Cake Topper Swoppet Spaceman Set from "The Cake Hut", 1970s? with Recast Marx Style Swoppet Spacemen

Very interesting score for my stash of Sealed Swoppet Spaceman Sets, bagged up by The Cake Hut down there in Texas, presumably during the 1970s. Why anyone would put such things on a cake is unknown to my way of thinking but it helped to clear out backlogs of bulk vended space toy pieces leftover after the fad had run its course. Some video provides context, I hope.

Click here to open video in a new window for fullscreen viewing option.

Likely sold at grocery stores, drug stores, household stores or anywhere humans would go shopping for cake decorations. We just used frosting, candles if appropriate.

First time I've been able to see the underside of the flying saucer form and this one at least is not a friction drive toy & has no markings on it my eye can perceive through the thick poly bag. Only staples hold it shut suggesting that The Cake Hut obtained a big bulk shipment of the pieces and bagged up the sets between cake orders, or whatever it is they did there.

Part at lower left is a disconnected weapon of some sort. I've been itching to open one of the sets which has the saucer just to evaluate the damn thing and am displaying Admirable Restraint in letting the staples continue to hold this bag shut. The saucer got around, not just packaged in swoppet spaceman sets but other playlet collections & sometimes individually. Am presuming that like the figures it too was fabricated in Hong Kong, though at least one of the more recently made sets in my Happy Box of sealed stuff indicates some were made in China.

Far out. And no friction drive, though it would not surprise me if some of the early versions were.

Made in China (or so labeled) set with saucer and figures with decidedly non-Marx colors.

Additional swoppet spaceman sets from my stash, the specimen at right Betta Decor's cake topper set with a 1977 date.

Not My Collection - More cake toppers packaged by Gay-Gem Novelties with a 1967 date and swoppet spacemen in a non-Marx pose. Cap bomb rocket minus its firing mechanism, which I guess was to keep things happy at the birthday party.

The swoppet spacemen sealed therein appear to be copies/recasts of Marx Toys' swoppetology, with one specimen of Flash Bulb Guy (my terminology) and two with their arms out at sides, two of the three swopped spaceman poses Marx appropriated c.1967 (?). These figures likely made from the same mold sometime between 1972 (when Marx ceased Hong Kong operations) and 1980, though who knows. I bet there's still pallets of the things boxed up in warehouses somewhere.

Two shades of paint decorating their equipment packs. Original Marx figures will have as many as three shades on theirs. Their colors are also "wrong"; Marx did not use a festive Christmas green, let alone the hot pink ones from my stash of loose figures. Not sure about the red bodies, I do have at least one loose figure pressed in red which I am fairly certain was Marx produced.

Later copies/recasts will have no painted details and pressed in Fruit Loops colors for grocery store or drugstore toy sets.

One pass of paint on their boots. Original Marx figures usually have two with the pod base around the foot a different color then the rest of the boot, but not always.

Not My Collection - Marx "Moon Grabber Train" box with swoppet spacemen, 1968. Whether any figures were included with the set I knoweth not, but it indicates that Marx was pressing the things out in 1967/1968. Would walk many a crooked mile for info on just when they adopted the forms. Additional packaging with a 1970 date has also come to my attention.

Not My Collection - Carded Marx swoppet set demonstrating the correct Marx colors. Note " Card Printed in Hong Kong, contents Made in Taiwan" at lower right, though some of the loose Marx swoppets in my stash are marked Hong Kong. No date.

And again, Not My Collection, with the same notation at lower right. 

With loose examples which I believe were manufactured by the same entity. Flash Bulb guy is a Marx original - check the white on his foot pods - included to help illustrate what's in the bag. Check my other posts for more Swoppetology. Never had any as a kid but encountered them at a friend's house and they bugged the living hell out of me. Now fascinated by them, and no two figures in my collection are exactly the same.

Multiple Toymakers "Space Set" Reproduction Card + Bag, with Vintage "Thunderbird 5" Space Station and LP Toys Posed Space Figures

Click here to open video in a new window.

Just watch it.

Vendor made no claims as to what this was and correctly had it listed as "Used". So he's a hobbyist who likes to make customized packages for vintage space toys he's collected & offer the results for sale. Nothing wrong with that as long as it's done correctly,

I could also tell from the item listing pix that the toy pieces were authentic but that the package pretty much *had* to be a reproduction, and regard it as a bargain find at the price paid. So we're good, nobody got bilked, I got my T5, and here's a good example of what to look for when evaluating New Old Stock packaging for indications of reproduction.

(The above still available for sale as of this posting.)

A possible source for the toy pieces, and confirmation that both the Space Station and figures were likely manufactured by (or at the behest of) Multiple Toymakers. 

The zipper seam bag is the giveaway, and as long as such concoctions are not represented as sealed New Old Stock packaging I see nothing wrong with this method of re-selling vintage space toys. Some may indeed find the replica packaging useful for their Ogle Wall or however they display their prize scores ... Though I would think that if the vendor was straight-up about how they were offering actual vintage pieces in repro packaging they'd do better than my crummy $15 bucks. And that's showbiz.

Two layers of card stock.

No markings on the vehicle, and LOL at the wheels. I guess that's so you know which side goes down? <3 unlicensed Hong Kong space plastics.

No markings on any of the figure bases.

Brand new shiny staple.

Zipper seam on 1970 bag? No, and he didn't claim it was.

Cute, and it worked pinned up on my Ogle Wall with the New Old Stock collection for about ten minutes. Then it was time to get out the box opener.

Interesting "soft" look to the figures, glad to have them in my collection. Had wanted more whites & love the blue. I'd also wanted a Thunderbird 5 toy since I was six, counting it as a score.

Will use the "card" in a collage. Bag is in the recycle bin.

...... AAAAAND UPDATE! 10.30.19

Did a routine after-dinner search for "Spacemen" just to relax for a bit, and d'oh.

Same vendor, same card print, same kind of bag, same non-description ("Used") ... somewhat different contents to say the least. 

...... AAAAAND UPDATE #2! 11.02.19

Yet another, same etc. Am aware that the Hong Kong companies routinely re-used their card designs back in the day so, whatever. Guy needs to diversify his card source content. What these do for me is to make those genuine New Old Stock pieces on my Ogle Wall more meaningful. Will find a yellow MMM crawler some other day.

Do the item searches & make up your own mind if you care enough, am done playing Credibility Detective. But to quote Yaphett Kotto's Parker from ALIEN, 

"I am asking you to pull the plug."

Zee Toys "Firebirds" Thunderbird-Based Diecast Rockets, the "Space: 1999" Eagle Transport, and Hot Wheels Vintage "Spacer Racer" Blackwall

Click here to open video in a new window.

Left to right: "Space: 1999" Eagle Transport (1976), Zee Toys Firebird 1, Firebird 2, "Space Missile" and Hot Wheels' "Spacer Racer" (1978). Have had that Eagle since at least my 10th birthday, the Spacer Racer and the Firebirds ships all obtained within the past year.

"Dirigible Mooring Station" painting from 2018.

Marked "Thunder Bird" Made in Taiwan in 1978. Have seen variations on this model's sticking & also painted white. Rare shot of its wings neatly folded in as the spring clasp is either shot or never quite worked right in the first place. Note the super chinsey Dollar Store or worse wheels. That thing won't roll anywhere. It will skid like skates on ice, then flop over on its side.

More impressive as a static rocket. In fact, badass.

"THUNDER BIRD / MADE IN TAIWAN"

"Thunder Bird 3" with busted upper pylon from having been fired out of their Rocket Launching accessory & gone into an uncontrolled skid and resultant collision. I am convinced that the real purpose of the thing was to destroy the toys and force parents to purchase replacements. Brilliant marketing ploy though the toy line flopped, accounting for its current scarcity + competitive pricing on even compromised examples like this. 

"THUNDER BIRD 3 / MADE IN TAIWAN"

"Space Missile" ...  Right. Derived from Thunderbird Two's "Mole" vehicle, but I guess that would have been confusing, so just package it as a US Air Force buzz bomb. Also came in blue and accounting for the fourth vehicle in the line. Pretty sure that's the entire range, with variations on their coloring or stick-on labels as further reason to spend more money on them. Not many people did, and sealed examples fetch quite the respectable sum.

Gorgeous. Definitely the most impressive of the group and if I dare say, this example has just the perfect amount of surface wear. And I am pretty sure this is the only one of the three with actual tampo printing. The rest are all just cheap stick-on decals. So this is the one to score.

No markings on "Space Missile". Dig the wheels. Just ... awful.

That screw is curiously placed ... Likely connecting the device on the rear which turns it, I would imagine.

Yeah that is.

And the strangest part about it all is that I have absolutely no interest in the better known licensed "Thunderbirds" toys. Maybe a "Thunderbird 3" cos it's a cool rocket, but nah. I'd rather have the cheapo knockoffs & Hong Kong made derivations on other Gerry Anderson properties -- Pirated Toys, and these count even if they were licensed. Exception being my elite die cast Eagle Transport, which turned up in a drawer unlooked for back in March to help spur me on to ditching Hot Wheels for vintage Space Toys.

Got it for my 10th birthday in January 1977 (childhood toys and the significance of their gifting a heavy point on this Toys as Art project). Also got the utility belt with the disc shooting Space: 1999 hand weapon, which actually lasted into my teenage years.

Thing has been everywhere with me, and apparently sat bagged up with an old battery for a few years, providing the battle damage on that forward starboard pylon.

The thing went everywhere with me, likely because it was small enough to sneak along in whatever was going to school or on a trip. Even just out riding bikes. That it survived at all is a miraculous gift from someone who got bored quick with CNY retailers not keeping up with current Hot Wheels & Matchbox releases. Decided I wanted more of these, and Walmart won't have em.

They won't have a Spacer Racer either. I would have been all over this when I was 11, never heard of it prior to last winter. Example believed to be complete and I waited to find one which had near mint but out of the box condition. Been meaning to pick up a still carded unit, and it was also made in yellow but without the gun mount.

Gun will rotate 360 degrees. In fact ...

Very interesting, and I like the ball joint. Pops right back in, the ease of removal and subsequent loss by little fingers likely explaining so many incomplete units going around.

Vaguely anthropomorphic design with that yellow tongue hanging down but definitely not a dino kid car. You can find em loose for $10 - $15 shipped (US), carded about the same on a good day. Double that for the yellow variant, which missing its gun just isn't quite the same.

Excavation Site Four, Iapetus Research Colony.