D is for Dulcop Spacemen

Being EC's look at Italian-produced plastic space figures; Part 1, over to Ervino . . .

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DULCOP

The Dulcop company produced toy soldiers from the late '60's to early '80's, and it is still active today as a producer of soap bubbles. In the '70's it produced a range of all original design 1/32 scaled toy soldier figures sets and accessories (vehicles, etc.), rivalling for its diversity with the Airfix or Marx ones, with subjects spacing from Napoleonic to America Civil War, from Western to Robin Hood, from Medieval Warriors to Tarzan, from a nice licensed set from the '57 Walt Disney'Zorro' TV series to Spacemen.

The Dulcop figures were sold initially company-painted in diorama boxed sets, and later undecorated on bubbled cards. Many of the figures, especially those of the late unpainted production, are easy to find in good condition, with a few exceptions, e.g. some on the figures of the Spacemen set.

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The Spacemen set is composed of six figures in different poses (see images), two of which (the so called 'weight-lifter' and 'flag-bearer') are very difficult to find intact, considering how fragile are some of their parts. The figures are approximately 6 cm high from feet-to-head, made of soft white plastic, with the rectangular bases with cut-off corners (very Battlestar Galactica... :-) ) typical of many of the Dulcop figures. On the bases of the figures; in front of the feet of the figures, there is an elevated writing saying "DULCOP – MADE IN ITALY”.

Considering that one of the figures that I have has some painted parts, and that I saw in the years painted versions of some of the other figures too, it is possible that this spacemen set too was commercialized in some form of 'diorama-box', but personally I have never seen it.

The figures don't appear to have identifying numbers. The design of the spacemen's suit doesn't seem derived from a specific 'real' space suit (as it were, e.g., for the Marx Gemini or Apollo-suited spacemen figures), but some elements of its look (especially the helmet) IMO have a certain resemblance with the USSR Cosmonauts 'Sokol' space suit.