Space.Trucks' Space Garage & Showroom

[space.trucks]

Name is Steve by the way, artist/curator by trade from Central New York. "Space.Trucks" is an Instagram handle I came up with for a project about Toys as Art which started out focused on futuristic die cast vehicles but led back into Space Toys where I belong. Was born in 1967, picking up right where I left off in about 1978 which is when this picture was taken by my mom, also an artist.

 

The only surviving fragment is the astronaut in the LM and finding him in January was the catalytic event which led me here. I was the knucklehead kid who would always pluck the astronauts out of my rockets, usually ruining them in the process. Now I want to make my own. 

 

Today was MoC/MiB/NoS Day, had a ball just looking at them all at last and I wish for everyone to have one soon as well. Have shown some on the other forums but let's make it official and start with the A-list "New Old Stock" material.

 

 

Two months of hard work there. "To Open or Not To Open", that is the Question. All were obtained under the premise of unsealing to be utilized in my art project as scale photography subjects .... We'll see, though some I have opened other units of, or obtained loose examples. Will share those up too. (None were opened but the Marx box and after taking pix all were sealed up in freezer bags, now decorating the walls of my studio where they are safe. Delighted just to gaze at them for now.)

 

Let's start with the obvious from that pile, and fortunately for my sanity this was an "open box" unit which had never been played with, so we're halfway there. I can at least touch the stuff. Box now housed in a Sterilite snap lid storage module which fit perfectly. Item purchased at auction, price surprisingly affordable and quite frankly I was stunned to have prevailed; Had entered my top bid a whole day before the closing with zero other action until being invoiced. And if the opposing bidder is looking in your sacrifice in letting go will further the pursuit of art. You'll find one with a better box someday. Hang in there.

 

Front window is crinkled/creased and torn in two spots. Top window was covered with a layer of grime & dust.

 

After a careful cleaning with an ammonia free window cleanser which did not touch the cardboard. At all.

 

Just incredible. Box condition be damned: That's a Holy Grail score, and in many ways more useful to me than an Operation Moonbase or Star Station 7: It's something I can mimic using methods at my disposal. Only nut buster is the window plastic, no clue how I'd shape then affix something like that to a box printing. Yet.

 

Turret cockpit revolves. Definitely just (lol "just", right ...) an adapted M-47 "Patton" tank casting with the cockpit dome unit rather than a gun mount (cheers to forum comments at Moonbase Central for the likely tank type ID!)

 

The spiderweb of strings holding the plastics in place. Which I am loath to cut now that I got the damn thing in front of me. Considering options; Something tells me it's meant to stay roped together like that, though I do want to study the terrain forms up close. And I want my tank. 

 

Examining the diorama's structure. Simple folds & staples. Almost wish it was in even worse condition to excuse unfolding it to examine how they made it. But no.

 

Some rip damage visible to the fold-out elements on the side panel. I can live with it.

 

Bummer  ;[   The only condition issue I'm genuinely annoyed by. Contemplating how to shore it up without using an adhesive.

 

I like how the 3d elements stick out from the walls. 

 

 

US nickel added to hammer home how teensy it all is. The terrain elements fascinate me, and my dad has a fully equipped woodshop in his basement which includes a very robust sawdust removal system we are discussing adapting into a jerry rigged vacuform press. Sculpt a half dozen relief templates out of clay or plasticine and form a batch of twenty or so at a time. All I need are sheets of plastic and some sort of frame to hold it while softening in a Black & Decker toaster oven. Slap it over the template, throw the switch on the venting mechanism (if the suction produced is strong enough) and schhhwoooop! suck em down onto the shapes. Trim, paint, and bingo. Astronauts & vehicle designs can be 3d printed until we have the means to assemble resin casting equipment. The real trick is figuring out how to house it all in a manner which is economical to produce and resembles a consumer product. So this was a clutch acquisition.

 

I want to take pix of that tank in front of my own artwork, Goddamn it all. Will maybe try to work it loose ... Ugh.

[space.trucks]

Have shown some of these previously in the Space Figures forum.

 

 

Love my Plongs. Have obtained five sets to date, four were opened and sadly I'm out of continuity for their diorama setup as shown on the back. I have like 2 #3s and no #4 but wanted the poses on those cards. Last time I checked with the guy he still had a few more to go ("robodicki")

 

My 3rd set of these things, love em. Two sets were opened (perfect diorama subjects), this was the best looking cosmetically so I am keeping it as-is for now, and my best guess on the age is 1975-1978. Thunderbirds  were like my favorite show when I was seven, still love it as an adult and instantly recognized the Raphael Lipkin designed rocket forms as offshoots of Thunderbird One, since confirmed by data on the Triang/SpaceX website. Have also obtained a couple of the longer rockets as loose examples with different colors, will show them all in time. Note the blob of plastic on the orange Apollo CSM from an overpour. Lots of fuss is made about Hot Wheels error cars with some sort of factory mistake -- How much is a still sealed Mint on Unpunched Card vintage ripoff Hong Kong error capsule worth?

 

Clowns are creepy and mean. 

 

This package helpfully has a 1978 date at bottom. Have shown this in the Space Figures forum and will admit to being tangentially obsessed with the Swoppet spaceman form, have a nice stash growing and seek answers as to their chicken-egg relationship with the Cherilea spacemen + a series by Marx, all of which appear at casual glance to be identical but are most certainly not. Never had any prior to 2019, saw them a few times as a kid and found their twisted elongated poses to be disturbing compared to the static Marx + "Space Bucket" set Apollo EVA suit astronaut figures I was used to.

 

 

Shazam. Scoring this hooked me like a bluegill and now regard it as the pinnacle series of the plastic Space Toy form. Also have a loose Golden Astronaut "Security Chopper" version minus its rotors to keep me busy while this hangs on the wall, torturing me with its perfection. I want to spin that rotor assembly!! 

 

Yo, Baby ... Have since obtained a loose GA so he's safe for now. I was too young to catch the Spacex craze as a child, would have been five in 1972 but do have a vestigial memory of a "Golden Astronaut" as some sort of special symbol of coolness. Like a Willy Wonka gold chocolate bar.

 

Never had a scrap of any of it as a kid. So of course now I gotta have em all, sealed or no. A few other examples are incoming and the search for more continues. This is fun!

[space.trucks]

This one's driving me crazy. I want that astronaut!!! and the space capsule. Not so much interested in the parachute angle though I always loved those things, you can still find parachute guys at the dollar store for a dollar. So I went and got some & am intending to try and paint them to look like spacemen.

 

Could not discern any stampings.

 

The fold on that flag is also driving me crazy. I want to open it just fix the damn thing down. Hoping another example turns up at some point, and I forgot to do a pix of the back but you can rest assured it is just plain cardboard. Will add one when there's a chance.

[space.trucks]

This one is driving me crazy too: I have a thing about rocket gantries and got this specifically to use for photographic work. And can't bring myself to open it. %$#^%$

 

 

Gantry platform does slide up & down. Yeah I want to make space art pix with that. From what I gathered from the incredible Tri-Ang/Spacex website they were anonymously made by LP using simplified Spacex/GA "Launch Site" playset forms. Rocket sort of reminds me of a dumbed-down Thunderbird 3.

 

Gantry base, looking for markings.

 

The Usual Suspects. Only after making the pix did it sink in that they are new, unused, never played with, and still sealed.

 

All figures marked simply "Hong Kong". Will share a detailed study if I give in & open it. I want my gantry!!!

[space.trucks]

Yeah I want GA copies as bad as GA originals. Lost an auction for a loose chromed LM + figures back in February before knowing what this stuff is all about: All I knew was it was a LM. Seller also had the half dude from the MMM crawler stuck in the top of the LM and now I understand why, plus where it came from: Their trashed crawler. Had a MMM figure as a kid + basic accessories but no crawler; Have since obtained a loose example which has a white half dude instead of chromed.

 

 

Nah. I can't open that.

 

Looks like a hybrid between a Marx Apollo era figure & the HK/MPC 60s spacemen.

 

 

Looking for a mark on the flag base. There is none.

 

Just ff'ing score. Been obsessed with the Grumman LM since I was four. Have four sets of the Blue Shield "Apollo Capsule" sets and can attest they use the same cast with just gobs of chrome paint applied. And that the "Unique Party Favors" Apollo CSMs will dock with the Blue Shield LMs if gently coaxed to; Try a little Chapstick on the CSM prong to lube it up. Will show those in a subsequent post.

[space.trucks]

And again, thought I was getting this to use the moon base machinery in pix but it's too darling on its card. Of potential interest is the MMM sled rather than the lie-down laser cannon vehicle shown on the Spacex website's entry for the packaging. Though they also make note that the toys included on the blisters were often mismatched.

 

Looks like it was used as a sponge. Was stoked to see it so beat up under the premise it would be easier to bring myself to open ... Nein. 

 

 

Pretty cool. A vendor on another buying platform has the device loose but without the chromed grille on the front, had it in checkout a dozen times and always balked, glad I did. Asking price (before shipping) turned out to be the same as this sealed unit with everything. Score.

 

Looking for markings & studying the construction. Which is primarily an empty shell with holes for the radar dishes + external fixtures to peg into.

 

Had the basic MMM sled as a kid (pretty sure he came with the figure) and I guess that's sort of it.

 

No markings.

 

YO. So he's my 3rd Golden Astronaut. I want him out of there but can likely wait for another example of the set to surface.

 

Bingo. Decent Saturday after all. 

[6Stelab9]

Fantastic! I enjoy those rack toys and their colorful cards. They are beautiful. And they are always frustating. You just don't want to damage them but you can't touch the toys. So you have to buy loose examples. Sometime the glue is dried so you can open the blister with minor damage. Thanks for sharing.

[Roboto]

Great collection and now the fun begins!!

[space.trucks]

Completely forgot about these guys yesterday. Open Box but never used or played with. Seller had it listed as a Buy It Now with a Make an Offer option so I made one, nice deal. Standard size two inch figures, pretty sure that's John Glenn at lower left who retired after his Friendship 7 flight in 1962. Never trained for a moon mission so he's a good choice.

 

Top panel.

 

 

End flaps. That astronaut pose looks familiar and this time it's America's first man in space Alan B. Shepard, who at least did go to the moon on Apollo 14. Brought a golf club + a couple of balls along, my kind of Hero.

 

Back panel decorated by an anonymous space illustration & Major Matt Mason advertising imagery. We shall presume they asked Mattel for permission first & paid the appropriate royalty fees rather than risk allegations of stealing intellectual property.

 

Almost perfect LP astronauts! Very stoked to have them. Brown substance is hopefully just dried adhesive, and it is interesting how they are all armed. To my knowledge the only weapons which went to the moon were .45 semi automatic pistols in the astronaut survival kits which stayed in orbit on the Command Module. Speaking of which I like how there are Project Gemini craft in the sky + an early LEM concept with round hatch on the moon. That plus the use of the Mercury astronauts suggest to me that at least the box design pre-dates Apollo 11's July 1969 flight. Or that LP was just lazy about updating their artwork.

 

Here is a link to the Spacex/Golden Astronaut website about the origin of LP spaceman figs:
http://www.triangspacextoys.info/SpGAorig/astroOrF/FigOrigB.html

 

And a link to a page explaining the relationship between LPs spacemen & the Golden Astronauts:
http://www.triangspacextoys.info/SpGAtoys/Astr/SGAstros.html

 

The back of their stage. Simple folds, no staples. The hinges at the side prove helpful in pulling it from the box, nice touch.

 

Base markings on the loose guy just to be sure. Will presume the others are likewise & leave them be.

 

... Must have been a long day at the LP plant. Or they were out of coffee.

 

More free art to print! It should all be free, right? And that's why I love the Hong Kong era so much: Nobody gave a damn, and that the package has survived long enough to reach my hands nothing shy of a miracle. 

[space.trucks]

I absolutely love these things. Was just as obsessed with scuba divers & submarines as a kid. Softer "army man" type plastic, maker unknown and sold to me as "Rocket Cars", since ID'd at the Spacex/GA website as a simplified "Undersea War-Car" based on larger toy produced by LP:

 

http://www.triangspacextoys.info/SpGAderv/LPHK/LPhkLgTy/LPSeaCrt/LPSeaCrt.html

 

 

Definitely a scuba diver form and very very cool even in this dumbed down form.

 

"Hong Kong" on underside of fins are the only markings I can discern.

 

Some battle damage on this one.

 

 

More battle damage. 

 

Simple peg attachment for the diver and I promise not to pluck him out of his rocket.

 

 

Applied in form with quickie setup. In a show opening next month about Asian influenced art and I'm going to print this image at 8x11.5 in B/W, fix it down to a wood panel then paint over with acrylics. Due Friday, will post the results!

[space.trucks]

(Had just posted this to Space Plastics forum, will replace that query with something else & update this if an ID can be established. Plenty of unknowns to go!)

 

 

Just over five inches, hard plastic. Obtained from an estate vendor who knew zilch ($5 + postage). Was thinking it was a Hing Fat type "Space Bucket" accouterment but it doesn't seem to match any of the styles of such rockets I've seen from the sets by them I have been able to evaluate. Any insights most welcome.

 

No sort of launching adapter, fairly certain it is meant for static display, possibly as a rocket on a vehicle + trailer set? Or a train?

 

Trying to determine if the nose cone is fused/part of the casting or just stuck with grime. Leaving it alone for the time being.

 

And again on the lower "stage". Dunno anything except it can use a cleaning. (Any suggestions on what to use are welcome: got a LOT of stuff that could benefit from cleaning and cautious about winging it.)

 

 

Obtained for a dollar; Softer "army man" type plastic. Some nice decorative markings on it and I love the battle damaged play wear.

 

No text marks visible. Vendor had it listed as "Cap Bomb Rocket Late 60s".

 

[space.trucks]

(Just posted this to the "For Sale & Wanted" threads, copying it here for good measure.)

 

My God I want one of these, the yellow variant especially. Fairly certain they were a UK offshoot of G.I. Joe, mid 80s (?). Pix snitched from a European based seller who wants $50 shipped, both for $75 and I can't justify it (Sorry if looking in, am sure that's a fair cost given the rarity and your country's postage rates not something you can control). I found some from a domestic vendor but they are incomplete & much more subdued in color, smoke aging a likely culprit. If I'd seen them first they'd be on the way already, and again no offense to the vendor if looking in, whose price is quite reasonable given their condition. Trying to hold out for something more pristine and still have grocery money, figured I'd throw it out there. If anyone can help including pointing out a web store, hit me up!

 

 

"... Jesus ..." (Dirty Harry voice.)

 

 

Yeah. They are about *perfect* in execution & the colors have everything to do with it. Responding to the yellow example with more urgency as it does not suggest "Tie Fighter" figure. Would love to bring either home. 

[space.trucks]

Just as a "By The Way" post on how I'm sharing stuff, I'm turning out to be the kind of collector who obsessively their toys away, likely as a reaction to having destroyed most of my goodies as a kid. Am also preparing to move to as yet undetermined living situations in August and have opted for the storage module approach for the time being. I also regard them as art supplies & am equally obsessive about putting my paints etc away. So I usually select a piece or five to contemplate for a spell & keep the rest boxed up. Hence no shelf views -- Will get there in time!

 

 

The two larger storage crates are still sealed die cast toys, most of them with of space vehicle ilk. Loose vehicles are kept in the thread spool boxes next to the yellow diamond shaped painting & there's five more of those at my other studio/room at my parent's house about an hour away. In front of those are matching boxes for my Marx 2" guys and Spacex/Golden Astronaut insanity. On top of the thread spool boxes are matched containers with Apollo spacecraft forms, random rocketry and Kindertoy + Bruder type mini spacecraft.

 

Larger clear boxes stacked next to the thread boxes are Non-Marx spaceman and astronaut forms sorted by era and type, some army men and quasi-action figures as well. On top of them are older plastic vehicles (cars, tanks, couple of trucks) with futuristic designs, larger plastic rocket + spaceship forms, and one box of all divers, submarines, aquatic life forms and helicopters. Drawered unit next to it has smaller die cast type space vehicles too big for the spool boxes, a few builder-toy kits, a few boxed space vehicles too big for the other containers, some of my own art forms, containers of die cast vehicles + spacemen forms to paint, storage baggies, and what I call my Playset Pieces: food storage containers filled with bits of Space Junk and random odd forms I've stumbled upon which look like futuristic mini set components. On top of that are containers of larger die cast and plastic pieces which are too big for the other containers like my 5"+ Marx figures, Matchbox Adventure 2000 tanks and space station forms which won't fit nicely into the other boxes.

 

Black container at bottom left are the surviving remnants of our childhood toy collection, mostly Matchbox & Hot Wheels type vehicles with some aircraft thrown in, and worth more to me than all of the rest of it combined. On top of them are a crate of toy forms I'd set aside over the years, plus a whole shoebox filled with ceramic and cast resin + plaster pieces done in college. Then a "Vendor Bin" crate of sealed die cast cars I just can't see me ever really enjoying, helps pay for the plastic, and last but not least on top of that a cardboard box packed with Space Junk plastic from assorted "Lot" buys and the Space Shuttle vehicles I've kind of ended up getting stuck with. Not a fan of the shuttle program at all & the less said of it the better.

 

 

Ogle wall next to my desk and the DVD rack I put behind my computer to keep me from resting my elbows on the table (bad habit). Started out just putting a few die cast cars on it to think about when working on computer then began using it as a photo stand.

 

 

Still ogling that Marx box. I started trying to get interesting pix of my space cars in December for an Instagram feed to publicize the toy project and in February or so began dressing up the top surface of the DVD rack with rocks from the collection (brought back from camping/hiking trips) I keep on my desk. Grid against the curtain is a cutting surface left behind by a former roommate who did layout work & I like how it suggests the Holodeck from Star Trek. Using the rocks, plastic plant forms and the Playset Pieces oddities I'll assemble a little temporary diorama I call a Setup. Then choose a vehicle and/or figures and shoot 40 - 60 pix, usually using a macro lens setting on either a pocket camera or my fone. Which usually rests on that wooden box in front of the speaker with some sort of movie or TV show playing -- past couple weeks it's been Rocky Jones Space Ranger and NASA produced films about manned spaceflight.

 

I usually do three Setups every day, picking eight to ten shots from each photo set which are worth looking at twice. Those then get treated with basic Mac Photos effects and one or two uploaded to either of my Instagram feeds (#artbynyland is the other) usually applying one of their filters as well. Those "final" versions are then set aside to either be printed and altered further by hand, or when I get one will be projected onto a canvas and then hand-painted using the image as a template. One encouraging facet of the project is that none of my "followers" have groused at all about how it's photography based using appropriated forms. They just go nuts seeing something cool and I could see a printed book of just the photographic pieces. I'm also trying to think of a narrative structure which can be told by the pictures, like a space mission gone awry from launch to recovery. Plus a video of even just stop motion variety, or a slideshow with spoken narration & sound effects. As such one thing I've tried to do is steer away from "brand name franchise recognition" and keep the forms anonymous and viewers unsure of just what they are looking at -- No Han Solo, Star Trek characters or Men In Black etc. That's been one of the motivations to go vintage with the collecting angle for readymade space forms. Nobody remembers any of this stuff beyond maybe recognizing having had Marx posed spacemen as a kid.

 

So anyway, that's what I'm up to over here and will share things up as they get taken out & considered -- There's an Instagram feed at https://www.instagram.com/space.trucks/ and a YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/SqTake2/ which has more.

[space.trucks]

(Also posted this to the Space Plastics forum because it's so absurdly odd ...)

 

This stuff is hilarious. Would never have known that space vehicles + soap go together and yet it kind of makes sense.

 

Had to have this thing and apologies if it is a subject which has been covered before.

 

"Containers Made In Italy."

 

... All I can say is that it was a damn sight bigger than I'd expected and most hilariously still has the soap inside. Never used! LOL, and heavy with all that liquid soap in there.

 

Opened this up and was like, WTF ???

 

 

I guess that's the star drive section. Softer flexible shampoo bottle type plastic. Durable & sturdy.

 

 

Crew module, and the labels are the only kind of markings on the forms. Leaving them be for now.

 

At current the largest spaceship in my collection. And it's a bubble bath container. With shampoo.

 

Still full ... Is 30 year old bubble bath safe to use?? I could chew some 50 year old PLONG bubble gum while taking a bath.

 

Damnedest part is, that's actually cool .... But I wonder if the labels should both be on the same side? Only one way to fit the two stages together, so.

 

Some decent moulding work there. Was wishing this was the upright configuration but a protrusion on what would be the the bottom always makes it tip over on its side. Then again if you're floating it in a bathtub it doesn't matter, just like it space. Pretty cool.

 

 

Docking maneuver. Haven't done anything with it yet either just because takes up this entire surface, which I use as my diorama platform.

 

 

These are the "unknowns", and are bubble blowing toys obtained from a vendor based in Greece: Lower one stamped "Made In China" on upper nacelle. One fills them with a bubble solution and blows from the end opposite the yellow ring. Though in my estimation as space ship designs both have their forward ends pointing towards the 8 here. Pretty sure.

 

Lower one stamped "Made In China" on rounded section. No other markings on either.

 

Like yeah, those are cool too. 

 

What convinced me to give those a try was this thing, 2018 Hot Wheels creation called Bubble Matic that in my opinion is absolutely 100% based on a UFO form. Has to be.

 

The ring fixture flips up, you dip it in your bubble solution and go to town. Also looks like a radar fixture and definitely sports retro Art Deco rocket car lines. Though if you ask me Mattel dropped the ball by not having a reservoir in the vehicle for the solution. Only part that is metal is the base and according to Race Grooves a surprisingly effective track performer. Just, LOL.

 

... It's like, I'm sorry, but that's cool. 

 

Task Force Bubblebath, on Operation Clean Rinse.

[space.trucks]

Tootsietoy "Star Base Zeus" diecast + plastic "Star Ship" (red) and "Space Ship Shuttle Craft" (blue).

 

Had to have em. Obtained separately from different vendors. Red one finally arrived today and I am one happy space freak.

 

Kind of a hybrid between 2001 and Space: 1999 shuttle vehicles. Forgot to make pix of bottom but both are correctly marked + held together by screws. And empty like most Tootsietoy vehicles I have seen. Not even so much as a single chair let alone an access portal. Hulls.

 

 

Bitchin'.

 

With my helmetless Major Mars + an example of the orange Moon Buggy from the set. Not sure what the point of having him so out of scale to the vehicles is is but fortunately have smaller sized astronaut forms which fit the buggy just fine. Maybe paint one in his colors as an homage? Would like to have the other vehicles (green Moon Buggy + yellow work trailer, still lookin'), a replacement helmet and of course Zoltan the Terrible, who rulez. What a cool figure. But think their idea of a "Starbase" design looks pretty weak from pix & the surviving complete examples up for grabs way overpriced. Am also not surprised the set flopped then disappeared once Kenner unleashed their Star Wars barrage. Will be good for now just ogling the vehicles.