17 replies to this topic

[roboteriii]

Hello, recently ended auction. I looked as close as I could but do not in any way see a space theme. Much to the contrary of the
title and description. Maybe the lake in the picture is on some far away planet.
Nothing against the seller, just seems like a way to get people to notice.
Any thoughts?
roboteriii,,,


USAGIYA tin friction boat JET PATROL space speed race with BOX

[funkrobotik]

Sometimes it only needs the word ''JET '' to give it a space theme for some sellers.

Nice boat though !

[Brian..]

Yes, a common trick but it rarely works.

[steve]

Which brings to mind another age old question in this hobby -is an astronaut a robot!!

[AtomicRobot]

It's a very Earthbound toy.
I don't know about the seller, or his description, but the toy itself is based on real jetboat.
(the "jet" being a jet of water being propelled out the back of the boat.)
Jetboats were first invented (successfuly)by Sir William Hamilton in 1954, in New Zealand.
The were used in the fast moving and shallow rivers, as a standard prop driven craft would loose it's prop bottoming out in the shallows.
Within of year of its introduction, they were used as patrol boats worldwide.
They were used extensively in Viet Nam as our PBR's ( Patrol Boat-River).
I'think the manufacturers were capitalizing on the newfound technology, and gave it a sleek racing type paint job.
If you look at the litho on the toy, you'l see that the pilots are humans in uniform.
If anything, it looks more James Bond-ish than spacey.

[roboteriii]

I agree with everyone's comments concerning the so called "space" toy.
Here is one of my own toys from my website. I picked it up a while back.
This was also listed as a "space" boat. For some reason, the jets on the back of the boat
do look a little bit spacey to me. These jets are on a couple of other toys also if
I remember correctly.
roboteriii,,,,

[AtomicRobot]

Awesome little boat roboteriii !
What year was this released ?
If it were in the mid to late 60's, it may have been inspired by the Doris Day movie " Glass Bottom Boat."
This particular boat was a top secret computerized spy boat that was rocket powered.
Here is a pic of the boat from the movie.

There were a slew of futuristic sea going vessels around that time.
Sting Ray, the Seaview, all manner of spy shows with boats, etc.
A lot of the old Republic movie serials featured vehicles of all types that were rocket powered.
Personaly, I love the futuristic stuff used in films and toys.

[kennetzel]

My answer to Steve...I never considered an astronaut toy a robot. It's a man in a suit...even those with attacking martian bodies...you slap a human face on it it becomes a space man, so I don't have any of those in my collection, except a robocop figure. GIve me a real robot, no guys in suits.