Fineas J. Whoopie Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 This Schiller catalog is significant because it moves the year back to 1953 for the Banner Space Helmet with Goggles and the Tommy-Ray Automatic Space Gun by B&W Molded Plastics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANZinSpace Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 On Google news archive there's the following entry which dates it dates it back to 20th September 1953. I'm assuming "NoiFe" is "Noise" but then again some of these ray guns do weird things ;) .Display Ad 44 -- No TitlePay-Per-View - Los Angeles Times - ProQuest Archiver - Sep 20, 1953There's lot. of fun and excitement in the automatic flashing-noise repeating tommy ray gun and sturdy streamlined helmet. NoiFe and light produced by ma_- ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dratomic Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Great find, Don! 1953 -- it's pretty amazing how early that gun came out. This is the second reference to "revolving goggles" I can remember reading re: the Banner set. Has anyone EVER seen a pair of goggles that have revolving eye pieces? Do you think this is just a mistake on the part of the catalog designer, or perhaps a bit of eft over information from a point when the goggles were supposed to rotate -- even though they never ended up doing so? Or did they rotate by hand and the catalog writer decided to include the info as an additional selling point, even though it wasn't really anything that impressive? (Kind of like how, under special features, DVD boxes will list "Interactive Menus," despite the fact that they're hardly "special features.") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe K. Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 Here's the earlier Timeline thread for them, including Sparkrobot's 1953 French magazine cover:http://danefield.com/alpha/forums/index.ph...=banner+gogglesNowhere, in any of the descriptions including the Blast Off! photo of the helmet and the box, does it mention "batteries required". Were these revolving goggles battery operated, or perhaps wind up? I tend to think they could just be manually rotated. At most, perhaps, they were internally gear connected, so that when one was turned the other turned as well. They seem to be mounted on an awfully large base piece, don't you think?----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I'll go back to that original April 18, 2007 thread and revise the date to reflect these 1953 sightings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANZinSpace Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Great find, Don! 1953 -- it's pretty amazing how early that gun came out. This is the second reference to "revolving goggles" I can remember reading re: the Banner set. Has anyone EVER seen a pair of goggles that have revolving eye pieces?When I read the blurb in the ad I assumed they meant the goggles as a whole revolved on a pivot at the side of the helmet. The reason I thought this was because the revolving goggles are included with the "elastic chin and and head strap" statement which seems to be a part for the adults so they know how to adjust the helmet and that the goggles revolve out of the way rather than being pulled away from the face like swimming goggles etc. Though if that was the case I would have that rotate or pivot would have been a better word than revolve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkrobot Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Fin ,,,,,not trying to steal your glory,,but I must mention that I pushed the year back to 1953 with this evidence a while back. look at my post about 5 down. BTW havn't you also got this mag ? http://danefield.com/alpha/forums/index.ph...er+space+helmet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dratomic Posted December 22, 2009 Share Posted December 22, 2009 ANZ, the goggles and helmet are two separate pieces. The goggles are held on by a strap, and are not connected to the helmet -- so that's not what the "rotation" refers to. These toys: an endless mystery! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANZinSpace Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 ANZ, the goggles and helmet are two separate pieces. The goggles are held on by a strap, and are not connected to the helmet -- so that's not what the "rotation" refers to. These toys: an endless mystery! :)I wasn't sure it was given the use of the word revolve. I must admit I am intrigued now and went searching while I didn't find anything from '53 for this helmet I did find two articles from '58 which seem to describe the same helmet though the spaceship on top is now an Explorer satellite. Did they re-issue this helmet with an update or is this a different helmet? St Petersburg Times 16 Nov 1958 Milwaukee Sentinel 6 12 1958 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANZinSpace Posted April 6, 2010 Share Posted April 6, 2010 An auction recently ended on EBAY for a set of the Banner Radar goggles and it had some good pictures of their construction. From the images it appears that the radar parts could be rotated by hand and even removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANZinSpace Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Recently on EBAY there was an auction for a Banner space helmet box. However, the helmet on the box wasn't the standard Banner space helmet, it is the variant I found mentioned in the adverts from my previous posting. Instead of a space ship it has a copy of the Explorer Satellite. Unfortunately no sighting of the helmet just the box. Link to auction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe K. Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 . A full page ad from the October 1954 issue of Toys and Novelties: . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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