Friday, January 31, 2020

Reduced Size Tim Mee "Galaxy Laser Team" Astronauts, From Milton Bradley's "Star Bird Command Base" (1978) And Other Sizes


I first ended up with the Geiger Counter Guy to the left by mistake, or rather it wasn't what I had expected to see come bouncing out of the box. Nice surprise! and today I managed to finally land one of the reduced size astronauts with his lunch box there at center along with another Geiger Counter Guy at right with yet another surprise.


A zero marking! No clue what it might mean but he's different.


No base markings as is consistent with Tim Mee product to this very day. Makes dating their figures darn near impossible as well, though all of these 30mm figures are surely going to be original 1978 production.


One of the purposes they were likely made for, a Milton Bradley toy set released same year as Galaxy Laser Team surface -- Both of which were in response to the phenomenal success Kenner had with their Star Wars toys.


Tim Mee parent company Processed Plastics also included the reduced size astronauts with their hard plastic rocket toys like the Titan pictured above, image courtesy of http://toysoldierhq.com.


With Marx 30/35mm figures from their Disneyland sets, if my intel is correct. Close enough for them to work nicely together in scale pix.


With a 2016 Matchbox ATV 6x6 in G.I. Joe Adventure Team yellow. One of my prized G.I. Joe sets as a lad was the "Secret of the Mummy's Tomb" collection which featured a marvelously iconic yellow 6x6. And while they can't sit in it I'd call that a darn near perfect fit.


And YES: Examples of all three sizes for the Lunch Box Guy (I call every box space figures are carrying either a suitcase or lunchbox).


One reason to seek him out was to work with perspective & scale relationships. Some can be closer, others further away even while standing right next to each other. Instant forced perspective.


The possibilities are endless. Off to work with them!

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Space Crawler Mania: Simplified Copies of the Billy Blastoff & Major Matt Mason Space Crawlers Compared


Three simplified variations on the Space Crawler concept, in silver and black soft plastic presumably by LP Toys, gold hard plastic variant unknown. The presence of a video terminal screen on the gold variant + its "boxier" shape are more consistent with Eldon's Space Crawler for the Billy Blastoff toy line, the other two more consistent with Major Matt Mason's Space Crawler by Mattel. 
















While my loose black variant appears to be the same as this Apollo Moon Exploring #304A set it was likely from a cake decoration set and does not have a chromed operator figure.



The gray model was part of this "Space Exploring" Set #704C, no maker named on the packaging but presumably LP Toys given the contents.







By my eye the silver crawler is a smidgen larger in proportion than the black crawler. The black crawler's wheels can also turn independently of each other where the silver crawler's wheels are locked together, or at least I don't feel like forcing it to try turning them on their own.


Silver crawler also has two gouges underside of the back fin piece which are not seen on the black crawler. No clue as to what those nick marks are on the underside of the silver crawler.


Pretty enjoyable afternoon!