Space Garage: More Hing Fat "Space Bucket" Astronauts, Numbered -- And With Accessories???

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So my three big vintage Space Toy fixations are 1962's "Operation Moon Base" and its legacy; the myriad of connections sparked by the 1970 Hong Kong centric TriAng Spacex / Golden Astronaut fad; and what I call Space Buckets: The bargain rate sets of low-cost plastic Space Toys which is associated with Chinese toy company Hing Fat, the larger sets sold packed into a bucket or other carry/storage case. And here is another look at some Hing Fat forms I've collected, this post sparked by a recent acquisition of Space Bucket figures which are not only numbered -- as in, from a matched set -- but were vended with two very interesting looking accessories I've never seen associated with their usual packaging.

The forms in question, at right a handsome radar dish type device and a delicious looking laser cannon at left. Had to have them! The astronauts are nice, these rock.

Very Marx-looking, and I am wide open to the notion that they came from a different set of space toys unrelated to the astronauts.

No markings anywhere.

The astronauts it came with all had both "Made In China" and a number stamped on the bottom.

Some of my other Space Bucket guys, some marked and some smooth but none have numbers.

The eight numbered astronauts and two devices which came with them. Most of the astronauts were in poor shape, some outright broken which also makes me wonder if the two devices were part of their original set -- They are a harder plastic with moving parts, and one would presume they would have been the first things to get damaged but are completely unscathed.

As I like to say we all had these things as kids. And in those sets you always see that distinctive Moon Rover & Lunar Lander, a couple of suspiciously Russian looking rockets, the flag with moon terrain base, maybe a few other Moon Rock formations (a small "hill" is a common addition), a Skylab-inspired space station, and more recently the dreaded Space Shuttle + its deadly booster rockets and bomb-shaped brown fuel tank. I hate those things.

Hing Fat's corporate presentation of their current line of "Space Astronaut" sets ... Are there other kinds of astronauts?? O.0 Click here to visit the Hing Fat website.

And in spite of the "Made In China" labeling on their toys the corporate campus is located in Hong Kong, has been all along. The toys themselves are produced on mainland China. And like above, in all the item listings + blog posts I've evaluated have *never* seen them issued with a radar dish or laser cannon mounted on pivoting bases, and even though the color matches the astronauts it arrived with (all purchased used) I am open to them not being related at all. Different plastic for one, though their forms fit the drab aesthetic of the astronauts quite nicely. Were they original release accessories, long forgotten after the copycat recasters dropped them from their repackagings?

The absolutely ubiquetous Space Bucket Moon Rover, nicely adapted from the Boeing designed Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle. One hint on the dating of these sets is that the Rover was not flown until Apollo 15 in 1971, though the design was certainly established prior to 1969 and its form familiar via press photos released by NASA.

The equally ubiquitous Space Bucket Lunar Lander, perhaps derived from an earlier Apollo lander design but bearing little or no similarity to the actual Grumman Lunar Module flown first by the Apollo 9 mission in early 1969. The LM went through a number of design changes between inception and production but none of the flown models looked anything like that. And I definitely destroyed one of these as a kid.

The two vehicles along with two of the three-inch painted astronauts I found which also use the Space Bucket style. Instinct suggesting the preceded the smaller simplified versions from the bucket sets, though I have not been able to find any other references to such examples and their place in the toy line's legacy remains unknown.

And for that matter, who originated the concept of the set + astronaut/vehicle designs, and when? It's easy (and incorrect, I believe) to say Marx. But Marx's Space Toy forms are markedly different, and even as examples copied by the MPC / Hong Kong crew. They don't look like these, nor do the LP related recasters, the Tim Mee or Mexican Marx outsourced toys, or anything from the known European toymakers such as Comansi, Cherilea/Swoppet, Airgam, Airfix, Ferro/Kinder or Starlux.

These spaceman designs seem to be specifically and only associated with Chinese toy production, and who says the Chinese wouldn't have come up with their own Space Toy designs to sell to a world hungry for more at the height of the Moon Fad? Which is exactly when I would have obtained my childhood set: 1972 or thereabouts. Just when production of plastic toys began to shift from Hong Kong to mainland China.

To the right a figure in the "Rope & Triangle" pose by Marx/MPC taken from a matched + numbered set, thrown in to show how different the approach to his figure and style is.

Very different. Blue guy obtained from a vendor in France who had no recollection of where he'd obtained it from, did not know who made it, or if it came from a set or product premium. He just had it.

Stamped MPC and numbered.

Side by side with the blue Space Bucket guy, who needs to loose a few pounds compared to the Marx styled version, who could use a burger + milk shake. Maybe some fries if he's allowed that much sodium. But clearly the two were cast from different moulds prepared by different artists with different design intentions.

On the left a numbered "Wrench & Stick" guy with comically smushed in nose, on right a waxier, softer, and lighter gray casting without a number. And if you look close at the pix you'll notice my other waxy gray guys all have slightly different plastic.

Left: Numbered. Darker harder plastic.

Right: No number. Lighter waxier plastic.

Left: Numbered. Looks like they are holding a stereoscopic camera.

Right: One with no markings on his base at all, and an even lighter & waxier plastic.

Left: Numbered with broken antenna.

Right: No number, antenna intact.

And for the record the white castings have become very brittle with time. I've broken the arms off two so far just trying to slip them into the individual zipper bags I keep all my spacemen in.

I like this one. Sort of posed like he needs to take a leak and not happy about it.

Left: Driver/pilot figure from the numbered batch.

Right: The first operator shown on my rover vehicle.

Left: Same, and note how deep his helmet is compared to the white dude.

Right: Driver #2, and I dare say they also have different faces.

I'm eager to score a verifiable still factory sealed vintage set of them if it pre-dates Hing Fat's 1980 corporate birth, and am open to the notion that they may have been originated by a now defunct company which became Hing Fat, or designed by someone else who sold their moulding to such entity -- I know I had that Rover and Lander as a kid and have never seen them packaged with anything but Space Bucket / Hing Fat style astronauts. So they have to pre-date 1980 even if the astronaut design did not, with the spanner in that equation being the larger painted figures which were allegedly from the late 60s & sold to me with other verified vintage spacemen by Archer and Ajax.

The three larger painted figures, these all cast in a softer vinyl type plastic which is downright flexible.

Comparison of what I call the "Rope & Triangle" pose, with our stamped Marx/MPC guy at far right, who is looking forward. All the Hing Fat / Space Bucket guys are looking down. Don't have a numbered Space Bucket pose of this one yet but at far left the wildcard blue example from France, where they have them lying around randomly.

The popular "Geiger Counter Guy" pose, with a Marx/MPC dude from the same matched set as the Rope & Triangle used for comparison, and with a teensy 3/4 inch variant presumably made by LP Toys for the Spacex / Golden Astronaut toy sets. At far left the downright surrealist damaged example from the numbered group. He's creepy! and I love it.

And comparing what I call "Walkie-Talkie Guy" with both a white Space Bucket dude and one of the numbered set, sadly missing his antenna. Of interest is that there is no equivalent of this pose in my entire collection of Marx/MPC Hong Kong spacemen. They didn't make one, so it was an original pose done for this toy range from the start. If it was just Marx re-making their poses where is their version of this? And why didn't Hing Fat do the Marx "Rifle Guy", perhaps the most collectible individual pose of their 2" spaceman caboodle?

Like the Sesame Street song goes -- One of these guys is not like the others. One of these guys just isn't the same.

And hey, vendors. Stop saying these astronauts are by Marx just because you're pretty sure that will help them sell. 99% chance they aren't, and if I bust you claiming they are you'll hear from me. Downright false advertising, unless you can back it up with original packaging material, verifiable as being from whence they came and with Marx's name + logo all over the place.

These aren't their forms.

All of these non-mysteries are one of the many reasons why serious collectors dismiss this toy range as having limited interest: It's almost impossible to discern copies from copies of copies, as it were, and too much of a chore to chase down factual data on how they originated. Or maybe just the portions of the web I have immediate access to via common search engines lack anything along those lines -- There must be some hidden trove of knowledge out there, and maybe I just haven't asked the right questions in the right places frequented by the right collectors yet.

Their commonality within the culture is also a factor in easily dismissing them: As I stated above, we all had these things when we were kids, they flood the market with their noise, and somebody is still making the damn things. So whoever brought them into existence did something right & deserves the propz for it.

Any insights on what the story on these things are, even if conjecture, is welcome. Any specific data on what the Laser Cannon & Radar Dish are, whether they belong with the numbered spacemen, and what if any significance there is to the guys being numbered, would be generously rewarded -- Please message or comment below, and be sure to check the blog history for another gripping episode examining the rest of the Space Bucket material I've collected. If nothing else I want to be known as the Space Nerd nutcase artist blog dude from Instagram who insists on taking them seriously.

Now, let's have some fun:

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