Space Men, Set Bagged with Header Card, 10 cents, Hong Kong, 1960's ?

[Zeitreisender]

Here is another oddity I found a while ago. Very strange aliens including an alien motorcycle. I don't know why they included another pilot for the flying saucer. Was probably a mistake. I opened this by removing the staples to take the pictures. The price of 10 cents seems very cheap, so this must be 60's and on the toy rack at the local liquor store or small grocery store, as I remember as a kid back then. Hong Kong definitely had a lot of fantasy and very low price points.

 

 

[Alain Lapointe]

Bag contains some of the various items made by LP (HK and China) in the second part of the 1960s. Because of reading mistakes, their logo has been also called 'LD, ID, IP' etc. They became very popular internationally after 1970, when distributed as Spacex series and then again by Imperial Toys. Aliens and astronauts are very easy to find and cloned by various brands. I'd say the rarest piece is the saucer, but even this not so uncommon. You can find them also in blisters under the name of Apollo set and Moon exploring set.

[Andyman]

Cool stuff. I really like those alien figures.

[Zeitreisender]

After closer inspection, all my aliens are marked Hong Kong and the LP logo underneath. Also, the clear saucer dome comes off and the pilot is switchable, and with the dome off it is possible to see that the saucer cockpit has an instrument panel molded in. All this for 10 cents. I can't think of many toy sets in the past which only cost a dime.

[space.trucks]

Nice score -- The saucer with legs is a rarity. Much more common with wheels. Here's a guide to them:

http://www.triangspacextoys.info/SpGAderv/LPHK/LPhkSmTy/LPsaucer/LPsaucer.html

 

Pages on the rocket & aliens are linked from here http://www.triangspacextoys.info/SpGAderv/LPHK/LPhkCpPg.html

[Zeitreisender]

Looking at the links, the bagged set must date to the late 50's to early 60's, the very beginning of LP. That would be in line with the 10 cent price and the header card with "Space Men" title.

[ervino]

There is a long and interesting argument from collector Hugh Walter on the hypotesis that the actual logo is "LB" (from "Lik Be Plastic"), not "LP": http://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2019/07/b-is-for-bullshit-and-bollocks-and-be.html

 

 

[space.trucks]

Yeah I can dig it being LB. Certainly looks more like LB then IDL, never understood how it got to be read like that as it ignores the figure holding the letters. HW makes a solid case but one doubts if much can be done to change the collecting lexicon on the matter. LP/LB hasn't shown much interest in setting the record straight either & they've had fifty years. If they're blowing off emails from Paul Vreede then they cooked their own goose.

[ANZinSpace]

These are rubber versions of some of the aliens. They've had a suction cup added to them. The only markings on them are the words Hong Kong on the suction cup.

[ervino]

2 hours ago, ANZinSpace said:

These are rubber versions of some of the aliens. They've had a suction cup added to them. The only markings on them are the words Hong Kong on the suction cup.

 

Cool, never seen this version, thanks! It seems that the LP/LB stuff is the most cloned ever...