Those Mini Archer Figures (Not Tudor/Cherilea)

[space.trucks]

Anyone know what the deal is with these things? They are favorites.

 

The lavender figure at upper left is hard plastic, the others all soft plastic. I have a few of the robots as well.

 

Is it correct to presume they are 1950s or 1960s? Is the hard plastic figure likely earlier than the soft plastic ones?

An older forum post regarding HG Toys' hard plastic saucer depicts some of the spaceman figures with it and I am confused. ToySoldierHQ has the whole mini space range listed as comic book ad toys (very bottom of page) and also suggested they (or at least the space train from their vehicles) were sold in carded sets too. Did HG Toys procure the figures for some of their sets as well? Or was that a lucky e-b4y lot? Confused and very interested in learning more.

[Tinman]

As far as I know, the Archer-like figures and the other offerings of various sets came carded; examples of the cards can be found in the "Space Plastic" Database, page #1 (not quite half-way down the page).  As with you, I'm guessing the hard plastic versions are the oldest and the only ones I add to my collection.  The manufacturer is unknown...only "Made in U.S.A."   The toys offered by the comic book add were very crudely made and almost flat; I know there are pics of them somewhere on the site, but I'm having difficulty finding them.

 

Space Plastic Database:

http://alphadrome.net/data/thumbnails.php?album=27

 

 

Here's my "Space Train."

 

 

 

[Tinman]

Found a previous thread that shows the comic book figures, etc.:

 

http://alphadrome.net/forums/topic/14500-spacemen-help/?tab=comments#comment-131591

[Atomic Robot Bob]

Their poses makes me think they might be.... French

[ejpetrie]

The vehicles, other than the train, were also released on a card, just like the figures.  All have been credited to Empire Plastics as that name occasionally shows up on some of the cards.  There are actually 6 cards that I know of, thanks to an old eBay listing from Toy Tent, Inc.  The Space Train is the largest, while the other five are all the same smaller rocket ship die-cut design.  They each have unique names as well as content.  They are:

 

Cosmic Space Set - contains 2 different Space Ships, one Rocket Space Car, one Robot, and one Space Cannon.
Rocket Space Cars - contains 5 Rocket Space Cars in 3 designs.
Space Cannon - contains 5 Space Cannon in 3 designs.
Space Men - contains 5 figures, 3 of the same Robot and 2 of the same Space Man.
Space Ships - contains 5 Space Ships in 3 designs.
Space Train - contains two different engines (one at each end) and 3 identical cars, so like the others this is also 5 pieces in 3 designs.

[space.trucks]

Many thanks for the info! Cool list of names, boy I want to see the all the rocket space cars, only have one of the designs both as hard and soft plastic. I do agree the hard plastic pieces are the real keepers & am glad to have found a few specimens at all. I'm always drawn to the mini versions, and it only just sunk home last month that Cracker Jack also used the basic Archer forms for two mini charm-size spacemen and the robot. Pretty sure they also used hose head from Premier and what looked like the Rex Mars era diver alien by Marx for other charm sized figures. Would be interested in learning more about their making if anyone knows where to look?

[space.trucks]

Just a wassap - Finally landed some of the hard plastic variety of the spaceships and they have a luster about them which is quite impressive, not sure how well my keen pix will translate it. Other then a number there are no markings on the underside, same for the soft plastics.

 

Top row are the soft plastics and for what it's worth there was a casting change to the delta wing ship.

 

Purple one's top/dorsal fin got split into two sections. From my eye the other two craft appear unchanged.

 

Happy Holidays!

[Andyman]

Very cool. Would have spent hours playing with those as a kid.

[Tinman]

Nice hard plastic examples!  Are they recent auction pickups...I thought I saw the top 4 up for grabs recently? 

[Golddalek]

They look a little like the Aurora stealth plane. Cool coincidence,

[space.trucks]

On 12/12/2021 at 4:42 PM, Tinman said:

Nice hard plastic examples!  Are they recent auction pickups...I thought I saw the top 4 up for grabs recently? 

Holiday Cheers Gents! Yes, these were Bay landings from November, guy had all sorts of primo stuff up, could not go the limit on anything else. Came with some nice HP Lido figures as well, the dumbell robot finally completing my 50mm Captain Video group. Will take good care of them all!

 

Soft plastic group from the summer, so stoked to have the space artillery. Green ships in two sizes. Reminds me of a Vietnam War PACV Hovercraft.

 

Some more of the HP purple ship with plastic swirl.

 

Some decent battle damage. It survived someone's kid!

 

 

There is a group of very small parallel lines striking through the circle to the right of the backwards 1. My eye interprets them as random tooling marks but I figured we'd mention it.

 

 

 

Been meaning to do a blog post on this stuff, will link it up here for sure. Happy New Year!

[space.trucks]

Hey alright! Is this new information? Sincerest of apologies if I'd missed it previously

 

https://alphadrome.net/data/displayimage.php?album=27&pid=4491#top_display_media

[space.trucks]

Hello, I was able to find more of the HP versions of the manta ship. I noticed that the casting alteration to the ship shows up again, so it happened before the switch to soft plastic. All of my soft plastic ships have the cutout.

 

HP

 

HP

 

HP

 

These three soft plastic.

 

Another change was the addition of a gunsight to this piece, luckily finding two of the silver in HP. Both the bronze are soft plastic and a prior owner carved the sight pieces off one. There's no indication of any damage to the silver one shown, the sight pieces just aren't there. The other I have is identical.

 

Cheers