Pictures: Vintagetoys72

ANDERSOV

I love this 1974 Russian moonscape over on John Sisson's ultra-informative Dreams of Space blog. John has given me kind permission to post it here. I couldn't help noticing the similarity of certain designs to machines in the worlds of Sci Fi and NASA. I've compared them below: from left to right: Thunderbirds' Sidewinder, SWORD Ant/ NASA MOLAB and the Lost in Space Chariot. Have the Russians copied them?

John has also posted earlier Russian moonscapes from 1965. Here's one below. Now why do I think SHADO Copter!

You can compare all of the 1965 and 1974 versions of these Russian artists' concepts over at John's Dreams of Space blog.