REMCO Hamilton's Invaders - Pt 2 Ads, Catalogs, and Individual Toys

The entire series consisted of 20 toys as far as I can surmise, but those 20 pieces were packaged in numerous sets - which we'll look at in another post. REMCO had high hopes for this line of toys and it actually came at a good time when bugs and buggy horror movies were the 'in' thing. However, sales fell flat and the line was discontinued after a year and half or so. Some of the toys would re-emerge in 1967 as Star Trek sets. There were probably a couple of reasons which caused the toys not to do well

-First and foremost in my opinion - the name! How in heaven's name can a kid identify with a big nasty bug called 'Hamilton'?? WTF - REALLY? Regardless of what was going on behind the scenes at REMCO, whoever signed-off on using that name was a fool - plain and simple! 

-The next big factor: the powering mechanism's. Most of the toys were powered by a pull-string spring motor: pull the string back, which winds up the spring, release the toy, and watch it careen across the room. Spring mechanism's had been around for many decades before REMCO used them in this line, but unfortunately the gearing was made of cheap plastic which had a tendency to break under usage. Imagine an 8,9, or 10 year old boy - the kid is hyper and stoked about his new toys. He pulls back the string - probably none too gently, because hey, he's a boy! - and lets loose. He does this over and over again and before long the string has probably come loose, the gears have broken, pieces of the toy have broken (like the mandibles on the bugs), and our little menace now has a piece-of-junk toy - and probably all within an hour of unboxing it!

-While no one else has mentioned it, I believe another factor was the size of the Defender figures. At 70mm they were taller than the average Little Green Army Men toys generally in circulation at the time which were 54mm or 60mm. This would have made these larger figures outcasts in Junior's little armies.

Enjoy! Opa Fritz

1965 Sears Catalog Pg 486

(from Internet)

Another Sears ad from unknown year

(from Internet)

Dunham, Carrigan, & Hayden Co Catalog page

(from eBay)

Helmet

(from eBay)

Grenade Pistol

(from Hake's auction 2007)

The Bugs

Hamilton's Invaders Cave

(from my collection)

Horrible Hamilton (the BIG Bug)

(from my collection)

Hamilton's Invader's Beetle

(from my collection)

Hamilton's Invader's Spider

(from my collection)

Hamilton's Invader's Grotesque's

(from my collection)

The Defenders

Hamilton's Invaders Torpedo Tank 

(from my collection)

Hamilton's Invaders #464-1 Dwarf Tank

(from my collection)

Hamilton's Invaders #466-1 Mosquito Jeep
(from my collection)

Hamilton's Invaders Hornet Helicopter
(from my collection)

Hamilton's Invaders Defender Figures

(from my collection)

The 'driver' figure for the tanks and helicopter