1951- Rocket Fighter 5 By Marx

[Joe K.]

See:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/1951-Montgomery-Ward-C...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

And, specifically:

 

http://www.pepper-moquin.com/ebay/22229.jpg

 

Depicted is the Rocket Fighter 5 by Marx (basically, a re-working of the Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon ships of the 1930's). See Vintage Toys, page 46. Ad copy reads:

 

#24 ROCKET SHIP shoots harmless sparks; runs ahead or in circles; "rat-a-tats". Lithographed steel.

48 T 2908 - 12 in. long. Wt. 1 lb. 3 oz.....1.79

 

The photo in the book clearly shows that there is no tail fin on this toy. Yet, many times, a replacement tail fin is added by well meaning "newbie" collectors. Such is the case with the photo in Vintage Toys.

 

Also shown is 'Tomic Rocket. I haven't been able to find a photo of this toy in any book or catalog...yet. The ad copy reads:

 

#18 'TOMIC ROCKET. Zooms along at terrific speed...sparks fly from exhaust, noisemaker screams. The 15-in. Rocket of non-breakable acetate has red nose, tail, white fuselage. Spring motor; brake. Sparker flint replaceable.

48 T 2871 - Ship. wt. 1 lb. 8 oz........2.75

 

This double page spread is also re-printed in More Boys' Toys of the Fifties & Sixties - Toy Pages from the Great Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalogs 1950-1969, Edited by Thomas W. Holland, The Windmill Group, Inc., 1998, ISBN: 1-887790-05-5. It is from this that I am able to supply the catalog descriptions.

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

I never knew that about the Rocket Fighter Five not having a tail fin Joe, that's very good to know.

[Joe K.]

And to further cloud the issue, here's a 1952 Ace Gift Book Christmas catalog:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1952-Ace-Hardware-Chri...1QQcmdZViewItem

with a page showing the Rocket Fighter 5 with a black colored tail fin:

http://members.aol.com/ticocoz/acetoy5.jpeg

Perhaps they came both ways???

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

And the pic.

[Joe K.]

In 1954, the Ace Hardware Gift Book again shows this style toy with a black tail fin:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1953-Ace-Hardware-Chri...1QQcmdZViewItem

This page, specifically:

http://members.aol.com/pulpmonger/xmasace2.jpeg

The photo is large and sharp enough to determine that the ad copy calls this wind-up the Flash Gordon Rocket Ship.

See the Sotheby's/Griffith auction catalog, page 128 for a partial explanation.

Marx produced both variations. The Rocket Fighter 5 was first, I believe, in 1951 as evidenced by the Montgomery Ward catalog sighting. I still believe this version was made, originally, without a tail fin, despite one being shown on the box. The description of Griffith's example says it comes with a replaced tail fin. The 1952 Ace catalog page shown above shows the black tail fin and the description names the toy as Rocket Fighter Ship.

The Flash Gordon variation came next, in '53 or '54. It did come with a black tail fin. Although the Griffith example shows a yellow tail fin, a photo in Blast Off!, page 71, shows the black one (although the box pictured with this toy, I believe, is not correct).

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

Holy moley Joe, you must be the world's leading expert on the tail fin of the Rocket Five now! ;)

[Joe K.]

But wait...there's more...

What's the story with the "wings" on some these rockets?

See the Sotheby's/Groffith catalog, again page 128, item #392. The "wing" is completely yellow. There's no number 5 or any other decorative litho. I suspect this might be a replacement piece as well.

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

Joe - I think what we have are two different versions of the Sparkling Space Fighter rocket.

The Griffith catalog lot #391 shows the version that Marx, in an agreement with King Features Syndicate who own the rights to the Flash Gordon name, was allowed to market as a Flash Gordon toy. The box, wing and nose cone (yellow stripe) all say Flash Gordon. By the way, you may notice that it appears that the descriptions for lots #391 and #392 appear to be cross transposed.

The example in lot #392 is missing all reference to Flash Gordon and I believe is Marx's own "in house" version. The box is the same, except the words "Flash Gordon" are not printed behind the pilot's head or on the wing and the nose cone has a black stripe with the Marx logo only. Another example of this variation can be seen in the Christie's Amsterdam May 2, 1988 catalog of robots and spacetoys page 136.

The basic box art is confusing if you try to use it to figure out which variation came first because it has elements of both toys. The Flash Gordon version box shows the black stripe on the nose cone and the non-Flash Gordon version shows the red five and tip detail on the wing. This makes it difficult to deduce which version came first.