Rack Toys From Space

I'm sure everyone has heard the story about the child who gets a big, fancy toy for Christmas and then spends the entire morning playing with the box it came in. Sometimes the simplest toys evoke the most excitement and playful activity. That's probably true because many simple toys are fairly generic, allowing the child to impose whatever storyline he or she wants and encouraging full use of the child's imagination. That's what I always loved about the much maligned rack toys. You know, the cheap items on metal hooks in that one row of the drug store or convenience store devoted to children. They're colorful enough to get a kid's attention and inexpensive enough that a parent will buy it if the kid whines enough. These are certainly not "wait until Christmas" items, but they can often be more loved and played with than any of the high ticket items at the Toys 'R Us.

While digging through a box of old stuff the other day, I came across three tiny spaceships. I didn't even realize I had saved them, but given how much fun I had with them, I'm not surprised. One was a stubby red ship with a clear plastic top, exposing its engine room. The other two were long, slender ships somewhat akin to jet aircraft. One was blue with silver wings along the back; the other was yellow with silver turbine engines mounted on the rear.

I first laid eyes on these little ships at my friend's house. He told me he got them as a "five-fingered discount" from the local department store. I think the fact that they were obtained through illicit means made them even more appealing to me. He had paint racing stripes on the ships with model paint and added the Roman numeral II to the red ship and the numeral III to the blue one. Although I never asked, my assumption was that he had been playing with the ships as if they were like the rescue ships from Thunderbirds, each bearing a number designation.

Every time I went over to my friend's house, I would dig out these little ships and fly them around the room. Finally, he told me I could have them. I guess he was bored with them and could see that I enjoyed them more than he did. There was no argument from me, and I quickly squirreled them away in my pocket.

Originally, each ship had landing gear, but I thought that detracted from their sleek looks, so I broke off the tiny wheels. The more I looked at them, the more they reminded me of the ships in the old Flash Gordon movie serials. In the old cliffhangers, Dr. Zarkov's ship was short and stubby while Ming the Merciless's ships were long and sleek. Soon, I found myself playing Flash Gordon with these ships.


Of course, in my imagination, it was never as simple as just playing. I had an imaginary television network, and the ships lead me to produce a Flash Gordon summer replacement series during the summer of 1977 (what it was replacing, I have no idea). Every weeknight at 7 p.m., I went into the basement to act out a new episode. Playing the role of Flash and reacting to imaginary characters around me, I made use of whatever was available to perform the story, so a car antenna became my sword, my brother's grease gun became my ray gun, and an old floor-model radio from the 1920s served as the controls of my space ship. When it came to the point in the show where special effects shots of the space ships were needed, I would pick up my tiny plastic craft and zip them around the basement in epic dog fights.

Influenced by the chapter structure of old serials, I planned for the series to end at a specific point, which I believe was around the end of July, if memory serves. I can still recall bouncing around on the day beds in our "club" basement area during the climatic sword fight between Flash and Ming. Just like in the serials, Ming met with some inconclusive fate (fell into a pit or something), thus leaving an opening for Ming to return for future battles with Flash. Unfortunately, the series was never renewed. I guess I lost interest in playing the blonde adventurer.

A few months later, I started a new series called Aurora, and used the blue spaceship as the eponymous interstellar craft. Since most of my TV show ideas were rip offs of other shows or movies that I liked, Aurora was a variation on Star Trek. More specifically, I was influenced by the early Star Trek comic books produced by Gold Key where the gadgets and interior design of The Enterprise were much cruder in appearance than the show itself. My idea for Aurora was to have a ship exploring the galaxy which was of an earlier era when the technology was less advanced and the characters more fallable. It actually bore a striking resemblance to the Enterprise TV show which aired a few years ago.

After acting out a full season of the series in that format, I decided it needed a radical change, so I brought on board an entirely new crew. At this time, I was really digging M*A*S*H, so I based the characters vaguely on the personnel at the 4077th. The captain was a Frank Burns-type and the helmsman was a Hawkeye-type, so they were constantly clashing on how to best resolve that week's crisis. The yeoman was like Radar, the first officer was sort of like B.J. Hunnicutt, and on and on. I enjoyed this mash up (pardon the pun) so much that I wrote a novel based on this idea when I was 14 years old. I still have the hand-written story in a composition book somewhere, but I don't have the nerve to read it.

Like most toys, the little spaceships eventually lost their appeal and they were shuffled from one storage box to another. I had lost track of them until the other day, when they brought back a flood of memories. Pretty amazing what a trio of shoplifted rack toys can do for a kid's imagination.

MY FIRST CUSTOM FIGURE

Hasbro resurrected the 1/6^th scale G.I. Joe in the late 80s with mixed results. During the 90s, Hasbro improved the quality and design of the figures and even started producing replicas of the original G.I. Joe figures and costumes. I watched all this with passing interest, but never felt compelled to buy any of these toys. After all, I was a grown man, working for a major financial firm, with a house and a car and responsibilities. I felt silly buying toys.

My feelings changed in the late 90s when the upstart, retro-toy company Playing Mantis put out a new version of Captain Action. They also put out a new Dr. Evil and reproductions of the Lone Ranger, Tonto, Flash Gordon, and Green Hornet costumes originally offered by Ideal in the 60s. Playing Mantis was so committed to the project, they supplemented the line with new costumes in the form of Flash Gordon’s nemesis Ming the Merciless and Green Hornet’s sidekick Kato. Although not 100% like the originals, close enough to stir happy memories. My then fiancée (now wife) Kathy gave me a repro Captain Action and Dr. Evil for my birthday in 1999. I quickly went out and purchased the other costumed figures. I felt like I had discovered a long lost friend.

At the same time, I discovered a small army of devoted Captain Action fans on the Internet. After 30 years, it was satisfying to find so many people who shared my fascination with this super hero from the past. Also exciting was finding out that some of these fans were actually creating original costumes for Captain Action based on super heroes Ideal never touched. Characters like The Flash and The Green Lantern were just as popular in the 60s as Spiderman or Aquaman, but Ideal never got around to making costumes of these heroes. As I Googled for Captain Action Websites, I was astonished at the quality of these homemade custom action figure outfits. The frustrated artist in me wanted to try my hand at this unusual hobby.

The biggest obstacle for me was the fact that I could neither sew nor fabricate rubber masks, gloves, or boots. Eventually, I would discover craftsmen who sold costumes and accessories for the Captain, but at this point I was trying to work with what I had available. I needed to pick a project that suited my limited resources and abilities. I thought about the various costumes that I would’ve liked to have had for Captain Action when I was a kid, and one character leaped to the front of my brain: Flash Gordon.

Now, I know, Ideal made a Flash Gordon costume and Playing Mantis put out a reproduction version 30 years later. However, this Flash Gordon was based on how Flash Gordon appeared in the comic strips in the 1960s; that is, in an astronaut suit similar to those worn by the Gemini astronauts of the day. I think Ideal probably saw this version as a two-for-one: it would attract the Flash Gordon fans and also provide an alternative to G.I. Joe’s Astronaut suit. That’s fine, but the Flash Gordon I knew and loved was seen in the old movie serials starring Buster Crabbe. The look of those serials was based on the Alex Raymond artwork of the 30s, which was more Prince Valiant than Buzz Aldrin. When Playing Mantis put out their Ming the Merciless figure alongside the repro Flash, the difference was glaring. All this is to say that I wanted a Flash Gordon costume that looked like the old Flash Gordon.

The major hurtle, the mask, was already taken care of since Playing Mantis Flash Gordon figures were plentiful. I decided to model the costume after Buster Crabbe’s outfit in Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars and the version in the Flash Gordon cartoon from 1979. This meant a red shirt with a wide black collar studded with gold rivets. He also wore blue pants with a yellow stripe up the side, and knee high black boots. The belt would be the most complicated part as it was a white cummerbund with a thinner black band around the middle. Not too bad for a beginning project.

For the shirt, I found a white turtleneck and dyed it red. The black collar was made from black felt, cut into a circle with an inner circle cut out of the center for the figure’s neck. I also slit it down the back and attached Velcro strips so the collar could be taken on and off easily. Originally, I was going to sew gold beads onto the collar to simulate rivets, but I couldn’t find any beads that I liked. As an alternative, I found a thick, metallic gold paint at the crafts store that you could dab on fabric and create neat little round blobs of gold. You had to be careful, but it was a quick and effective solution to my problem. I also made some black cuffs with the black felt to complete the authenticity of the shirt.

Navy blue pants were easy enough since I took them off a G.I. Joe figure that was on the market at the time. I attempted to attach strips of yellow felt on the sides of the pants, but I thought that they would not create the proper effect, so I abandoned the stripes and left the pants as they were. The knee high boots were taken from a 12” Stars Wars action figure.

The belt required me to purchase some scrap fabric from the local Jo-Ann’s Fabric Store. I cut some off-white fabric to size, allowing extra at the top and bottom so I could fold the edges over and glue them down on the back with fabric glue. I then cut a thinner strip of black felt and glued it across the center of my off-white fabric. For the buckle, I stuck a brass thumb tack in the center and secured it by bending the pin part to one side on the back of the belt. Velcro fasteners on either end allowed the belt to be secured on the figure from the back.

To create the finishing touch, I outfitted him with a sword I swiped from my Marx Toys Silver Knight action figure. I have a picture of the finished custom next to the Playing Mantis Ming the Merciless. I dare say they look more appropriate together than the original Ideal design.

I admit this was a fairly simple project, but it proved to me that I could make custom costumes for action figures. This project started a hobby that has stuck with me for years since.