After looking at the Camberwick Green figures the other day - another set of figures widely held to have been made by the Marx plant in Swansea (or sourced by them from the Hong Kong arm of the global brand) are these characters from the Gerry Anderson 'Spermarionation' TV series; Supercar.
Supercar was the first of Gerry's Supermarionation children's television series, running for 39 episodes between 1961 and 1962 (so these toys are older than me?!!) and set the tone for all the subsequent Anderson puppetry oeuvre - a super sci-fi unit with wacky stuff solving an insurmountable problem (half caused by them) inside 40 minutes with a cool groovy vehicle or two!
The figures were supplied with a plastic model of the eponymous Supercar, and are presented here with one figure missing: Mitch the Monkey! He's the idiot who half caused the emergency most weeks (sometimes Wikipedia is actually useful - well!...I wasn't born then!)
Like the missing Mitch; the four other Characters are in a dense creamy-white polystyrene, painted in the style of Marx Miniature Masterpiece or Tinykins, and - from the 40mm figure on the left - represent:
'Aeronaut' Mike Mercury (steely-jawed hero)
Dr. Horatio Beaker (Popkiss's assistant)Jimmy Gibson (annoying brat)
Professor Popkiss ('Brains' [Geditt] behind this version of the Anderson universe)
The missing monkey being around 20mm and the smallest, I think there was a torso of Mike in the vehicle in a darker paint scheme, the likelihood of my ever having one in good nick to show here is doubtful...but I'm sure it will turn up on Moonbase Central - if it hasn't already!
The carded toy was sold by/issued (distributed) under the title/brand of Cecil Coleman, London, N1. and I've included a paint variant of Beaker and an early mould-release shrinkage variant of Mike below.
It was the early 1960s and I was taken to New York City. I was watching "their" TV stations. No Gerry and Silvia Anderson show in Boston. Super Car disturbed 8 year old me!
ReplyDeleteI hear you Scott, with me it was Dr. Who, not the Daleks...it was some mind-control storyline involving giant spiders on peoples backs...had me down the back of the sofa so fast...strange though...I needed that sofa each and every week!!
ReplyDelete