LP Toys Astronauts in Varying Sizes Including Multiple Toymaker "Space Case" Copies

This was meant to be a final installment on the kinds of reduced size space figures I'm utilizing for my art projects. 

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Rarely seen LP Toys four inch astronauts with 50mm counterparts. The smaller three are correctly marked with the distinctive LP Toys logo.

Quite hard to find.

No base markings but a fairly safe bet they were pressed out at the Lik Be Plastics & Metals Factory sometime between 1967 and 1974. 

Learn more about LP Toys' astronaut figure legacy at this page here on the Triang Spacex Golden Astronaut Toys website.

The sizes I usually work with up front. What led me to them was wanting astronaut figures roughly in scale for 1/64 diecast Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars. Which are great, but dude get me more of these spaceman figures. In fact to heck with the Hot Wheels, there's Golden Astronaut bling to score.

What I call Pistol Lunch Box Guy in 1/36 and HO scales. Smallest white figure at front center is a Multiple Toymakers "Space Case" copy.

The 26mm LP figures best known around this neck of the woods as the figures from novelty company Blue Shield's marvelously absurd Apollo Capsule Party Favor playsets. Each with an eggshell fragile miniature Lunar Module and seven 26mm LP astronauts.

The Lunar Module toys in the sets (as well as ALL of the Lunar Module toys of such size I've seen) has a rectangular hatch for a front door, a design change NASA implemented in or around January 1969. Prior to December 1968 the LM had a round docking hatch as a front door, which was changed to the rectangular pressure hatch as a weight saving measure. No Lunar Module with a round hatch ever flew, and the first LM flown by astronauts on Apollo 9 had the rectangular door, as did every LM thereafter.

Point being that if the Lunar Module toy has a rectangular door it had to have been made after January 1969. If it was made before then it should have the round docking hatch. Since all of the Blue Shield and LP fabricated LMs have rectangular hatches the earliest they could have been made was 1969.

Multiple Toymakers "Space Set" bling with simplified Thunderbird 5 space station and twelve figures based on the 26mm figures germane to the Blue Shield sets.

Not My Collection - The figures and Thunderbird 5 again in a "Space Case" folding playset, dated 1969.

The MT figures are very soft, blobby, waxy looking and crude. But most interestingly they have no weapons. One even has no hand.

... Must have been a long day at the plant.

With yellow Blue Shield strain, who is not only taller and more sharply defined but has his pistol. I would never be so crass as to suggest that MT simply used a Blue Shield variety figure as a positive for a cheap little ripoff mold and then wiped out the gun. But it sort of looks like that's exactly what happened. The only question would be what the extent of LP's involvement may have been, if any.

In case you blew off my video at top, an iteresting side note in how the removal of the guns matched was a change Multiple Toymakers (or Miner Industries, their parent company) implemented for their own flagship spaceman figures as well. For whatever reason, in 1968 some executive at Miner or MT decided their spacemen were no longer to be armed.

Two items come to mind, first the Peace Power anti war sentiment seeped into the popular consciousness. Second is that the Space Race and prospect of actually having men set foot on the moon ceased being science fiction. Our astronauts would bring cameras and sample bags not firearms or explosives, primarily because there was no one there to go out and exchange hostilities with. We were not invading or conquering the moon, a change in sentiment quite at odds with the more militaristic minded 1950s.

Space Rifle changed to Walkie Talkie

QUICK! - How would that work in a vacuum?? 

Pencils down! It wouldn't.

Pistol Lunchbox changed to Pistol Grabbber Stick

QUICK! - Would a metallic cartridge pistol work in a vacuum?

Pencils down! Yes, but the effect of recoil could be hazardous.

The spindly arm of Rope & Sextant Guy was also lowered and his body mass increased for better stability. Which strain is more common would be an interesting topic to pursue, with my best guess being the original sculpting. The figures first went on sale in or by 1963, so they'd had six years to churn them out by the time the casting change was implemented. The figures were a phenomenal hit, millions were pressed. By 1970 there was enough competition in the plastic space toy market to dampen further market dominance, including from companies like Payton who ripped off MPC's designs.

1967 bagged set with the weapons.

1968 bagged set with NO weapons. 

I have only seen bagged sets which are either/or, never mixed, and all bagged sets I have seen dated 1969 or later have the updated weaponless figures.

Funny thing. I started using the space figures as a way to help get around the goofy awkwardness of my human figure skills. And now I have all these little astronauts to paint but they're so poorly formed they look like my goofy spaceman drawings. Checkmate.

More "Heavy Rescue 411: Ganymede Station Edition" Artwork Updates - Painting the Box, Choosing the Toys, and the Gilmark Space Car

Space Plastics chosen for the project.

 Some additional items for this ongoing project to see. Originally envisioned as a quick series of 3 minute uploads rather than an enormous 20 minute epic even I would fall asleep during.

If scoring along at home the goal of the project is a parody of those Weather Channel shows with guys in foil suits pulling tractor trailers out of the snow. Only it's on Ganymede, and there's an alien.

No Vintage Space Toys Are Harmed In The Creation Of My Artwork

Project best summed up by this 50 second preview trailer.

Today's installment covered my intentions for the box form, seen in all these uploads in a barely begun state only meant to suggest a off-world location.

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Blog post with additional pix & blathering here syracuseartfreak.blogspot.com/2023/05/painting-space-box-for-heavy-rescue-411.html

Update below concerns itself with the selection of toy pieces including the figures.

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Painting the space car below. It'll be in acrylics, no spray. Scrubs right off if it doesn't work.

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Blog post with additional pix & somewhat less blathering here syracuseartfreak.blogspot.com/2023/05/painting-damaged-1950s-gilmark-toys.html

I should also note that the point here is to make artwork, for display and sale, which is what I do for a living. No harm will come to the toy pieces chosen, everything is very carefully packed up, wrapped, kept safe etc. The red ship won't be glued to anything, wire will hold it in place. Next owner will be able to remove it from the background unscathed.

Then after they've had a 2nd life as art subjects they can be cleaned off and repurposed, restored, eBayed, or left on some shelf with everything else hoarded away. For now they're part of my supplies box, and I will look after them so the next person can have their turn.

LP Toys Gumdrop Alien Robot Special! with "Heavy Rescue 411: Ganymede Station" Update

Working the Heavy Rescue 411 idea and wanted to take a closer look at one of the episode's stars: LP Toys' popular and outrageous Gumdrop Alien, or Gumdrop Robot. Best evidence suggests he entered into manufacture sometime between 1966 and 1968 at the legendary Lik Be Plastics & Metals Factory in Hong Kong. Who produced such inexpensive plastic toys both for sale to other companies for repackage and under their own LP Toys label, and remarkably both are still in business. 

Click here to open video in a new window for fullscreen view options.

You can learn much about the LP Toys aliens in their many forms by visiting this page at the Triang Spacex Golden Astronaut Toys website.

I wanted to do a "Behind the Scenes Look" parody of how the episode is made, part of which requires extensive consideration of the toy forms utilized. Most are damaged or broken and are chosen not just for relative size but to suggest a story, the more absurd the better. In this case a parody of those Weather Channel shows with guys in foil suits pulling wrecked tractor trailers out of the snow. Only it's spaceships and they're on Ganymede, where it snows frozen methane.

This prior blog post details the concept with video more embeds etc spacetrucks.blogspot.com/2023/05/gilmark-toys-hard-plastic-space-ship.html

Our Irate Pilot character at left with Worried Spouse in orange & one of the Ganymede Station crew in yellow, poor guy. All paints are acrylics by Golden's and will scrub off under a warm faucet in about three minutes. I also start with the damaged ones, note Spouse's missing hand. Have enough of the gumdrop robots to spend one, and the astronaut is an inexpensive copy produced by Multiple Toymakers c.1969 for assorted miniature playsets.

NO VINTAGE SPACE TOYS ARE HARMED IN THE CREATION OF MY ARTWORK

Unpainted alien specimens with downsized LP Toys astronaut which appears to be in proportion to the larger figures. Smaller astronaut is a roughly 1/64 scale size identical to LP's astronaut figures utilized for the Golden Astronaut toy line but pressed in a soft waxy plastic.

Upscaled gumdrop from the bagged set featured below, believed to represent 1/36 scale representations of the designs. I'd rate them as near perfect in the larger scale, and find the designs to be at least as effective as the Marx aliens I've yammered on about elsewhere. Different sensibility however, with a more playful touch rather than the Cold War functionality of an alien menace worth blowing up. These guys would be fun to go have a beer with.

The green aliens arrived in this nice bagged set out of Australia, believed to have likely been manufactured in Hong Kong at some point between 1968 and 1972,

Bag contents, with "standard" 1/36 scale 50mm LP Toys astronauts in chalky white soft plastic. Aliens in a lustrous waxy green, and interestingly each bears the loop for a lanyard or necklace on their topknots.

Comparing sizes of reduced scale LP style astronauts in the same pose, which I named the Pistol & Lunch Box Guy. Unpainted grey, red and yellow figures made by unknowns for (amongst other things) party favor and cake topper sets, and are a head shorter than the Golden Astronaut size figures behind them. Note how all human figures in this image hold a pistol.

Our Ganymede Station crewmember noticeably shorter than the Golden Astronauts and missing his pistol. Got a bagful of 72 for about $10, so expect to see more of the pose.

So now he's just standing there with a lunch box checking his suit clasps. Whether LP signed off on Multiple Toymakers' appropriation is unknown, though the two did cooperate on creation of figures for the Golden Astronaut line.

Unpainted aliens were likely 1970s stock bulked out to New Jersey based outfit H.G. Toys for use as aliens in their generic space themed playsets. LP's version of the Golden Astronauts likely manufactured through 1972 both with and without hallmarkings. And copied ruthlessly by others aping the toy line.

Irate Pilots and their Worried Spouses. She just wants him to come down from there, Please!! Before he gets himself or someone else hurt. But he's all ticked off because the crew took a lunch break rather than finishing up with his wrecked space truck. Union rules, Sir.

And as the Principal taught us in "The Breakfast Club", some people don't even get a lunch.

GOTCHA

Breaking a Vintage LP Toys 50mm Plastic Astronaut Figure, and Other Such Fun

 

Ugh.

You know, of all the confounded luck. Space Karma biting back for making fun of the Rescue 411 guys maybe. Have had this problem before with the figures. Pressed in a soft chalky plastic that will go brittle if left to sunlight + air, which this one's yellowed hue suggests may have been its fate.

Could have been repaired, but I have four or five more and sensed an opportunity ...

Lost in the Space Swamp, a recurring motif in these works.

Additional cheering news is that I get to paint him now - I only mess with the ones which are broken, playworn, or inexpensive copies I have multiples of. And I have some other blank white plastic LP 1/36 Pistol & Lunch Box guys, my name for the pose. If interested the Triang Spacex Golden Astronaut website has a handy guide to the LP astronauts which you can visit by clicking all that linked text. and below is the setup I was preparing for when the mishap took place.

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For more information on LP Toys' myriad of space plastics be sure to visit this page here at the Triang Spacex Toys website, with links to pages for both the human and alien figures. They have been of unique inspiration! as much as the Marx or Lido forms. There is something about how they and the other varieties I've featured get at the meat of what I was after with my own space character imagery. 

Point was to try and match the scale of the smaller astronaut to the aliens relative to the matched scales of the figures at top. More soon.

The Tycho Brahe Borehole - SciFi Art "Curse of Oak Island" Parody set at Tycho Crater on the Moon

The Tycho Brahe Borehole is a legendary abandoned mine/excavation in massive Tycho Crater on the Moon, believed to be the impact site of a lost Russian space probe from the 1960s. And which some have said contains either a vast hidden treasure, evidence of alien visitation, or an off-planet colony founded by the Knights Templar, dated to 1496. 

And some say, which could have served as the hidden laboratory for an experiment in cross-breeding human and alien species, into a hybrid life form.

Above imagery borrowed from this short subject upload, which was itself meant as a parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey crossed with ideas from ALIEN.

Idea is meant as a parody of the ridiculous “Curse of Oak Island” paranormal fringe show my father and I enjoy watching every Tuesday instead of getting things done. It’s an absurd presentation purporting to be scientific and factual. They have yet to get to possible alien visitation but it’s the same narrator History Channel employs for their Ancient Aliens train wreck, and the fatal hit to Oak Island’s credibility his voice brings is instant. It is almost exactly the same narration too, substituting Oak Island phrases for Ancient Astronaut phrases. I sit there grinding my teeth and biting my tongue lest I spoil the fun for my dad. It is after all well-made television and looks like a fine vacation out in the woods.

The show is also far less loathsome than Ancient Aliens, with a more modest looking cast of regular expert types presented as safety-conscious workaday Joe's contracted to help the protagonists get to the bottom Oak Island by digging holes in it. Every non-discovery played off on camera by people who know better as compelling evidence that there may be more to the rumors of treasure than meets the ear. And that each new discovery could bring them one step closer to solving the Mystery of Oak Island so long as it won't preclude another season.

 

Alleged discovery of what was called The Tycho Paragon, Tycho Brahe Crater on the Moon. The crater is real but the "Paragon" was proven to be a hoax staged for Japanese television.

Sources for the ideas abound: Been reading about the alleged Money Pit on Oak Island since a kid, was interesting for a couple years. The late Dr. Carl Sagan taught us on COSMOS about Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and his strained collaboration with Johannes Kepler which resulted in Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion. Most memorably, Brahe is festooned with a gold nose to replace one he lost in a duel. Absurd, but without his careful astronomical observations Kepler could not have calculated the relative motion of the heavens. Which is why both have astronomical features named after them including craters on the Moon visible from Earth.

Pretty sure the anomaly from Arthur C. Clarke's version of 2001 is unearthed at Tycho, will look into that for certainty before mentioning it again. The phrasing of words is purposefully silly, with the word "Borehole" coming from the shooter game Quake II, which has a map in their mine level unit called The Borehole. How it's depicted will likely influence how my Borehole looks, had been wanting to figure a way to get Quake II imagery into my art. It's called screenshots used as backgrounds, or will be. And I can see the project taking on multimedia forms aping the show and its ilk. All sorts of fun to be had here.

Early mission to try and locate the lost satellite. Or was it really?

So we apply the same kind of blather to an imaginary futuristic dig in a crater on the moon for stuff that everyone knows darn well probably isn’t even there. It's just television and they need to come up with an hour of it every week. Much is made of how to date seventeen lives have been lost, six more remain missing, and whatever point there was to the undertaking is a mystery to those who have a clue. Some of whom begged those engaged in the enterprise to please stop and come home to no avail. What began as a modest attempt to find wreckage from a downed Russian satellite becomes a several thousand foot deep borehole and warren of tunnels dug by those convinced there is something significant awaiting discovery. 

There isn’t, but rumor, half-truth, gullibility, wishful thinking, slipshod methodology, and an entertainment industry devoted to such nonsense has time and again prevented saner heads from prevailing. Thank goodness for Humanity in an otherwise barren universe.

Lost Russian Cosmonauts, near panic. Someone better tell Jim Oberg about this.

Gilmark Toys Hard Plastic Space Ship Mishap with "Heavy Rescue 411: Ganymede Station Edition"

D'oh!

Some sort of mishap ... ? This project took on unexpected life the other day when recalling that I had a very badly damaged vintage 1950s space car by Gilmark Toys that I had wanted to re-purpose for an artwork. We'd had on one of those confounded "Heavy Machine Rescue" shows on, with tow truck guys pulling tractor trailers out of the snow in 2 degree weather. 

What fun, my dad loves the stuff so whatever. Just happened to have the thing in my hand about six minutes later when recording some video. Added boing effects to suggest the light bulbs switching on.

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That works. Not very fond of the shows but need good ideas for absurd situations. Like pulp science fiction artworks with a sly sense of humor that push on social satire. More about my thoughts on the Heavy Rescue shows in the video clip below.

The artwork as it had been plotted out, minus a space ship suspended by wire to help fill the sky area. Painted Marx space tank rolling down a crater to meet up with a painted Marx astronaut who is out of scale to his ride. Nice idea, but what of it? The rule is that the painting has to be as cool as what goes in the box, so the painting had a long way to catch up, including devising a more interesting way to suggest a crater. Found other things to occupy myself with until a need to tackle those items set in.

On a technical angle most of the boxes I use are on the order of four inches & fill up quickly. Unless the toy pieces are proportionally larger as well these end up being mostly empty air.

Box was a cheese gift crate from our late great Uncle Michael, 10 x 20 x 7 inches deep. For now the bottom of this one is bare, with a little gap between the slats making up the box side. Which for now is bare but will likely have a flat layer of crackle paste applied with little crater sections. Over which goes about four layers of a matte gel medium to seal it down and protect the crackle for table or shelf display. I started painting onto the bottoms presuming display on walls and not wanting just bare wood. The undersides began representing what's on the other side of the planetoid, which would be more of the planet.

Painting is still at only at a suggestive state, much layering to do including the sky. The planet forms accrete over time, for a box this size probably 8 weeks of on/off work seen here at about week two. The "crater" a mass of bare plasticine which is to be crackle pasted over and decorated with some of my hand painted space rocks. The end result isn't meant to be a scale model diorama but an other-wordly place inhabited by the found object toy forms.

I always let the painting spill over onto the side. The goal ends up being nine small paintings (top, bottom, sides out, sides in, main panel, floor and sky) each worthy on their own which intersect at 90 degree angles in a box form. For now the box forms are found but I do envision a range made of self-made boxes created to specific dimensions. This one was handy and had special attachment given its source. Makes it a more personal project to develop. It's Uncle Michael's box, or would be.

The tank as it came into my care, 1978 or 1979 pressing of a Marx Toys 1962 Moon Base series Space Dozer tank minus its bulldozer blade. Pressed in white for the Star Station Seven and Galaxy Command playsets which ended the Marx space toy era. Happen to know this one originated from a Galaxy Command set and was obtained as a bargain with some other Marx space vehicles. For now I only alter or modify toy pieces which are damaged, playworn, or inexpensive low quality copies of things I have multiples of,

No Vintage Space Toys Are Harmed In The Creation Of My Artwork

I wanted it to look like she just rolled off a Jawa scrap heap. Oily, battered and looking like it might have been on fire at some point. But still functions, including pressurized operator dome for use in a vacuum. Good for use as a mover vehicle using its original hitch assembly, cleverly hidden in most of these photographs.

The out of scale toy pieces originally chosen. Would only have worked if the tank could have been made to appear in the distance.

Better. Always time for an interview with the camera crew.

Fills the box better, but I still think some kind of space heliocopter or flying wrecker in the sky above the tank is important. Wire suspended in some way which won't come loose during shipment.

Are we having fun yet.

My dad loves this stuff. Has to do with how ordinary trained work guys are the heroes, asking no reward other than regular pay to do backbreaking work under dangerous, inhospitable conditions. Their only wish is for others to drive safely, and their only reward is getting to go home to their families at the end of the day.

Plus getting to be on television. Eleventh season underway! Video below has some thoughts on the idiom with an early version of my "commercial break" parody clip & a closer look at these Gilmark space cars.

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Just lucky to be alive, really. Pilot at right in Iridescent Copper Light, that's his spouse in orange down below begging him to just come down off there and let the guys work. Embodied by alien cyborg creations fabricated by LP Toys at their Lik Be Plastics & Metals factory in Hong Kong.

Specialists from Giant Plastics of Hong Kong undertaking a damage control assessment. I get aircraft hull out of the design more than Flash Gordon rocket ship.

Piece was acquired in this condition for a few dollars more. Missing is the left tailfin and engine assembly. Still a handsome craft, had been tempted to try sawing off the remaining tailfin. Current scheme is to paint it with an iridescent stainless steel acrylic base with pearl glazing. Make it look like she re-entered the atmosphere a few times.

With a complete specimen in blue. Fabricated by Gilmark Toys at their New York City plant starting in 1952, others elsewhere may have continued later. But by 1960 these toy visions began to be replaced by NASA era vehicles, and manufactured in soft unbreakable plastic kids could drop a few times.

Always wondered if that wasn't a clever design strategy by Gilmark et al as a marketing ploy to sell more units: Keep em fragile, cheap, and easy to replace.

Pretty sure it's intended as a ground vehicle, but after STAR WARS it didn't matter what your ship looked like any more. It flew.

You would step out of its way, see.

That too.

All plastic design, two moving parts. One fixture of adhesive for the engine exhaust ports, four parts in all including hull. Assembled in random variations of red, yellow and blue parts as seen by my eyes. 

Sold out of counter bins at Woolswoth’s and dime stores for maybe fifteen cents, two for a quarter. Probably just as many ended up in landfill once the 1950s space toy fad died out. Intact specimens will now run $30 -$90 (shipped) depending on scarcity of color combo, which is relatively affordable to the novice collector like myself -- Yellow hull with red wheels and blue engines being the as-yet unclaimed prize example. But I've seen it.

Now safely back in its bubbles & polybag with the other fragile hard plastic space vehicles in my stash. We'll look at them more soon! Am pretty much done buying stuff unless it's a score. Content to enjoy what I have and figure out how to make art with it. And for this kind of material it's use as a photo subject for works like the one below, which would make a dynamite painting when traced onto a larger surface.

The toy pieces utilized for the work with orange guy standing on US quarter for scale. All relatively small in size including some painted ziplock bag zips to serve as equipment boxes. Might switch figures for some painted with the safety suits of the rescue guys in mind, have plenty to spare. Need to simulate wreckage of the Gilmark ship as well, and all the painting for the box. I work slow these days, should be done with it by ... August?

Still banished to the space tank for losing his cool when they broke for lunch.

Nice composition for a painting. More soon.