ANZinSpace Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 I've managed to pickup 3 new Aussie space toys - two made here and one I'm not sure about. I also picked up a new Holdraketa which wasn't the variant I was expecting. The photos are a little grainy - I think my camera is well and truly dying. The first toy is a Mr Machine put out by Ideal Toys Australia. I'm not sure if they were just the local distributors or if it was made here in a factory Ideal Toys owned. There's no country of origin on the box or the instructions. It doesn't run because of one very broken main gear but hopefully I can either restore it or find a replacement. The next is a "Flying Saucer" - note the inverted commas. It's actually a simple propellor on a string toy. It appears shaped like a helicopter and may have been sold that way originally. It's missing its rubber band and a metal clip to give it an "automatic" rewind. It was made by an Australian company called British Plastics (can anyone say 50's cultural cringe) The last Australian item is a pair of space shoes. Made in metal by a spring company and not a toy company it follows a design I've seen in several space shoe sales from US EBAY sellers. They're mint in box, apparently never used. They were made by the Precision Springs compay in Sydney NSW. The last item is as I stated earlier a holdraketa which had solid red wings and would have made it another variant. Closer inspection revealed that the wings were home made possibly to make it saleable or equally possible made by someone so they could let their kids play with it. There's definitely some wear to rocket and the wings. Who ever did make the wings did a good job of using the method used in the original wings. So now I have a decision to make do I keep it as it is, use it for parts or turn it into a cutaway model and expose the operating mechanism. Nothing definite or decided on that front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rojaspak Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Oh, keep it original! (At least, as much as it is.) Before you start playing Mr. Destructo with it, you should first find out, to the best extent possible, how many of these are still around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANZinSpace Posted August 10, 2013 Author Share Posted August 10, 2013 Well I finally have a dating for my Space shoes thanks to a contact on Flickr. They were being advertised on October 1969 to retailers in Australia. So I would assume either then or maybe a year later they would have been in the stores. This confirmation also gives me two more Australian made space toys to collect but the cutesoid factor is making me a little uncertain about collecting them. What do people think about a moon wiggler or a moon cater-puller as space toys? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ANZinSpace Posted August 16, 2013 Author Share Posted August 16, 2013 Well I've found out where the Moon Wiggler and Moon Cater-puller were copied from. They were originally produced by the company that made Slinkies in the late 1950sand were called Suzie the slinky worm and the Slinky Cater-puller. I'd say the Australian company that made them here was looking for "space" toys with springs in them to cash in on the moon landing. I assume they found the space shoes and then thought let's use the wiggler and cater-puller and give them a spacey name. They also appear to have renamed the slinky to Tumblebug. I wonder if they licensed these toys or just used them because they were old designs and figured no one would care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morbius Posted August 16, 2013 Share Posted August 16, 2013 Interesting what they would put the 'space toy' label on, do they have realistic SPACE NOISE? Thanks for posting these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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