Rex Jouets Spacemen - 1956 and an interesting feature.

[Brian..]

Here's an early sighting of two the Rex Jouets spacemen. This is from a Spanish site and gives a 1956 date for the figures. 

 

 

Here are the two figures, each shown with and without a helmet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second figure is the interesting one. He's holding a rifle. That perhaps explains that awkward pose of the Rex Jouets original (?) unarmed version. Did Rex remove it to make moulding easier? Was it one of those troublesome moulds? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 

[6Stelab9]

Looking at my Rex Spacemen, I can say that there are five poses for these figures:

One with the gun up

One with the gun down

on with the riffle on the arm (the top of the riffle is missing here)

 

one with the riffle down

one without weapons

 

For comparaison the one with the riffle and the one without are different: the angle of the arms are slightly different and the step is wider on the one without the riffle:

 

[6Stelab9]

I also notice that on the helmet  there was written PGF. SA

I think PGF.SA is for P&G France  (Procter & Gamble France). P&G has been present in France since 1954.

Procter & Gamble  created Bonux (the brand was called “Bonus”; it will become “Bonux” in 1960) a commercial brand of detergent  in France in 1958.  And Bonux is well known for the premiums coming with the washing powder.

I have got an other helmet coming with one of the spacemen in poor condition where you can hardly read Bonux (I don't know if it's belongs to the spaceman originaly or came from another bonux premium)