Gearbox Toys 2006 Buck Rogers Spaceship (Sunken City of Atlantis 1930)

Today Toys & Stuff features the last of the Gearbox Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon toys put out in 2006. This retro design harkens back to a 1930 strip and and is decked out in some neat colors. The strips were in black-&-white so Gearbox took liberties with the color schemes and came up with some real nice combinations. This space ship is  a nice mint green with blue, red, and black detailing and follows the 'bullet with wings' design ethic of the time period. Enjoy!

Gearbox Toys 2006 Buck Rogers Spaceship (Martians Invade Jupiter 1942)

Me and My Wife Bettina really enjoyed these little Golden Age-style spaceships from Gearbox. At first blush they didn't really do anything for me but when I came to realise they were all designs based on vintage Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon comic strip art they won me over. Then it occurred to me that their small size is probably quite compatible with the old Tootsietoy line of Buck Rogers space ships from the 1930s! Okay, now the hunt is on for those as well!

Today's particular toy is based on the 'Martians Invade Jupiter' story line and is from 1942. During the 13 years which passed from the 'Meeting The Mongols' spaceship design featured last week, we find a spacecraft which is a bit more 'fussy', that is to say more detailed. It has portholes, a multitude of armament - reminding me of what would have been the latest in bomber design for use during WWII - a long dorsal fin, concentric rings wrapping the fuselage, but no wings this time. The basic design is still that of a bullet shell - with bling :-)  Gearbox gave the ship a cheerful red, white, and blue  color scheme and put some wheels on the bottom so kids could roll it along the table or floor and even gave it rotating guns. Overall its a nice addition to any one's fleet of Golden Age of Space Design space ships and I think is our favorite of the Gearbox series. Enjoy It Bettina & Fritz Berg :)

They are Awesome Love Them You Are Good In Taking Picture Deine Gattin Bettina  :)

Gearbox Toys 2006 Buck Rogers Spaceship (Meeting The Mongols 1929)

Changing pace this week from Flash Gordon, here's one of Gearbox Toys Buck Rogers spaceships they had made in 2006. The design is from a 1929 Buck Rogers comic strip and actually reflects a popular spaceship design of the early 1900's, that of essentially a bullet shape with truncated wings (when you look at the drawing and look at the toy it reminds me of those kiddie rides that you put a nickel into and it bucks up and down). The toy itself has a rotating rear ray gun and detailed control panel. It is somewhat selectively compressed and a tad chunky but is faithful to the overall design. What struck me was how the Space Ship was equipped with a rearward facing gun and gunner - exactly the same as the World War I aircraft which preceded this drawing by eleven years. Just a couple of days ago I had watched William A. Wellman's classic silent movie 'Wings' about two World War I fighter pilots. The movie was released in 1927 and I couldn't help but feel how much current technology influences art. In this case of course 'current' meant 1929 but it was an interesting reflection of the times. Enjoy!