Copyright 2003 T. Sheil & A. Sheil All Rights Reserved
Space travel was pure fiction in the 1950s and very early 1960s. Our only parameters for understanding were pure speculation or wild fiction, and our toy figures reflected both. The wild spacemen by Archer and Ajax word 'uniforms" that resembled a combination of Medieval armor and deep sea diver's suit. They are contrasted by spacemen in pressure suits resembling those of jet fighter pilots. Eventually men were launched into space, and our spacemen started sporting Mercury-type space suits while bearing ray guns. Space was fun for kids.
In more recent years, some science fiction spacemen have come to resemble characters out of sword and sorcery rather than real astronauts. Science fiction continues to produce the wild and bizarre, even as it also tells of things that are speculative and thoughtful.
These spacemen are by Ajax and hie from the 1950s. Commander at left is much larger than his troops. Man in the middle holds a ray gun rifle. |
More Ajax spacemen - man with walkie-talkie and pistol, spaceman with small communicator, and space woman in "pageboy" hairdo, shooting ray pistol. |
Rear view shows even more details of these unique figures. |
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Copies of the popular Tim Mee brand spacemen of the 1960s. Space suits are of the "Mercury" type, and predate Apollo and Gemini. |
Spaceman with "viewer from set listed below. |
Multi-piece recast 1950s type spacemen. The middle and left men look as if the are holding microphones. Kneeling spaceman also has rifle. Figure at right is looking into some kind of viewer or radar scope. Height is a little over 3 inches. |
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These odd space figures were found in a party shop. They are 54mm tall. The middle and right men bear medieval weapons - a mace and a sword. Mixing weapons was popular in the old Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon type of science fiction. |
Wild axeman at left, and two spacemen with ray guns. The weapon at right was inspired by a Mac -10 or Uzi. |