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Dan Dare Pilot of the Future .. toys continued

December 31st, 2009 1 comment

Dan Dare – Pilot of the Future .. Toys Part 2

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In part one we had a brief introduction to the man himself followed by a look at just a few of the many toys that carried his name. We carry on here with a follow up identifying yet more Dan Dare toys.

 

< Dan Dare Radio Station

Electronic space control radio station – an officially licensed product by J & L Randall Ltd. Complete with twin blue plastic aerials, revolving searchlight, space telebuzzer (morse code tapper), message pad & two way wakie-talkie. Made in England by Merit. Boxed 35cm x 35cm x 10cm. Relatively easy to find item but much harder to find in complete condition.

Dan Dare Planet Gun >

Plastic in its construction, officially licensed product by J & L Randall. Gun came in various colours with 3 shockproof plastic spinning missiles ( note shockproof but not childproof ). Made in England by Merit. Boxed 17.5cm x 27.5cm x 5cm. Relatively easy to find, harder to find with all missiles complete and undamaged.

 

< Dan Dare Jet Plane -Anastasia

An officially licesed ‘Presso’ book by Wallis Rigby. Basically a large card model making kit of Dan Dare’s jet plane, no scissors required as the model was pre-cut ready to be pressed out. Finished model is some 46cm. Relatively hard to find in its intact state.

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Dan Dare Rocket Gun >

Officially licensed product by J & L Randall. Grey or copper coloured spring loaded plastic gun complete with 2 red plastic safety rockets. Rockets fitted with rubber end caps which when removed reveals a secret message chamber. Hard to find boxed and complete, rare in copper colour.

 

< Dan Dare Super-Sonic Ray Gun

Battery operated multi-coloured plastic ray gun. Can operate as a torch with switchable 3 coloured – red, white or green lens. Intermitant light (morse code) signalling and high frequency resonator (buzzer), all trigger operated. Gun measures some 22cm. Made in England by Merit. Hard to find complete and boxed.

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Dan Dare                                               Construction Game >

A Dan Dare Construction Game produced in the 1950’s by Chad Valley Toys. Licensed by Eagle Comic by permission Hulton Press.

 

To be continued ………

For more Dan Dare merchandise please see my original Dan Dare Pilot of the Future post and also Dan Dare toys part 3 & part 4.

 

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Dan Dare Pilot of the Future Toys

December 31st, 2009 32 comments

Dan Dare Toys … Part 1

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Having mentioned my Dan Dare Radio Station earlier I thought that might be as good a place as any to start with my look at some of the older toys around. DanDare, probably the original British science fiction comic hero was the creation of illustrator Frank Hampson and appeared in the boys Eagle comic in the 1950’s.

Dan Dare was the chief pilot of the Interplanet Space Fleet and typical of the heroes of that era was bound by a sense of honour, never lied and would rather die than break his word …. in other words an all round good egg ! Together with Digby his stout (in more senses than one) batman they constantly battled with The Mekon in his attempt to conquer the Earth.

Dan Dare not only starred in the Eagle but could be heard Mon. – Fri. 7.15 -7.30pm on Radio Luxembourg for 5 years from 1951 sponsored by Horlicks. Indeed I can just about remember sat listening on the settee, mug of Horlicks in one hand and a malted milk biscuit in the other before ‘Saceships Away’ and zooming upstairs to bed. What simple lives we led then ! … I still do the same today but there’s no Dan Dare and I don’t do zoom anymore !! Although Dan Dare continues in his various guises right up to today it is from those early days that his toys are most sought after.

A selection of Dan Dare related toys

So now we have the background to the Dan Dare story lets look at some of the toys in more detail.

But first, just an observation – a small point but worthy of note that Dan Dare merchandise, in particular items by Randall/Merit came in boxes with superb colour graphics. Graphics which took you from planet Earth to the far reaches of deep space in an instant, graphics which, in my opinion, were only matched later by Airfix !

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< Dan Dare Two Way Walkie-Talkie Set

Officially licensed product from J & L Randall. 2 way walkie-talkie set comprised : 2 plastic red and black hand units with green, yellow and blue press buttons, retractable aerial and length of connecting wire with end connectors. Made in England by Merit. A hard to find item complete and boxed.

Dan Dare ‘S.S. Eagle’ Spaceship >

Officially licensed product this red, yellow and blue printed tinplate spaceship with plastic canopy had a friction drive motor. Made in Gt. Britain by Mettoy. Relatively hard to find model especially complete and boxed.

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< Dan Dare Jig-Saw Puzzle

A fully licensed product by the ‘Eagle’ comic this particular 150 piece Jig-saw was produced under the ‘Peter Pan’ games label and entitled ‘Dan Dare repels the Venutians’.

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Dan Dare Field Glasses >

Dan Dare field glasses made in England in the 1950’s. Black plastic, Dan Dare embossed to both external lens casings, complete with lanyard. Licensed by the Eagle Comic, 25cm. x 15cm.

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< Dan Dare Telescope

Dan Dare Visionmaster telescope manufactured in England by Selcol. Black plastic with Dan Dare printed lens cap, 3x magnification, extends to 12″. Fully licensed product by the Eagle Comic.

 

End of Part 1

For further images of Dan Dare toys please see my other Dan Dare posts.

 

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rodgersantiques – open for business !

December 27th, 2009 Comments off

Welcome to rodgersantiques !

A lighthearted look at the toys, games and the companies that were common place when I was just a young whippersnapper running around in short trousers !

WAVE

 

The doors are open to my first ever blog – I hope you enjoy your visit and trust you will come back again. I intend to fill this site with articles about antiques in general but with an emphasis on my main area of interest which is in old toys and games. Unfortunately I am at that age now where the old toys and games of today were actually new for me when I was a lad !

 

 

Days Gone !

I can still remember when Christmas didn’t begin until December and my brother and I would be sat on a Sunday night at supper time asking mum and dad to let us look through the ‘catalogue’ yet again in an attempt to decide what present we each wanted Santa to bring us. In those days we could each pick just one main toy for Christmas, the rest of our presents consisted of oranges and nuts and either a tin of toffees (Bluebird) or, in my case, a (Barratts) liquorice ‘smokers outfit’  ! And the main present .. well I can remember my Dan Dare Radio Station .. and a bright red three wheeled bike (my brother later cut my front brakes, actually they were the only brakes, and sent me flying off our back yard steps. Not a big drop, 4 feet or so, but at the time it seemed like the Grand Canyon ….. I can still here myself screaming on the way down !

Boys Toys

I feel at this point that I have to qualify the phrase ‘old toys and games’ by admitting that I tend not to go in for the Barbies and Sindys of this world. Its not that I don’t like girls toys – I quite like a good dolls house and a well loved teddy bear still makes me smile – its just dolls do nothing for me. Yes I know we boys had Action Man and G.I. Joe and the like but I’m sorry, whether its a doll dressed in girls clothes or a soldiers jungle outfit, its still a doll !

So bring on the Dinky and Corgi Toys, the Meccano and Bayko Building Sets, Hornby and Tri-ang Toys and other much loved names of days gone and lets play !!

Your comments will be welcomed on anything within the site or anything you would like me to consider for inclusion in the future.

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