MECHANICAL WALKING SPACE MAN, VERSION 1 - SY/YONEYA - JAPAN

Tin wind up grey robot. Spinning hoop antenna version. Note that the arms of this version have yellow plastic hand inserts. Several feet variations exist: gold, red, rounded, square - and different leg construction. Nicknamed the Clown Robot. The box art shows a coiled spring antenna on the head though the actual robot lacks this.

Box Art: it's not a depiction of the Spaceman robot, this is a picture of the most common Easelback Robot. Look at the antenna, the hand claws, the feet and the graphics.

The box art shows an antenna that is not on the toy. The art work was altered to remove the antenna, and make the picture much more like the box contents.

Advertised in the Spiegel catalog for 1961. This is probably one of the earlier of the versions. This is based on the art work, the folding key, the rounded feet and the leg design (it has two metal struts inside the leg. Later versions economise with one metal strut)

There are good quality reproductions available. To identify an original look for the following:

Note: Original robots have SPACE MAN printed on the back. They have a fixed key, not a separate one. SY logo marked on the side of the body. They have full red eye dots, not semicircles.

Reproductions have ATOMIC ROBOT or SPACE ROBOT on the back.


Yoneya