NASA space set. West Germany made, and that's all I know about it. NASA formed in 1958 and West Germany ceased to be in 1990 - so it was produced anywhere between those two dates, likely late 70s early 80s?

I picked the set up for under a tenner at my local vintage toy shop, and made a quick dio using card, rocks and sand.

 










The figures are approx 1 inch and also have West Germany stamped as coo. The red pilot figure has no coo but the same uniform and likely was meant for a vehicle that's missing from the set?

What you have there Paul are 60's to the Late 70's figures and ships made in West Germany and some other Countries like France. The figures were available on Plong bubblegum which had a luner surface on the back so you could make it look like the moon or some other planet sort of thing.

The figures were done in a veriety of colours like silver, gold, white and multicoloured the figures, The ships were part of sets if I remember correctly. I had lots of these when I was a kid as my Dad was in the Navy and traveled to various Countries and he would get us little things like this as they were small. I also got lots of coins from around the world as I collected them as well. The bubblegum was pretty much like Hubba bubba gum.

As far as who made them that I don't remember, I had lots of different types of space figures like this and the North American types among others. Hopefully this will give you a bit more of an idea about the figures. Now I want to try and find some again lol.

Larry

Larry, thanks, you are a star! It seems the same moulds did appear on Plong bubblegum and you were good on the date too as they were early 70s.

I found pics online of the figurines, and after some digging it seems they were originally made by Jean Höfler and licensed out to Plong in North America.

From: http://www.blechroboter.de



Info from: http://www.blechroboter.de/info/jeanhoefler/index.html using Google translate.
"The first moon landing with the astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins was very popular with young and old. So JEAN brought as a souvenir in 1970 a set of six! Astronauts against the backdrop of the moon. The names of the three Apollo-11 astronauts and the date of the moon landing on 20.7.1969 were printed on the box.

Probably a little later, the complete eight-part astronaut series appeared mounted on the blister card with the moon. The name was now "Luna Astronauts". The size of the figures was 7cm, so the scale was 1:25. Together with the "Luna Station" four more, half as large astronauts were sold with 3.5cm height.

At the beginning of the seventies JEAN developed the Luna Station play set. It contained a rocket, a three-legged spaceship, two lunar vehicles, an astronaut space sled, and four small astronauts. The set was made in red / white and white / red and delivered in a display box to the trade. The mineral oil company ARAL sold the Luna set on a blister card at petrol stations in the corporate colors blue and white.

The Luna Station was offered together with silver astronauts. For this purpose, four figures of the total eight-piece astronaut series were reduced to half size, 3.5 cm, and provided with a base for stability. As with the larger Wild West figures and knights, the base mark was "W.Germany"."

Pic from: http://www.blechroboter.de/info/jeanhoefler/index.html

super cool nasa stuff dude, I remember seeing it somewhere years ago and always thought it was cool

View master!!! I LOVED my view master as a kid. Had a red one. I only a year or so ago found an old view master set from marvel that I will get pics of to share. Also someone brought in a ton of view master disks and two grey view masters of actual pictures of places around the world. I have those in my store for sale. Maybe I will grab a few pics of those as well.

hellhippie wrote:

super cool nasa stuff dude, I remember seeing it somewhere years ago and always thought it was cool

Thanks Bill. If I see any more pieces I'll add them.

trappedtexan wrote:

View master!!! I LOVED my view master as a kid. Had a red one. I only a year or so ago found an old view master set from marvel that I will get pics of to share. Also someone brought in a ton of view master disks and two grey view masters of actual pictures of places around the world. I have those in my store for sale. Maybe I will grab a few pics of those as well.

Bryan, the View-Master I had a kid was also the red one, and the earliest reels I remember were Planet of the Apes and some Disney ones. Can tell you it was a good nostalgia blast to look through one of these again, and the MOTU reels are great.

trappedtexan wrote:

View master!!! I LOVED my view master as a kid. Had a red one. I only a year or so ago found an old view master set from marvel that I will get pics of to share. Also someone brought in a ton of view master disks and two grey view masters of actual pictures of places around the world. I have those in my store for sale. Maybe I will grab a few pics of those as well.

I swear, one of these days I am gonna say I will get pics and not forget to ever take them.

I remember etch a sketch, bet every kid ever had one of these. What is the difference in the etch a sketch one and the telecran one? Is one like a knock off or just different countries release or what?

Better get that camera out Bryan you're slacking

Thelecran is the original Etch A Sketch marketed in the early 60s and invented in France. The name was changed to Etch A Sketch for other countries but kept as Telecran in France. The design has hardly changed in more than fifty years.

BIG TRAK




Time to take a look at a toy that I always wanted as a kid but never had. Now, as an adult collector, I can finally say I have one! The original box is in a sorry state but the vehicle works perfectly (just needs a replacement bulb for the photon torpedo). After a good clean up and a trip to the shops to buy a monster load of batteries, I had the Big Trak following my commands along the kitchen floor like a good one. Oh, and the thing was so noisy it set off the neighbour's dog upstairs barking.






BIG TRAK (US) or Bigtrak (Europe) was a computerised toy vehicle created by Milton Bradley in 1979. This six-wheeled tank-like space monster came with attractive decals, a front-mounted blue photon beam headlamp and an integrated programmable keypad that remembered up to 16 commands which it then executed in sequence. The US version was moulded in grey plastic while the European version was white. A companion unit was sold separately - the Big Trak Transporter - a trailer which could be attached to the rear that carried and dumped loads in response to Big Trak's pre-programmed commands. Big Trak was relaunched in 2010 by Zeon Ltd who produced replicas of the original.

Added another View-Master Gift Set to my toy box.

Mickey Mouse 50th Anniversary from 1978.