1.28.2011

The Vintage Vibe

While I was laying in bed last week with a messed up back, it gave me a good chunk of time to think about many subjects. Of course toys pushed to the forefront of my mind, as always. As I churned through plans for the next set of steel tools coming up, I was also busy reading a very special book.

Back in July while I was at SDCC I got to meet a bunch of great guys, one of which was Rain Infinity, a customer from up in Canada who had made the trip down for the show. He surprised me by giving me a great book on sci-fi toys from the 60's called, appropriately enough, Space Toys Of The 60's by James H. Gillam. I have literally looked at it hundreds of times since receiving it. I highly recommend that you guys try to track it down, as it chronicles the great trinity of 60's space themed toys, which are: Major Matt Mason by Mattel, Zeroids by Ideal and The Outer Space Men by Colorforms. I believe that these three toy lines lead directly to another three of the most unique toy lines of the 80's. It would seem that many of the people who went on to design action figures in the 80's played with one or more of the toys from the great trinity of the 60's, creating lines that almost seemed like sequels to the three classics. Here are the comparisons:

Major Matt Mason = Starcom (originally produced by Coleco then ironically Mattel ended up with it)
Zeroids = Roboforce (Ideal produced both lines)
The Outer Space Men = Power Lords (Revell produced)

If you really analyze the similarities of the different series from above, it is pretty cool to see that some very real homages were happening. In paying respect to the toys that continue to inspire all of us, I built a Glyos version of a Robby the Robot type clunker. I guess a little of that Space DNA goes a long way.

12 comments:

  1. That's freaking sick! GITD Pheyden? Yes, please!

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  2. WOW Matt! That Robot is got to be the most fun build I've seen so far! That guy has so much character and the classic robby look to him! Well done sir!

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  3. Shoot the little monkey off the fresh served diner plates in Morbius house for me...or let him have produce those steels for you.

    Eeep, i watched that movie like 50 times - all the friends slept in and me giddy like a kid in the chair.

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  4. Oh, just found the last book for 5 bucks cheap on amazon! Woopey!!

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  5. LOVE the Robby build Matt, the axis joints are perfect for his legs and arms. If I had more pieces I'd totally build this thing. You MUST make them in yellow at some point, because then we will be able to make Liquidator from Inhumanoids with them! :-D

    I've not heard of Zeroids, or at least the name right now is drawing a blank, but if they're similar to Robo Force I'm going to be Googling them momentarily...AH yes I see the resemblance between Robo Force. Definitely an evolutionary step in the robots-without-legs ladder.

    PowerLords is another awesome toyline from the 80's that I've yet to actually own any pieces from. I've been trying to get a MOC/really decent condition Gripptogg off-and-on for a couple of years now but I've yet to actually get one. The 2nd assortment on that line is when the designs REALLY got frickin' amazing.

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  6. Psst. Amazon still has this book. Just bought one from a seller I've used on there.

    Oh, and you gotta rerelease the black gobon. I don't have one and now I know why I need one. ;)

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  7. That is just a great build.

    So what about a post of pulp-era sci-fi builds? Is anyone up to the challenge?

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  8. My heart jumped when I saw this build, totally sweet!

    Glow Phey...what can I say?

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  9. The build is awesome beyond description. Robby has always been my favorite movie robot.
    And GitD Pheyden, returns in mass production! Rock on, Onell.

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  10. I just spent literally all morning (6 hours to be exact) to build a giant Infection spider. Now I see this beautiful Robby and can appreciate it even more that I know first hand what it really takes to do large detailed specific builds. You are a genius my friend a genius! Thanx 4 all u do 4 all of us bro!

    TGB

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  11. This may be your best build yet!! Or at least top 3!!!

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  12. GitD Pheyden? DO WANT. DOWANT DOWANT DOWANT.

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