I have a special fondness for Timmee's Mailbox Robot, and only just learned yesterday that the "Galaxy Laser Team" it is part of only debuted in 1978. So it is definitely an extrapolation on the R2-D2 form rather than the other way around, a point I'd gotten mixed up after falsely believing the set to have originated pre "Star Wars". So once again we confront a major misconception about space figure production dates: Common misconception is that these have been around as long as Timmee's toy soldier sets and production began in the 1960s. Which is incorrect, and were actually added to Timmee / Processed Plastics toy lines in response to the success of the Kenner "Star Wars" figure lines, dating the Galaxy Laser Team's first appearance to 1978. The sets are still in production today via the re-formed TimmeeUSA group, and if you ask me the only way to know for sure whether a given set is old or new is to buy them still sealed with header card on the bag.
Above are the four examples of the robot I have in my collection -- The blue and white figures facing forward have been with me since the spring, the black figure and white robot with his back turned arrived with the "Space City Vinyl Playset", though whether they were both issued with the Space City set will likely never be known for certain.
Now the three "hollow" versions with their back to us and the solid white casting facing front. Not only was the figure's mould hollowed out, the feet were widened, and all of the hollow robots also have what I guess is sprue remnant damage. What I am hoping is that these attributes can help determine which robots may have been produced first, and that finding a set with a robot featuring a solid body with narrowed feet would indicate that the set was part of the original batch. Though in the discussion related to the blog post below it is made clear that verified vintage examples of the robot will feature both hollow and solid bodies as well as both narrow and wider feet.
The subject of the robot retooling is addressed on this post here by the "Super Fun Blog" on the re-issue of the Galaxy Laser Team. The subject comes up in the discussion after the main article, with insights provided by the director of the Timmee re-issues crew.
Left: Hollow.
Right: Solid.
Note the widening of their feet. There is also a very different luster to the two types of plastic used; The hollow one is more white, the solid more of a cream color. The hollow one's plastic is also somewhat softer than the solid guy.
The design looks unchanged, just the wideness of the feet.
Note the gouge on the back of the hollow dude's right foot. Nothing like it on the solid guy. Only thing directly missing from the hollowed out version is the horizontal bar underneath the waffle pattern on the solid guy.
I like how the solid guy's back pattern is "wavy" from being deeper towards the bottom -- Perhaps just a human error when sculpting the original form? One speculation made in the "Super Fun Blog" is that the hollowing change was made simply to save on plastic, but they kept the waffle iron pattern.
Shazam. Very different.
The black figure was part of the "Lot" included with the Space City playset, the blue guy one which I've had since April. Note "damage" to what is the back of the blue guy's right foot.
Now the "gouge" is on the back of the black robot's left foot.
The discussion comments on the Super Fun Blog make it clear that the change in tooling for both the back and feet is evident in examples of the form dating from it's very beginning -- Known vintage samples of the robot have both hollow and solid bodies. So it may not be a useful method to project dating onto the figures, but if you ask me the hollow versions look incomplete and it will be an attribute I will be paying attention to when evaluating which ones to acquire. I would like to have the full Galaxy Laser Team in each of the colors they were issued in, and am totally Jonesing for a Big Size robot something bad.
"PLEASE DO NOT STEP ON THE ART. THANK YOU AND HAVE A NICE DAY."
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