Vintage Space Toy Greeting Cards

I used to live around the corner from a wonderful store in New York City called Alphaville. They specialize in vintage toys, posters, and books, but also carry World's Fair memorabilia, old sunglasses, pins and buttons, modern tin robots, and all manner of wonderful items from the latter half of the century. Yes, living around the corner from them was dangerous.

Recently, the store's proprietors -- Steve and Gary -- designed and released a great line of greeting cards under the Space Age brand that feature a variety of vintage space toys.

Three different cards. Original images via Alphaville.

Each card features a high-resolution photo on the front, along with a salient quotation. For instance, the card with Yoshiya's Sparky Robot includes the line, "Hu-mans, listen to me. Due to an error in calculation, there are still a few of you left," from the 1953 cinema classic (ahem) Robot Monster. The Space Ship X5 (Masudaya, 1950s) card quotes Wernher von Braun: "Don't tell me that man doesn't belong out there. Man belongs wherever he wants to go -- and he'll do plenty well when he gets there." And the card with the Buck Rogers XZ-38 Disintegrator Pistol (Daisy, 1936) includes words from the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson: "For I dipped into the future, far as the human eye could see, saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be."

All the toys come from Steve's personal collection. I stopped by the shop one day and the Space Ship X5 was sitting by the counter; I begged a little and Steve let me take a closer look at it. (Okay, he's a really nice guy and didn't actually make me beg -- but I would have!)

The cards, along with cool science-fiction themed magnets (featuring rockets, bases, and busty space girls!), are all available at the Alphaville web site (www.alphavile.com or, more directly, www.alphaville.com/spaceage.html). You can also find them at the brick-and-mortar shop, which is located at 226 West Houston Street, New York, NY, 10014. If you're in the city, I suggest stopping by -- tell 'em Doc sent you... though they don't know me as Doc, so they'll probably look at you a little weirdly. The store is set up like a gallery and browsing is a thrill. And if you happen to find something to take home with you... all the better!