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!

Haji V-3 Rocket

Today's vintage toy is this neat little friction-motored V-3 rocket from Haji of Japan which probably dates from the mid-to-late '50s. It's well known that after WWII America had confiscated German V-2 rockets which were reverse engineered and used for the rocket testing program here and I wonder if Haji tried to jump on that bandwagon by offering a V-3 as a supposed next stage in the development. Of course that's just wild speculation but toy companies have done stranger things. The color scheme is quite muted, and frankly a little depressing, with its overall dark blue fuselage with a hint of white (since aged to a mellow cream color) and red. The rocket measures 5 3/4" (14.6cm) L x 3 3/8" (8.6cm) wingspan x 2 1/4" (5.7cm) H. Enjoy!