Thursday, November 5, 2009

Vintage Photos Of Vintage Space Toys

I love finding old photos of vintage robots and ray guns, and I was thrilled when frequent Attic contributor Steven Baker sent me a link to this photo on the Getty Images web site:



Inspired, I began hunting through the archives to see what else I could turn up. The pickings were slim, but here's what I found:


Another shot of a proud space cadet, armed with a Remco Electronic Space Gun and wearing an Orbit Space Helmet.


Who are those masked men? I don't know, but one of them is packing a Buck Rogers U-235 Atomic Pistol. (It might be the earlier, similarly designed XZ-38 Disintegrator Pistol, but I don't think the photo is quite that old.)


The call him the Space Cowboy, probably because he's got what appear to be two Buck Rogers Sonic Ray Guns. Judging by the hearts on his suit and helmet, I guess he's also the "gangster of love."


Ready to join up: This kid's got both the Space Patrol helmet and the Marx Space Patrol Flashlight Gun.


This photo's been featured on Alphadrome in the past. It shows a salesman's sample ST-1 Robot pushing the cart it was sometimes sold with. The rocket was never meant to go with the toy, but it sure looks good! Also, the wind up robot never actually had those weird shoulder wires.


This robot looks home made, but I thought it was cool so I decided to include it.


This is a photo I found on eBay years ago. It shows the battery operated version of the Planet Robot, and was dated 1957. That is one happy looking kid!

If anyone else uncovers anything, send 'em my way and I'll post them with an appropriate credit to both the original source and the astute sleuth.

4 comments:

  1. I wish I would've found these when I worked on that illustration. These are great!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi,

    Me again. When it comes to finding things I tend to be a bit AR. So I've found a few more images that might interest people.

    These are other images of the Remco Electronic Space gun

    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/JJ9946-001/Hulton-Archive
    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/JJ9929-001/Hulton-Archive
    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/JK3779-001/Hulton-Archive


    The next three are of other items:

    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/BA17345/Hulton-Archive
    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/JK6025-001/Hulton-Archive
    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/JC3580-001/Hulton-Archive

    and lastly for the Dan Dare fans

    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/JG0752-001/Hulton-Archive
    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/HU4493-001/Hulton-Archive
    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/JG6223-001/Hulton-Archive
    http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/HQ5972-001/Hulton-Archive

    ReplyDelete
  3. fun stuff! they just don't make toys etc. like that anymore

    ReplyDelete

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