Ever wondered where those plastic spacemen on your birthday cake came from...?

[Graham1973]

Just found an interesting time-waster of a site devoted to plastic spacemen toys, specifically the ones sold by Tri-ang in the early 70s under the SpaceX (UK) and Golden Astronaut (US) line

When we were young, Spacex toys provided hours and days of fun. Space was a hot topic, with Man landing on the Moon and with great expectations of what was to come. With these imaginative and colourful toys, we could stage our own space adventures by launching from the play corner and colonising the dining room table.

http://www.triangspacextoys.info/index.html
But where it gets really interesting is that at least one of the toys was based on the cancelled unmanned Prosepector lunar rover and the 'golden astronauts' were based on Mercury Astronauts and SR-71 pilots...

The origins of the Prospector Model...

http://www.triangspacextoys.info/SpGAorig/ProspOrF/Prsp_OrP.html
And those 'Golden Astronauts', who still live on as cake decorations, now that their glory days in the toybox are over...

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com.au/2009/10/origins-of-tri-ang-spacex-figures.html

 

[southwestforests]

Here 6 years later when today the forum software has suggested this topic may be of interest I'll give you your first reply.

Turns out I had both the sites bookmarked but had forgotten about them.

There is only one of me and my health is a mess and I can't keep as many things in play at a time any more.

Being in the US in the 1960s I'm pretty sure the blue and red Gemini capsule on one childhood birthday cake was not made by Triang.
Am familiar with Triang via the hobby of model railways.

That last photo, "A model menagerie of Moon vehicles" is some cool stuff. Would very much like models of those.
Especially the 2 walkers with the red legs.
They are simple enough a that scratchbuild would not be difficult.

Have good memories of now gone Marx spacemen in assorted poses in assorted colors, red, white, blue, who seemed to be around 1/48 scale in size.
Would very much like to have them again.
They could populate all kinds of sci-fi model builds.
And maybe even find their way in to miniatures games.

Early space concepts such as the proposed Prospector lunar rover are very much a thing of interest!
And like forgetting about the websites I had either forgotten about or never had known about that Prospector rover proposal.
So, a rather late, Thanks for bringing it to light!

This book from 2001 doesn't list Triang in the index but it does mention other UK toy makers and has a section on Dan Dare.
Book ends toy coverage at time of beginning of actual manned spaceflight since that changed the design theme of space toys.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Hi

 

[publiusr]

I remember Apollo cake-toppers.