Space Helmets: Did you have a helmet as a kid?

I'm gonna break from my usual modus operandi and use mostly photos culled from the Internet for this post. Over the years I've gathered a few pics of space helmets and thought this would make an interesting subject for an entry here on the blog. As a kid I can remember having cowboy hats (a few), an American Civil War Union Kepi, and a plastic Army man helmet (probably made by Marx), but I don't recall any space or pilot type helmets. As an adult I've got a couple of cowboy hats, a couple of Union Kepi's, and my Mexican Dragoon's helmet prop from John Wayne's 'The Alamo' movie. But when it comes to space and sci-fi, my Hamilton's Invaders helmet is the only one in the collection. Let's have some fun and take a quick look at some of the headgear worn by budding astronauts, space farers, and sci-fi heroes back in the day.

Ed

My Hamilton's Invaders Helmet

My Nephew's Helmet Christmas 1967

The following have been culled from facebook and the Internet

Space Helmet from Unknown Maker

Lost in Space

Captain Video

Space Patrol

Among the cheapest of helmets ever offered. A kid could probably make his own using cardboard and crayons

Space Pilot

hahahaha - seriously?

Star Patrol Helmet

Courtesy: Lee Andrew Chapman (fb)

Star Trek

Star Trek didn't use helmets all that much, but I can guarantee Spock never used one like this!!

Tom Corbett Space Cadet

Peter Wassmiller: Rex Mars/Tom Corbett HM Marx Compatible Space Training Center - Pt 3 with Tom Corbett Figures

Here's the handmade Training Center populated with original Marx 45mm Tom Corbett figures to give you an idea of what this thing would look like in a diorama setting. I have the complete set of Marx Tom Corbett figures but haven't yet photographed them In a way I'm kinda not looking forward to it because it's quite a big set. However, if I'm ever going to catalog all these vintage spacemen, then it's gotta get done. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Here's the suggested furniture placement

I obviously did mine differently - just because!

There are over twenty separate poses in the 45mm Tom Corbett line and including them all in this small of a space would look awkward as heck, so these are the ones I chose to include in the photographs.

The ladder was suggested to be placed on the outside of the building, however, Peter included graphics for a hatch just above where this ladder is placed. It seemed more logical to have some way to get up to that hatch.

Peter Wassmiller Rex Mars/Tom Corbett HM Marx Compatible Space Training Center - Pt 1

Here is an absolutely cool-as-heck building I bought seven years ago from a gentleman on fleaBay: Peter Wassmiller. I have previously posted a number of Mr. Wassmiller's creations here on Toys and Stuff like those shown below.

This particular building is his homemade take on the old Marx Tom Corbett/Rex Mars Space Academy. I like his version for several reasons:

-If you already have an original Marx building, this acts as an additional building to any space port type set-up you may want to put together

-It's slightly smaller footprint saves space

-It's design mirrors that of the original so the two look like twin buildings

I bought this seven years ago and just now decided to assemble it! (I take the long view with my projects 😄 ) Were you to try and find one now you won't have any luck. It's been my experience that his creations are extremely limited. Sometimes he'll just do a one-off building, while other times he'll make several. But once they're sold, that's it, you can't buy any more! This building consisted of four pieces of formed-&-painted sheet metal structural pieces that are to be joined together by little clips. All the holes are pre-punched to accept the clips. A sheet of peel-&-stick appliqués is included which has all the decorative trim as well as interior detailing. There are two instruction sheets showing how to assemble the building and where to place the appliqués which you must cut out of the sheet yourself. The artwork is excellent and is most definitely appropriate to the era. In addition to the basic materials needed to assemble the building, he included a full set of original Marx Tom Corbett/Rex Mars plastic accessories! Awesome! Our next installment will show the assembled structure. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

1950 Tom Corbett Space Ranger Tray Puzzle #7320 by Florian - Rockhill Productions

Here's another hi-res Tom Corbett Space Cadet tray puzzle from Rockhill Productions in 1950. Last week Saturday we featured another classic Tom Corbett tray puzzle featuring Tom standing out front with the Space Academy and the Polaris rocket cruiser behind him.. So far I've only noticed three different Tom Corbett scenes on these Rockhill puzzles. The third puzzle, which I don't yet have, depicts several of the gang behind a port hole on their space ship. Unlike the other puzzle featured last week, this one clearly shows the artists' name: 'Florian'. The two puzzles share the same item number '7320' so I'm guessing the third puzzle in the set shares the same number. I love the retro space art these depict and hope you do too! Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Rockhill Productions #7320 Tom Corbett Space Cadet Tray Puzzle 1950

One of my many interests is retro space art, the real stuff that was made back in the day as well as modern era attempts at the retro look. In that vein, here's a terrific tray frame puzzle of Tom Corbett Space Cadet made by Rockhill Productions in 1950 and measuring 10 1/8" (25.71cm) W x 11 1/2" (29.21cm) H. 

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet started as a popular television series starting in October 1950 and eventually appearing on all four networks: CBS, ABC, NBC, and DuMont finally going back to NBC before it's cancellation in 1955. It was one of only six television series to appear on all four major networks (DuMont was a pioneering network but for a variety of reasons stopped production in 1956). Tom Corbett was created by Carey Rockwell who based it partially on Robert Heinlein's Space Cadet as well as his own previously unpublished efforts. It chronicled the adventures of a group of young men training to become members of the Solar Guard with action taking place within our solar system as well as nearby stars.

Eventually the Corbett universe would include radio, books, comic books, comic strips, ViewMaster reels, toys, and even music recordings. This was one television series I was too young to remember and as far as I know, no re-runs of it were ever played in Milwaukee where I grew up. Still, I can look at toys, art, and videos of it now and appreciate it's efforts as a pioneering television Sci-Fi adventure. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Marx Tom Corbett Academy Building

This is a cross-posting from my series 'Pushing Tin' in the 'toy_tin_litho_bldgs' Yahoo Group.  I posted this write-up on September 18, 2010.

"Today we begin by taking you back to the Golden Age of television with the Marx Tom Corbett Space  Academy. The TV series began in 1950 on CBS, then moved to ABC from January 1, 1951 to 1952. After Kelloggs canceled the series, it returned for one season on the DuMont network from August 1953 to May 22, 1954 and its last season was on NBC from December, 1954 to June, 1955 and was sponsored by Kraft. Tom Corbett had the distinction of appearing on all four Golden-Age TV networks. By the series end, the star Frankie Thomas, who had appeared in the 'Nancy Drew' series of mysteries in the late 1930s and was by now 34 years old. The character he played was supposed to be a teenager attending the Space Academy to become a member of the Solar Guard! It was the first television space opera to feature halfway sophisticated plots - a departure from the constant boys-fighting-boys fare of earlier space shows. However, it still had its fair share of boys-fighting-boys with the friction between the characters of Tom Corbett and Roger Manning,  who always seemed to get along when the chips were down.

Marx came out with the first Tom Corbett set in 1952 and was one of their early licensed products based on  a television series. The set came with a walled compound comprised of metallic silver Academy Building, a gate, and nine interlocking fence pieces. The Academy is of course a variation of the shoe box design with a tower added. The gate design was common and used for Fort Apache, Space Sets, Zorro, etc. While the gate graphics would change with each space set incarnation, the graphics for the walls remained the same. At the time there were many fanciful ideas of what life would be like on other planets and so a tin-litho wall of 'ice' was no stretch of the imagination at the time. There was even a notion amongst toy makers that aliens would share their home worlds with dinosaurs - a popular theme! The building came with a clicker and the entire Morse Code, re-purposed as 'Space Code'. The licensed Tom Corbett sets were only made in 1952-53.

In 1953, Marx introduced the Rex Mars series of playsets. 'Rex Mars' was not based on any movie or television show. It was purely the brainchild of Marx, as such they could save money on licensing fees while still taking advantage of one of the biggest themes of the era - Space. The buildings are exactly the same except for color - they were now a bright yellow. The gate graphics were different (sorry - I don't have a gate to scan) but the wall graphics remained the same. Also, the interior graphics remain the same not only for the space sets, but also some Cape Canaveral buildings.

Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane as well as the photos!"