The Crosman Rifle Company began life in 1923 producing airgun pellets. This was soon followed by the production of their own airguns which continued well into the subsequent decades. Ninety years later, the Crosman company continues to produce its airgun range as well as airsoft and optical equipment.
Taken from the history of Crosman
US. The Warlord. 1977.
US. The Defenders. 1978.
US. Spiderwoman. 1979.
US. Weird War Tales. 1978.
Recently I picked up some 1980s French issues of Judge Dredd comic published by Aredit. As with the UK versions published by Eagle comics, most of the adverts featured inside are for other comic book publications. Here are four cool ads I found.
France. Judge Dredd 18. 1985. Legendary gunslinger Jonah Hex travels to the future in his latest adventure. Cover by Mark Texeira and Klaus Janson.
France. Judge Dredd 13. 1985. V… They’re coming…
France. Judge Dredd 8. 1984. Star Trek II The search for Spock.
France. Judge Dredd 4. 1983. Brian Bolland back cover art for Judge Dredd.
In 1977 Japanese toy manufacturer Takara was licensed to produce and distribute toys and merchandise from the first Star Wars film up until Popy took over for The Empire Strikes Back in 1980.
Takara Star Wars toys often came with cool action features such as Missile Firing R2-D2s and C-3POs, a wind-up walking R2-D2 (often rumoured to be George Lucas’ favourite toy) and many other interesting and quirky items such as the Transforming X-Wing Fighter which is the subject of this post.
The Transforming X-Wing Fighter was released in 1978 in Japan by Takara. The vehicle came in kit form and included fuselage, four wing sections, a sprue tree containing the smaller parts, a decal sheet, instuctions/catalogue and Luke Skywalker Pilot and R2-D2 figures. Working features included cockpit and landing gear, open/closed wings and spring-loaded missile-firing laser cannons!
But that’s not all… Takara also held the license for Microman which was later rebranded as Transformers for the western market. What could make better sense than to fuse the two lines together to create a super-cool X-Wing Fighter that transformed?
And so, with just a few snaps and clicks the X-Wing Fighter goes from this…
… to this…
… to this…
… to this…
… to this…
… to this…
… to this…
… and much more! There are a few suggestion examples on the box to try out but essentially this toy is ideal to let your imagination fly.
For me the Takara is a winner. One of my favourite retro toy collectables is the vintage Star Wars line – in particular Kenner’s original X-Wing Fighter and its foreign variants. So hats off to Takara for not only producing a version of this iconic space vehicle but for taking it to a completely different level.
Below: Takara X-Wings. Collectable postcard. Star Wars The Toys Chronicle Books. 1995.
And finally, some collectors wonder about the scale of the Takara Transforming X-Wing in relation to the original Kenner model. The Takara version is almost the same size although the Luke and R2-D2 figures are significantly smaller than their 3 3/4 inch Kenner counterparts.
Below is a pic of the Takara, Palitoy original, and Micro-Collection X-Wings to give you an idea of the scale.
To learn more about the many variations that exist for vintage-era X-Wing Fighters check out my guide on TIG
AMT (originally Aluminium Model Toys) began life in 1948 making promotional model cars for car dealerships. They later became established as one of the leading makers of plastic model kits. The company continues to produce model kits to date alongside its partner (another established model maker) MPC.
The Danish advert below shows two logos: Matchbox and AMT. This was due to the 1978 buyout of AMT by British Lesney, the makers of Matchbox.
Denmark. Anders. 1981.
The following two adverts from the UK and US show the AMT logo married with the logo of ERTL who purchased AMT from Matchbox in 1983.
UK. Dazzler. 1983.
US. Fine Scale Modeller. 1986.
Website: AMT
Wikipedia entry: AMT
The Vintage Toy Advertiser 