Hope you are well, with those you are close to and staying safely at home. Here's some content to help absorb both your time and mine, as there's little to do. Located in Central New York State, now on lockdown over the COV-19 virus and I cast my lot with my family: Bunkering in dad's basement aka the Syracuse Studio until the Governor signals the coast is clear. In my eyes it's not "Twelve Monkeys" it's "The Thing", for which we should be grateful as "Twelve Monkeys" is set after the world came to an end. "The Thing" is all about diagnosis, isolation, containment and eradication up to and including the entire population being at risk of assimilation. Do your part and stay home as much as you can.
Hit Critical Mass on Marx "Rex Mars" type figures in terms of helmets per figure.
And then got real on the rest. Recast helmets for both figure sets are not difficult to score but do take money, and I can attest that it was worth it.
Then just by chance I happened to have one of my Crescent Toys Kellogg's spaceman figures out while a couple Rex Mars were on the desk. Suddenly struck me that it's notoriously (and I think excellently) undersized head was about the same size as a Rex Mars figure. The Crescents in my collection are some of my favorites -- I love the "working man space technician" aura including their mutual need to loose 20lbs -- but finding them replacements for their factory-issued helmets is pretty much a lost cause. Further contemplation suggested the larger 70mm helmets might go over the head of a Manurba figure, another tough nut to crack as far as finding replacement helmets for. Popped open the Rex Mars box and dug out enough to go around ...
File that under "Huh ..." and all I can say is, they are helmets which fit.
Now, the purist will scoff and indeed the head of one guy was too big for the helmet necks. But for temporary use I'd say that's a pretty decent look for them in addition to actually fitting.
They remind me of the Nostromo's surface pressure suits from the first ALIEN movie.
The helmet fit for the 70mm figures on the Manurba's isn't as convincing, helmet neck width is exactly as wide as their upper suit collars. But a ring of sticky putty and they won't shake off if toppled over, which happens a lot.
Allsortsa pix below. Here's my Major Robertson figure from Marx's brief but influential "Space Patrol" figure set.
Head's too wide. Sorry, Bro.
Yellow dude's helmet fit is awkward. Sits too low on his shoulders, but then again I'm not scoring helmets just for these figures. Just borrowing them from the Rex Mars box for pix.
Been moving, sucks, haven't had much time to post.
But here's an interesting item which turned up in a figure "Lot" over the summer. Eyeball estimate has him at 45mm or so with no markings on his base. Have only just ID'd the pose as an Airfix cowboy thanks to http://ToySoldierHQ.com Though whether he be an original or copy/recast I knoweth not.
TSHQ describes Airfix cowboys as being cast in yellow (http://www.angelfire.com/biz/toysoldierhq/Airfix.html), he is definitely a vivid orange so am not sure if that would be indication of copy or recast. Just tickled to have found a match at last.
I like that hat. Like something from a revisionist 1970s western rather than your standard John Wayne issue Ten Gallon hat, or even a sharp 60s Spaghetti Western hat.
Detail does look a little soft. Any ideas give us a shout.
I'd had my eye on these lads for a while & finally decided made it a priority to bring them home. There were four figures in all, the three in the front based on LP Toys spaceman poses and visible in the back row a large 4" sized Tim Mee Toys "Galaxy Laser Team" Chewbacca type. No information on them other than vintage: Chewie's likely an early GLT figure 1978-1980 (?), the three LP guys unknown upon initial encounter. My hunch based on appearance & wear to the bottom would be at least 1970 if not mid/late 60s. Around the same time as the larger sized MPC/Multiple Toymaker and Marx Apollo Astronauts were all the rage, or that's my guess. Vendor always has 133t warez so, they're likely as good as they get for examples of the form. Stoked to have em on board!
Just about four inches on the nose from base to helmet.
Yeah. Holy Grail item, or at least the form of it. I'm good.
Nice O2 packs, a weakness in MPC's 5" spaceman game: Too reliant upon parts which were inevitably damaged or lost. Like the Marx 6" figures these are good to go & haven't really aged a day. Guy took care of em and my use will be as photo subjects only when in need of larger figures.
No markings as they were described by the vendor, who referred to them as "clones". Which translates to me as unmarked possible copies of. I feel like a very lucky boy to have them whatever their story may be.
Yup, that's all wrong. Our Sailor's Tale goes that this oddity turned up in a "Lot" listing of plastic space vehicles produced by Hing Fat Toys for one of their "Space Astronaut" bucket sets. Only vehicles too, none of the distinctive Hing Fat astronauts were included and those shown above chosen at random from my collection. At right the standard Hing Fat lunar lander based on Convair / General Dynamics' 1963 proposal for a LEM which lost out to Grumman's iconic Apollo LM design which flew the actual moon missions.
At first I suspected that some enterprising collector had glued a Grumman LM ascent stage from a model kit onto the Hing Fat made General Dynamics descent stage, which appears to be unchanged but went through a significant design change which included a pressure peg connector to hold the two parts together. The two stages are mismatched, and astonishingly were meant to be that way. Just when the set which included it & why they used a Grumman ascent stage for this particular is unknown to me at this time. It took significant changes in tooling to accommodate the variation, and I've never seen the likes of it before. Only hints that my kind vendor could offer were that it was likely obtained by a family member who used to "pick" second hand & Salvation Army type thrift stores for goodies to re-sell i.e. e-B4y, which is where I found them. The collection was also used when obtained and had not been a family owned toy set. So just when it was originally packaged remains unknown.
Missing is an antenna dish right over the front door and the egress ladder. The gray antenna array on top is oversized but does resemble what should be off to the right (I think?). The boom antenna in white is missing a dish on its right side.
Apollo 16, 1971.
General Dynamics, 1963
Which also lacked a ladder for astronaut egress to the lunar surface, GD's solution (at this stage in the design proposal) being that the crew would toss a rope ladder over the side from the only hatch at the very top (not seen from this angle). The idea of pressure suited astronauts clambering up & down a rope ladder being silly enough to sink the proposal outright.
The simplified Hing Fat version of GD's lunar lander with astronaut. Lander and figures from a set produced during the mid 1980s, and representative of the lander I had and destroyed sometime between 1971 (age four) and 1977 (age ten). By the time I was in middle school the busted up parts had been discarded and I was saving up for a guitar or binging on Queen albums rather than buying space toys.
Point being that Hing Fat as the company we know now didnotexist until 1980, by which time what was left of my Space Bucket set was buried in landfill somewhere in Central New York.
SO, WHO MADE IT???
Just to show the Grumman ascent stage wasn't just stuck on top of the Hing Fat descent stage, and that significant changes to the mold (and decal) had to be made to accommodate the peg.
Why is the form not more common?
Left: 1980s
Middle: Unknown.
Right: Brand new from a "Darron Industries" space bucket set.
Hing Fat produces the plastics in China and sells the parts in bulk to companies like Darron who package them for retail sale. So far I've found something on the order of twenty US based companies who packaged these sets, ranging in size/complexity from a bagful of figures on a header card to elaborate collections of vehicles, figures, playmats and sculpted terrain segments fitted into a large tub or handled bucket. Which is why I call them "Space Bucket" sets -- Had one as a kid, destroyed it by the age of 10 and want to find the components matching what I had as a kid again.
Top plates of the three lander descent stages, left to right: 1980s, unknown and brand new. I had a Space Bucket kit as a kid and its lunar lander did not have a sticker on the descent stage, leading me to conclude that it was a somewhat later addition to add verisimilitude in the era of Kenner "Star Wars" toys and their ilk.
Underside of the three ascent stages. Note post pegs on the two General Dynamics tops which are also hollow -- You could at least stick one of their spaceman figures in there to rattle around like a maraca. The Grumman designed ascent stage has no access hole by which to insert an astronaut but is otherwise of superior manufacture.
Comparing the two descent stage stickers. They didn't just punch a hole in it to accommodate the pressure fit, it was re-designed around the hole.
The lot also included a Lunar Rover with enough differences between the standard issue Hing Fat rovers to also warrant mention. Left to right: 1980s, unknown and brand new by Darron. The rover at center is wider than the other two, has a differently designed seat, and its antenna is more complex with a bend & dish fitted on at the factory. The other two's antennae are simple stalk posts with the dish slid on or off by the owner.
The rucksacks fitted to the back of the seats is markedly different than the two flanking. The hubcaps also have detailing missing from the other two vehicles, the yoke of its control console is less slanted upward, and its console sticker matches the brand new rover at right.
Center rover chassis is wider and shorter, lacking the forward section on the two at left & right. Seat detailing also very different.
In all honesty I despise the Space Shuttle -- it was a scam from day one, the necessity of which is the only point of debate -- but the shuttle included in the Lot with the Grumman LM & rover has some fascinating differences from the standard Hing Fat shuttles, most notably that its cargo bay hatches open and its cockpit windows are cutouts. Both are solid on the 80s kit shuttle at left and the newly manufactured shuttle packaged by Darron at right.
Engine nozzles likewise differ, with the unknown at center lacking the two smaller upper nozzles seen on the examples at left & right.
"Fascinating, Captain."
Even the fonts on the stickers are different, with the 80s produced shuttle at top, our unknown in the center and new shuttle packaged by Darron at bottom.
If anyone out there has a Space Bucket set with a Grumman ascent stage on its lunar lander (or vehicles matching the differences noted above) I would love to hear from you, and the search for a 1970s issued set in original packaging goes on. And on.
