About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.

Sunday, November 24, 2024

T is for Two - Rocketry

 I seem to have a whole bunch of images from two Sandown's which have - in the case of the earlier show - already been dipped into, and with several donation posts still in the queue, I'm just going to use piecemeal, as part of the oddments-folder plundering, or like this as a quick box-ticker!

Although box ticking is a bit rich for these two, both picked-up at the show two weeks ago, as they are more gap-filling detritus than box-tickers, yet. still, some boxes will be ticked, if you know what I mean!

On the left is an almost certainly incomplete pen-case or holder, while on the right is one of the rockets from the Mettoy 'Tank Battle Game', more on which below. Both cheap as chips, I think total outlay was £5.50p?
 
The pen-case is definitely missing a few pens, and seems to be missing some kind of central pole or mechanism, but it's not clear what, and Google has only found similar things, but not the same thing!
 
The three part tail includes a grey disc of plastic which is somehow connected to the free-spinning fin section, through the cup, but free spins itself, too, and I can't separate them without apparently doing damage, and you wonder at the smaller cup at the nose end of the rocket and what it might do, in relationship to the tail assembly, or not?

I'm pretty sure the pens are the commonly seen (back in the 1970's) generics from geometry sets, knock-off spirograph's and the like, so I may have some in the pen-zone (oh, yeah! Things we haven't even contemplated here yet!), so I might be able to replace the missing colours - a red and some blues?

[image removed!]

Courtesy of Vectis Auctions (their Christmas Toy Soldier auction is pending, but I didn't notice anything exciting, unless you're looking for boxed Timpo buildings and/or farm sets), this inage is the set the smaller red rocket belongs to, the mechanism is the same as the Tri-Ang Battle Space rocket-launcher, so it may well be fireable from the rail-car. But despite being the same company, they designed a new one for another toy, rather than reusing stock!
 
Right, that was all bullshit! Racing to publish before I went to work - in biblical weather! Actually the two Lines Group rockets were the same fat-nosed one (Mettoy game and Triang train-set), so they did reuse, and the person who told me they were 'from that game' must have been mistaken or thinking of something else, which leaves my second guess as it's being a Solido or similar 'unknown rocket'? Suffice to say, this post is now two unknown rockets!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure if this helps but the red missile can be found online under "Mechano large missile".

Anonymous said...

Model number 461

Hugh Walter said...

It's very interesting Anon', seems to go with set 1893 Crater Chaser from a space range I don't remember issued in 1981 (left school and doing other things I guess!), so that's a mystery solved!

And it was the Hornby-Triang era, the launcher (also still available as a spare) looks similar to the Triang Battle Space one so it may well fit, and it's similar to the Dinky Honest John (which had a different firing mechanism I think? While the moon buggy's drivers are the red version of the Dinky crew, so it's all wheels within wheels! Thank you!

H

Anonymous said...

Glad to help.