Collecting:Toys, Robots, Rayguns, Rockets, Tin plate, Plastic,
Japanese, Guitars, Trade marks.
8th February 2003. Dead
pages fixed - please report any faults.
4th December 1999. What's
new? Click Here!
The purpose of this site is to
showcase my collections of toys and guitars.
I am a collector, not a
dealer. This is a non-commercial site and none of the items are for sale.
I
am always trawling boot and toy fairs for new items which will be posted as
frequently as I can manage. Check back regularly for updates and do mail me for
chat, info or linking.
Robot - any
automated machine programmed to perform specific mechanical functions in the
manner of a human. From robota, Czech for statute labour. The
term ROBOT was coined in 1921 by the Czech playwright Karel Capek in his
play R.U.R. Since then the science fiction arts, particularly movies and TV,
have presented us with a panorama of robot images. Metropolis, Forbidden Planet,
The Day The Earth Stood Still, Fireball XL5, Doctor Who, Lost In Space, Silent
Running, Star Wars....
Japanese
toy manufacturers captured the imagination of children all over the world by
producing a vast range of tin, and latterly plastic, renditions of robots.
Fuelled by the enthusiasm of the space race of the 50's and 60's, other space
toys emerged. Rockets, rayguns, space stations, vehicles - all manner of wierd
and wonderful objects. Japanese toy manufacture went into decline with the
advent of the microchip. The baton was passed on to emerging Asian manufacturing
areas such as Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. Inevitably, with costs of tin rising
relative to the cheapness of plastics, profit margins gained the upper hand and
by the 70's the day of the lithographed tin robot was over.
Those
of us in our 30's and 40's (so-called "Baby Boomers") are left with
Technicolour images of our childhood, a Supermarionated memory of halcyon days.
This site is dedicated to those memories. I hope you enjoy these fragments of
our past and by sharing them with you, rekindle the phantasmagorical perceptions
of childhood.
