Well folks, it looks like imma gonna start a new series! Hot on the heels of the Lido Spaceship series we're going to look at their spacemen and aliens, THEN we're going to segue into other makers. I've been gathering spacemen and alien figures for years now in an on-again-off-again fashion as whim and funds dictate, however, it's been four years since my last concerted posting efforts and I got a bug up my keester to do some more! 😀
Lido apparently made four separate series of figures:
-90mm "Futuremen" hard plastic figures sold in boxed in sets starting in 1953
-50mm hard plastic alien and spaceman figures made for T. Cohn's Captain Video Spaceport playset 1952
-35mm soft plastic alien and spaceman figures made as cereal premiums for a variety of cereals mid-'50s to '60s
-"Ringheaded" Spacemen
In addition, they either provided the molds or made figures available specifically to be used as cake toppers or decorations.
It should be noted that I do not have examples of all the figures Lido made, but I can present about 98% of them. If I acquire more, then those can be posted later.
The 90mm "Futuremen" series came out about 1953 and were offered - from what I can gather - primarily in boxed sets. There were four figures:
-Tobor the Robot (as stated in BLAST OFF! Rockets, Robots, Ray Guns, and Rarities from The Golden Age of Space Toys! by S. Mark Young, Steve Duin, and Mike Richardson). Tobor first appeared in a 1953 episode of Captain Video and His Space Rangers titled "I, Tobor" written by Isaac Asimov. (The robot was played by 7'6" Dave Ballard. BTW, in 1954 a full production movie titled Tobor The Great was released by Republic).
-Captain Video
-2 additional spacemen
The three spacemen came with 'square' helmets - aka, the base of the helmet was square while the top was a dome. Helmets made by toy companies of this era often times shrink. If they were stored off of the figure they would often times become too tight to be worn by the spaceman. If the helmet was kept on, it actually molded itself around the figures head and cannot be pulled off without cutting!
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