LB is for Nasta Industries!

I had an amusing interaction with an eBay seller back last year, he had the Lik Be spacemen for sale at a reasonable BIN, in Nasta carded bottle-bags, so I hit DOIT and sat back and waited for my ill-, or easily-gotten gains to arrive, but when they did, I almost had apoplexy!

 

They weren't LB, they were the shitty MPC-clones, well actually some of the better MPC-clones, there are many copies of the MPC astronauts, and some are very poor, but these are OK, however, MPC-clones they were, not the LB I had ordered.

Now, I figured it must be a mistake, so I checked the seller's other items, and sure enough, no toy figures, but clothes, household items and car parts - or 'Autoparts' he was in the 'States! So I checked the sales listing again and sure enough there were the Lik Be's in all their glory, but the blue arrow pointed to more images . . . And sure enough, there were the MPC-clones, and the page was screaming '2 items - 1 available 1 sold' . . . Which was clearly the one in my lap!

So I quickly bought the second set before messaging the seller, and then messaged him to confirm that the gunmetal ones were in the other bag and the 'wrong' ones had turned up, he was very apologetic and offered a refund, which I happily declined as it was still a new name, and having both versions would be no hardship!

 

Waiting another two-and-a-half weeks (global shipping shit!), it duly turned-up and lots of positive feedback was awarded in both directions. And as you can see, very different contents under the same card.

The ones I was after are the 'proper' ones with the full Lik Be base-mark, and they are a nice clean sample, I thought there might be eight of each colour for all poses, but careful checking reveals a 20 count, however there don't seem to be pose duplicates within each colour's sample, so some complicated packing for 2x7 and 1x6!

 

The LB sample also takes up a lot more space than the MPC lot (also a 20 count but more random), which came first I don't know, but I suspect from the 1970's feel, that the LB were issued until they ran-out and then the MPC-clones were sourced to complete a contract, or continue a well-selling line?

 

Also, the red and blue polymers are not quite the same, so two sources seems likely, as does the white versus gunmetal for the third colour.

 

Nasta have a 200/5th Av., address ('The Toy Building') which leaves little by way of clues. Google doesn't reveal much, Brain Heiler has a catalogue from 1980 with odd stuff in it, otherwise a mix of rack toys and electronic 'big-box' stuff, with trademarks registered between 1973 and 1989/90 (their apparent high-water mark), after which they seem to have faded, probably into someone else, like Mattel or Kenner at the top end end; Ja-Ru or Larami at the other? Bloomberg says Tyco! Who were acquired by Mattel! And Tyco seem to have purchased them after bringing a trademark case against them in '95!

We previously saw them here.