Little Plastic Playthings

A long time ago in a toy shop far, far away... okay maybe just in Austin. These ships are from a while back though, sometime around the early 2000's I had made a stop at my favorite toy store, Toy Joy. I cannot help but love this shop, if you have read this blog through I have mentioned it only a couple of times. I can honestly say that every time I have stopped there I have never, NEVER been disappointed.



On this trip these little plastic space ships caught my eye, they were in the little "cheap" (or I should say inexpensive) toy bins. I quickly sorted through the space ship bin and found that they were four styles to choose from. I think it's always good practice to scope out your choices before making your final selection. I grabbed up one of each, which was strange at the time cause I was into buying multiples of stuff, and proceeded with my other purchases to check out.



There is not a lot of info on these toys, but the feel of the plastic is sort of an upgrade from the gum ball machine toys, somewhat flexible, not too much as I did manage to snap off a radar dish from the rover, but enough that they are not overly brittle. They also are marked as made in GERMANY. That's it, I have no other clue as to what they are from, if any license, or if they are simple generic ships. I realize now I should have inquired as to where and what they were from when I bought them. I do know they are super sweet and have a few moving parts. For instance the rover's wheels can swing back under its carriage and become a monster truck rover and a couple of the ships have some sliding parts that allow cockpits to rotate or radars dishes to slide.



For scale I threw a Sharpie in the picture. These things are a little smaller than a Hotwheels car, but just as awesome, they really remind me of some of the little playthings you get from the gum ball machines of our youth. They are also fun to have kicking around on the desk ready to explore the unknown. How sweet would it be if these were left over from some of those Kinder Surprise eggs? Mmmmmmnnnnn, chocolate and space ships...