Chinese Tin Toy Industry (Space Walk Man)

[plasticaugie]

I am just curious if anybody knows when and where Chinese tin toys of the 60's 70's 80's were available in the USA. I first saw them at a high end toy shop in Bethesda in the late 80's. The original box Star Strider was found in Comic Book shops mid to late 80's? Chinese manufacturers copied the Star Strider, apparently, has there ever been a discussion about how that happened? This is what created the mainstream vintage toy robot icon of the block head toy robot. For example the ebay toy icon was the Space Walk Man for years.

[David Kirk]

The very first time I ever saw a Chinese tin toy, and I was looking for toys all the time, was at a toy shop in Paris in 1978. They had those little tin bluebirds. We weren't importing from China at that point. It was very shortly after that when I began seeing a few things from China in the states. I'd say the floodgates opened in the early eighties, but the deluge didn't really get going for a few more years. When I was building toys and buying things for my toy company in 1988, it was still possible to get everything you needed in the states. Other people with toy companies I spoke with were just beginning to deal with China at that point.

[Morbius]

I purchased a large bunch of the Chinese toys (green Robby Space Tank, Space Boats, Space Radar Car, Rocket Express etc.) at about 1976 to '79. They appeared in great numbers at variety stores all over Toronto. Within a couple of years I tired of them and the comments from peers that the Chinese tin stuff was worthless and will never be of any value so I tossed the whole lot.

I was very surprized to see the Star Strider and a tin robot at that in a high end store, if I recall correctly it was around 1988 when I purchased my red one.

[plasticaugie]

It was about 88 when I got the Star Strider with the be-bop box at the comic book store and the Chinese one followed right after that at Lowen's in Bethesda (long gone now). They also had the big Masudaya Robby kit.

So the Tin Toy Project Star Striders were mid to late 80's and the Chinese copies were quickly out right after that. You would think Metal House would have been ticked off right? Never really gave it a lot of thought, but those cheap vintage looking robots satiated the guy looking for an old robot to put on the shelf, and those guys never really went off the deep the end like us and filled their houses with robots

[Morbius]

Those 'copies' were soon into "The Museum Store" around 1990ish. I went through the stack of Space Walkmans to find one intact and there were none among the dozen or so on the table. All in pieces and/or dented up, a very sorry case (literally)! I thought why would they make something so bad that they wouldn't even survive being put on the store shelf.

[David Kirk]

I'd forgotten about the space boat and space tank. Those were available in NY by 1978 or 1979. I can't say before that, as I wasn't there yet. I do recall it being very strange to be finding Chinese toys at that point - almost hard to imagine now, when there is nothing anywhere but Chinese toys and Chinese everything else.

[laserman]

Now in the U.S., within a few months of Nixon visiting China, ads for the Space boat, Universe car and other Chinese tin started to pop up in Antique Toy World and other antique publications. I was told by one dealer that because of the trade arrangement back then that Nixon signed, the U.S. was obligated to buy Chinese merchandise. But with the fairly new laws banning tin toys with sharp edges, the toys were auctioned off to a few brokers in the L.A. area who then distributed the merchandise through the "antique dealer" networks. I recall the stuff flooding shows and store fronts. In 1987, 88 I established a letter of credit and bought a container load of tin toys from a Chinese trading company in Shanghai (I believe they later morphed into the HaHa we know today). Back then they were state run. In that load was some of the first green Walkman robots I ever saw. And yes, about two out of every five worked. The quality of the stuff was terrible and it was actually dirty. Not sure where it had been stored, but it was a mess. I still have catalogs of toys from back then. No space toys per se, so I never posted them here.

[Sonny Young]

The quality of the stuff was terrible and it was actually dirty. Not sure where it had been stored, but it was a mess. I still have catalogs of toys from back then.

I always wondered if these Chinese first toys were produced in the 1960s, rather than the 1970s.

[Morbius]

That explains all the toys in storefronts through the '70s, the first Space Tank I bought was faded from years in the store window. Stopped working and at the time reference books claimed if it didn't work it was worthless so out it went.

Remembering seeing many Universe Cars in store windows too...also why we never saw them in mainstream stores, only the corner and variety stores. Thank you laserman for all the great info, learned a lot about why the proliferation of it at the time with dozens of 'em on the shelves of mom and pop smoke shops.

[Morbius]

I always wondered if these Chinese first toys were produced in the 1960s, rather than the 1970s.

According to articles I'd read way back when (including reference book by Steve Sansweet: Space Toys by Starlog 1980) these look like they were manufactured in the '60s but they weren't. The litho is not nearly as strong and tends to flake off especially on the Space Tank turret.

[David Kirk]

I'm pretty sure they'd been making some tin toys for decades, but we never saw them.

[laserman]

The reason why I always believed the early to mid 70's is when this stuff was all made is because China was a mess in the 60's with all the turmoil Mao started up with the Cultural Revolution. All the class infighting that resulted made for a country in a lot of turmoil where people were trying to survive, not to play.... Catalogs I have are from 70's.

[David Kirk]

I wonder if there are any Chinese catalogs from the sixties that would tell us. Was China selling in Europe when they were closed to the U. S. market? When I first saw them in 78, they were in a little stand called "The Last Wound-Up" at the Fulton Fish Market in downtown Manhattan. I think those sellers expanded to some other locations later.

[David Kirk]

So perhaps the odd Chinese toy that looks older just looks that way because it's crude? Someone must know!

[Sonny Young]

The Robby Space Tank is perhaps China's first knock-off (the list is very long today). I always got a kick out the elastic strings connecting Robby's arms. Not a bad idea if they didn't deteriorate. The Kaleidoscope in the rear is very cool. Not a bad toy overall and creeping up in price year after year. Money well spent. The atrocious "Fire Tank" certainly looks newer compare to the Space Tank.