Empire Plastics Archer Space Mini CO-MA Italian Gumball Machine Comic Book Space Bling Insanity

This post is like a non-linear Quentin Tarentino screenplay, with multiple story threads converging in ways that may not be what they seem. Long, convoluted, self-reflexive and fascinated by its own geekery to the point of being boring, even for other enthusiasts. Having the toys is great, learning about them is intoxicating.

Will accept up front that I am likely incorrect about what was concluded. You may use the comment system (no login needed, anonymous just fine) or send an email to tell me all about it, am here to learn.

PART ONE: THE DINER HOLDUP SCENE (Just kidding.)

This part of the story begins in April of 2021 when I happened to score the above collection of seemingly random plastic bling packaged by mighty Empire Plastics. Then of Pelham Manor NY and happily pressing away simplistic plastic bling for bulk vending purposes. Spotted the red figure at the top and recognized it as a variety of "gumball machine" spacemen I'd happened upon previously and was at first I was unimpressed by. Figures were kind of worn and cast in a very non-space bright yellow. They were bagged, boxed and forgotten about.

ToySoldierHQ's precis on the company history of Caldwell/Empire. My favorite reference for vintage plastic figures, the TSHQ website is also a functioning store with whatever sort of plastic playset type figure you may be in search of. Not just vintage era "soldiers", cowboys, spacemen, pirates, dinosaurs or the other typical plastic molded figures either, but fringe interest figures from cereal boxes, mail order ads, gas station promotions, you name it. Also stocking current production toy soldiers from around the world. They're also active on e-b4y and routinely shake up their listings with new stuff. Go clean em out.

The contents of the bag unleashed, all but the figures recognizable as typical Empire product. "Grab bag of leftovers from an inventory clean-out" was one veteran collector's reaction.

All five from the heap, all soft flexible plastic, three of six poses, with the yellows there were four. I get "steampunk spaceman" out of them, wearing some manner of armored suit which requires a release valve for respirated gasses on their helmets. I don't get "robot" though some do, but have a subtle menace about them which belies the happy bright colors. All are armed and their helmet faces with eye stalks are creepy. So, they rule. Just took seeing in darker colors to sink in.

Now it gets interesting. TSHQ's visual reference for the figures, which were also pressing including in larger scale by Italian toymakers Co-Ma. Kept looking and eventually found enough of the soft plastic variety to complete a set of all six.

One specimen of each pose, two of which came in a group with their topknot steam valves removed. The search continues, and yes it is beyond high time to find the CO-MAs to compare for myself.

NOT MY COLLECTION - A carded example of the CO-MA figures Google helped with, and these do appear to be cast in a brittle hard plastic with shiny reflective surfaces. Size undetermined, but their heightened detail level hints that they may be a step larger than those from Empire's bag o' bling. Have also seen them in translucent neon colors which are quite distinctive, then a larger 70mm size with much more traditional vintage space figure presence complete with removable clear helmets, but in the poses seen above. They are very different than what Empire may have pressed for their gumball machine bulk.

Entire stash of the figures to date, including the damaged one I had the temerity to try painting. Not finished yet either, and never would I dare deface such a relic if it hadn't been damaged. It's acrylics, two minutes under a warm faucet with a toothbrush and he's bare again.

PART TWO: THE MCDONALD'S HAMBURGER SPEECH (Just kidding!)

Change gears to fall 2019: I always go for the reduced size or miniature versions of stuff. Part of my admiration for the venerable Archer Plastics spacemen was learning that smaller versions of certain poses were made. 

Locked eyes instantly on the mini Archer Robot and Force Field guy believed to have been produced by Empire/Caldwell for a "Space Minis" line of little ships, space artillery and figures. The sets likely first appearing very late 1952 or early 1953 when Archer space figures were pop culture darlings. I started collecting them on the spot and are a pet niche subject.

A patiently amassed group of the Space Minis in clinky hard breakable polystyrene plastic. My heart sings for such sights.

Most of the pieces with a gloriously marbled luster to their surfaces which has visual depth. Blue ship is translucent.

Fin tail car rests on its bumper after suffering a broken wheel, which is the only problem with the line. The hard plastic is way too flimsy and breakable to survive long in the hands of children. One drop onto a hard wood floor and they are gone, rating the set as Pop Culture Ephemera never meant to survive their era. Most vintage plastic toys are as well but these especially so. Meant to be thrown away when the kids were done with em. Step on one? No problem, $.24 cents for a new set. Get change back from your quarter.

When technical advancement caught up with toy production needs in 1954 with soft flexible polyethylenes, Empire/Caldwell re-ran the series in metallic soft plastic colors and kept right on selling them. This group ads two of the Space Train cards and a Missile Launcher not yet found in the styrene form. They must have made a bundle of these too since pieces of the soft plastic versions frequently pop up in "junk drawer" lots. You gotta learn how to spot em.

ToySoldierHQ's visual guide to the series, which includes a train locomotive (second from top left) that I have yet to secure a specimen of. Bulk vending methods are indicated which would include both bagged or string-carded dimestore sets and gumball machine type placement. Other than the train set shown below I have yet to encounter any of it with original packaging either online or in person.

The soft plastics have the form of the ships but lack the luster and presence of the styrene versions.

Space Missile Launcher frequently seen with projectile end chopped off. Most of my soft plastic versions appear to have been stepped on repeatedly. Apple green coloring of the "Pan" spaceship is unusual and may be a copy of some sort.

Halfway through, and time for some smugly hip self-aware obscure pop music.

Soft plastic in gold & green. Blue robot is nicely translucent. Mold appears unchanged.

Empire et al did effect some minor mold changes to certain pieces. Easiest to spot is the addition of aiming sights on the barrel of the nuclear cannon.

My first thought was the sight pieces had simply been cracked off the silver cannon. But one of my soft plastic cannons had its sights removed by a prior owner. Evidence of the removal is clear and there is no similar debris on the silver unit. It has not been sanded or corrected to mask a fracture. A second such cannon also in silver HP is identical, and all of my SP cannons have the sight pieces.

No changes detected here, but you can see what I mean about the styrene version in gold having more of a presence. 

The "Manta Wing" ship also went through a change with the addition of a cutout to its canopy to add a more recognizable cockpit form at lower left. All four are of the hard plastic variety, so the change was implemented before the transition to soft plastic. Unless they had more than one mold and were running them simultaneously the ships without the cockpit cutouts are the earlier form. All of my soft plastic versions of the ships have the cutout.

Will compose a followup with more focused comparison.

The entirety of my Space Train stash, one is still formed well and the green is a change of pace from the rest. Waiting for locomotive and caboose pieces to surface.

ToySoldierHQ's visual reference for the space train as a separate set on a nice die-cut card which looks to be in the earlier hard plastic styrene. The burgundy and green colors are dead ringer shades for some of my styrene space pieces. Most importantly is Empire reused the trains and card shape for non space colored sets which they did put their name on, helping to peg them as the likely culprits behind the Space Minis.

PART THREE: THE WATCH STORY (Haha isn't this fun!)

Jump forward now to the spring of 2022 and this "Lot" turned up while searching for miniature plastic airplanes. The planes are nice, but what prompted the buy was the three forms at front, described by the vendor as "missiles". Obviously spaceships of some sort with Flash Gordon 1950s lines & curves, sized for bulk vending including via gumball machines. Are there more styles? And who made them? Of which there be one obvious clue, weak as an old fiddle it may be.

The planes from the "Lot", all of which are recognizable as Empire Plastics product thanks to the helpful visual below from ToySoldierHQ.

The planes in the lot only match the ones in the images above. They do not match the better known variety made c.1960 by MPC/Multiple Toymakers, who dutifully logo stamped all of their mini planes. The planes also do not bear Lido hallmarks or indications of Hong Kong etc.

We refer back to the bling bag carded set, whose aircraft also match those from the TSHQ guide as made by Empire/Caldwell. But what about the happy steampunk spacemen? made of the same soft plastic bright colors + silver/grey. And Steve's brain began to click.

Since everything else in the "Lot" which came with these is IDd as Empire/Caldwell, might not these be as well? Which is a leap, no packaging was included and the vendor an estate picker who just combined like-looking things into a favorable lot. 

But, could this represent a correct grouping, even if just based on maker? Were these meant to be a new set to replace the Archer era designs? this time appropriating spacemen from Italy? Or should I go back to inhaling Drano fumes and watch more flying saucer documentaries. Plenty of time for both!

The six again, my how I like making pix of them. I now believe they originated in Italy, the design is out of step for what North American toymakers i.e. Marx were pursuing, only question might be how early Co-Ma was knockout out their translucent green ones. How Empire ending up bagging them likely never to be known.

PART FOUR: THE  CLIMACTIC HOT DOG STAND SHOOTOUT (Almost over! what a show.)

So, did Empire/Caldwell start with this collection in hard plastic c.1952/53 to be part of the Archer-initiated space toy craze ...

Which sold well enough to evolve into these c.1954 as a response to unbreakable soft plastic becoming the toy industry standard ...

And then became these c.1955?? Retiring the older tooling once Archer's figures were no longer the flashy new pop culture kingpins of the Tom Corbett era? With the bright pop colors replacing more difficult to mix metallics as a cost saving measure, and the ships there in the gumball machine with the figures cos kids would want some of both. 

Until the stuff is found bundled together with an Empire card sealing the baggie it's just a notion cooked up by some dork waiting out a pandemic or whatever. But I gots to know.

Email or leave comment, you don't need to sign in to chime in. Am here to learn.

BUSTED! "Archer Space Figure" Found to be Glencoe Models Re-Issue After Two Years of Not Noticing

UPDATE! Video lays it out.

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

Our subject, obtained summer 2021 with an inexpensive "Lot" of other figures, most vintage, and presumed I'd gotten lucky with an undamaged Force Field Guy. Passed a "clink" test where you'd gently rap it on a wood surface, and both the color and swirl effect to the plastic convinced me I'd gotten lucky.

Only reason the issue came to light was landing a nice heap of all vintage figures (see last image) which included three in this pose. Sat down to make some comparison pix and was startled to learn something new.

My only explanation would be that at the time the figure was obtained I was so paranoid about that intact hose/cable connecting the device to his belt unit that I bubbled the thing up immediately. Boxed em up, found other figures to mull over and simply haven't paid much attention to my Archers since. All lame: One closer look should have tipped me off.

First indicator is the sice of the C in the circle above his suit tanks, and in my defense it isn't very clearly stamped. But from this angle one can clearly see that it's a rather small C relative to the size of the circle.

This was the shocker - I had not understood the underside of his projector was marked, and it is clearly stamped PAT.PEND. in the smaller modern fonts Glencoe used when manufacturing their re-issues.

With this new bundle came the green figure at left, which is the first time I'd had another of that pose to compare the lavender one against.

Difficult to see with something of a crack through it, but that C almost fills the circle, one of the indicators of a vintage Archer.

And the stamping is poor, but that is clearly the older PAT.PEND. script.

And yeah, those don't match. I'd only known to look for the script on the rifle butts of the two figures carrying long guns and the device that another figure is about to toss. I had not understood that the force field generator was marked as well.

The new bundle also featured some chromed figures which also pass the vintage test.

The helmets are wedged on too snugly to pull off for a picture - and look too damn good in place - but there is a large copyright C on both of the chromed guys which matches the green one.

Same vintage PAT.PEND. on all three.

I recall another detail about how one of his hands had to be re-constructed after the original mold had exploded? Or am I thinking of another pose. All that NASA era polyeurthane space plastic has rotted out my memory.

More on this soon. Best figure buy of 2023, other than Parker & Brett.

Archer Space Figures Update - The Space People, Men of Mars, The Moon Men, The Satellite Men, and More

Archer Plastic Space Persons of various persuasions, first introduced 1952. Co-designed by Archer founder Robert Genin and German born designer Gerald E. Stahl, the figures captured public imagination. Which sounds corny but is essentially the case, and while there were Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon figure sets prior to Archer's, they weren't as elegant and bordered on clumsy. 

Archer presented a startlingly futuristic look with friendly if breakable plastic in a richly varied color range that also included Space Women and a Space Boy. There's even a Space Baby grafted to the shoulder of the Space Mom making it a family wide affair which kids could better project themselves onto, a point Kenner remembered with their Star Wars toys twenty years later. 

Millions of the things were sold and their popularity initiated a wave of imitators including for the futuristic vehicles and playsets which accompanied the figures. Check prior posts for a look at some, I only have a few Archer "Cars of Tomorrow" but they are prides of the Space Garage fleet.

At Honest Bob's You Can Really Get Out & Kick The Landing Gear

Archer Space Truck with downsized Archer style figures by Tudor Rose and Empire Plastics.

The figure line proved enduring enough to have been revived in 1991 by a company called Glencoe Models, who renovated the long neglected molds and pressed their own box sets in modern hard plastics, and they are nicely made. One can still find new/sealed Glencoe sets for $50 or so, plenty to go around. Though since they are more or less visually identical to the vintage Archer made figures, discerning one from the other requires a learned eye, and in some cases is more or less impossible.

Making the scene with a 5 inch Lido Toys Captain Video "Futureman" figure.

I should stress that I am still and likely always will be a novice Archer collector. "Well-intentioned n00b" who has picked up a certain amount of information at places like Alphadrome.net and my former library copy of "Bast Off!" to be conversant on the topic. I did a lot of careful editing of verbiage to the above video to make sure what is heard is accurate to the best of my knowledge, but know there's a lot more to be learned and my collection is only at the first notch above "starter". Partly because the figures are considerably larger than what I usually get geeked up about, and get more excited about the downsized versions from Tudor Rose, Cherilea and Empire Plastics.

But if collecting vintage space bling is the scene you gotta have some Archers and you better know your onions or you'll end up paying vintage premiums for modern recasts.

All but one of this group or less verified as vintage 1950s figures - Can you guess which is the modern recast? One of their fitted helmets there at lower left, which I am not a huge fan of: Over time the material used to cast them tends to contract, and what was once a comfortably loose fit turns into a nose-cracking snag. Modern helmets from the Glencoe re-issues tend to be at the as intended looseness and a good enough reason to obtain a set of them. Pass their helmets onto the vintage figures for that complete look.

Turns out this was a very good day.

If my opinion as an artist is of interest I find the figures to be beautifully sculpted and iconic as pop culture objects but a problematic toy design as first envisioned. The figures are uniformly top-heavy and in styrene exceptionally fragile. One good drop is all it takes to lose rifle barrel tips or the delicate force field device's tube.  The soft plastic variants address the fragility but still fall over at the merest shudder to the table. The white donuts my figures appear to be stepping on is soft molding clay used to keep them upright long enough to get some pix. Then they go back in their storage box lest misfortune fall.

This group's male figures are all verified Glencoe re-issues, some of which were painted. The lady in blue is unknown, the identification system I picked up does not apply to the female figures, and your best bet in differentiating vintage from modern is to stick with the metallic plastic figures. Her blue is very different than the sentry with rifle next to her. His blue is flat and ends at the surface, her blue has a luster and visual depth to it. Would be interested in opinions, no need to sign in to leave comments.

One method of potential identification of vintage figures is the C in the middle of the circle (just above his tanks) for a copyright mark. Vintage figures will usually have the C almost as wide as the circle. The Glencoe figures likewise marked will have a noticeably smaller C in a modern font. Though sadly the copyright stamp was not applied to all of the figures including the females.

Very different kinds of plastics. The Glencoe re-issues of the females tend to be green. His plastic's blue is flat, ends at the surface. Her plastic has a luster to it with depth. She also has a slight yellowing which suggests age -- Will search through my archive and see under what circumstances she was obtained.

Notice small copyright C on the male figure. Females didn't get em.

Original Archer ad courtesy "Blast Off!", 2001

My favorites of the Archer figures I've collected so far, 1955's "The Satellite Men" in soft plastic with slot hands for holding weapons or equipment as seen in the ad below. You can drop these down the stairs all day and they'll just bounce. I do have a small selection of original equipment but usually don't mess with it, stuff is even harder to find than the figures. Will do a when the new arrivals show.

I've been unsuccessful so far in landing the hard plastic Men of Mars variant they were based on, and am of the understanding that when equipped they are the most visually striking of the Archer figure lines. Now more of a priority after thinking about my conclusion that the blue figure at lower left is meant to be a female. The red one too although this angle doesn't capture the "stern mama bear" Amazon warrior look as well. But those pretty eyes and smile on the blue one has to be a purposeful difference than the face on the other three males. Best reason why is that it's a girl.

PS: The green robot above is mismatched from The Moon Men group*.

My camerafone loves that red figure. I'm willing to bet lunch for a week the blue figure is intended to be female. Will bet coffee on the red one as well.

Case for the red not helped by this image either, will try again. Yes, it matters. Helps demonstrate that Robert Genin's forward-thinking about giving girls a place in his toy line continued, even if quietly.

The three males. Fell over immediately after the image was taken.

Courtesy "Blast Off!", 2001. The three later groups with Men of Mars at left, and it was only after putting the video together that I realized my green soft plastic robot was part of The Moon Men series - *No robot in either the hard plastic Men of Mars or soft plastic The Satellite Men groups. 

Book is in print as softcover & brand new on on Amazon here.

Ajax spacemen, or clones of them from the hard plastic era which like the Archers had fitted clear plastic helmets & a female. But a VERY different strain of figures made around the same time by an Archer competitor, copied endlessly by many through the 1970s and as a result just as numerous today as surviving Archer figures. Easy to learn the different poses and how to spot them as a different variety.

Space Boy's nose got squashed. Note the difference in hue to the silver of the space women, one more blue the other more yellow. The significance lost on me other than one may not have come from a smoke free home.

UPDATE!! One of my figures ratted out as a Glencoe re-issue:

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