Flash Gordon Returning Home

In the Republic serials of the 1930's, Flash Gordon always flew that one specific spaceship designed by Dr. Zarkov.

There were several other spaceship types that appeared in the serials as either Ming's forces or those that opposed him, but the designs were limited based on the budget needed to build props. However, the comic books were a different story. The artists could draw any design they felt like and over the decades there must have been hundreds of designs that appeared in the comic pages. I don't know if Premier Plastics ever based their Flash Gordon spaceships on any of those appearing in the comics when they released their iconic series of toys back in the '50s, but they look right for Flash!

Space Toy Jamboree

While waiting to get our computer back I was going through a bunch of photos on the laptop and thought I'd post some random pics - getting a lot of use out of that space display base made last year. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Intergalactic Used Space Ship Lot

Flash Gordon and Dale Arden Square Off  Against Ming

'30s Era Wyandotte Spaceship and Rapaport Brothers Buck Rogers Figures with Builder's Science Flash Gordon Spaceship

B3 Meets Robbie The Robot

Stick 'em Up!

(Lionel Alien and Kinder Surprise Egg Robot)

Flash Gordon Lands on an Alien World

(Builder's Science Flash Gordon Spaceship and Tootsietoy Flash)

2004 Schylling Flash Gordon Rocket Fighter Ship

I did say that I haven't gotten Flash Gordon out of my system yet :-)  I do enjoy classic toys, even those that are repos of classic toys like this Schylling Flash Gordon Rocket Fighter Ship from 2004. Schylling is known for their line of tin-litho toys, many of which are exact repos while others are based on vintage toys but with amendments in color or details. 

This rocket ship is pretty faithful to the original Marx version in color, size, and details. In addition to the Flash Gordon rocket, Marx made a Buck Rogers Rocket Police Patrol and others as well. The originals had key-wound motors and date from 1939 with a re-release in 1951 although the 1951 version did not have the name Flash Gordon on it nor a number '5' on the wheel nacelles. The Schylling box art is very close to the original 1939 box but with some differences in box design. For example, the lettering is slightly different, the original having a rather avante garde 'R' versus a more standard looking 'R' on the Schylling box. The original box is the typical matte finish, one-piece, light-weight cardboard used by Marx The Schylling box is quite heavy, consists of separate top and bottom pieces, and has a glossy finish. A really neat feature of the Schylling's is the short cartoon story carried out on all four sides of the lower box. The Schylling ship measures 11 3/4" (29.8cm) L x 3 3/4" (9.5cm) wingspan x 4 1/4" (10.8cm) H and features a friction motor with sparkling mechanism. My example has a couple of minor scuff marks and the sparkling mechanism no longer works. In today's market prices vary widely from ca $45 to $150. Enjoy!

TootsieToy 1978 #1793 Flash Gordon and The Evil Ming Playset - Pt1

Well, it seems as if we just can't get Flash Gordon out of our system! This year's Sci-Fi and Fantasy offerings have been dominated by the cartoon hero, although quite by accident. There were 21 weeks in which we covered Premier Plastics Flash Gordon space ships and their knock-offs, but that only happened as a result of me discovering so many variations when I started photographing them. There's a few more toys on the FG bucket list, like an original Marx tin-litho spaceship from the '30s, and a couple of offerings from a company called Nasta but after that we call it quits.

This is a nice offering from TootsieToy and was made back in 1978 and was the kind of set a young'un would probably have seen in the dimestore like Woolworth's or W.T. Grant's. The 9-piece set offers land based and space based adventure and includes three of the series main characters: Flash, Dale Arden, and Ming the Merciless. We're going to cover this in three parts so let's start breaking this thing down. Enjoy!

The Ships

There are two ships included in the set. One belongs to Flash, the other to Ming. They both share the same die-cast upper fuselage casting. The lower fuselage/wing assembly is made of soft plastic and is a different casting for each ship. As to who flies what ship, well that is differentiated by a really cheap sticker on the wings. The green ship has Ming stickers on the wing, while the blue ship has Flash stickers. While the graphics are nice enough, it is kind of a cop-out instead of designing a different upper fuselage.

'Ming' #10394

My example turned out to be a factory defect. The fuselage halves were not mated properly causing an awkward looking gap between the two. In addition the wheels are wonky and don't sit right in the wheel well causing it to lean drunkenly to one side. On this model, the cockpit windows are solidly cast into the fuselage.

Flash Gordon #10395

This example was assembled properly. The upper fuselage casting differs from Ming's ship in that the cockpit windows have been cut out and translucent plastic windows matching the fuselage color inserted.

TootsieToy also offered these spaceships as separate sale, carded toys. I've seen them with white wings and different colored fuselages and with different stickers. I do not know if other figures were ever offered, though I'm betting they weren't (but ya never know).