The backstory for Space 1999 revolves around man’s colonization of the moon. Alpha was a pseudo military complex with a commander, and officers of various ranks, but it’s main purpose was to act as a floating lab for doctors and scientists exploring the universe.  Not a bad little premise but it lacked adventure.  So Anderson decided to maroon his space travelers permanently.  He toyed with the idea of blowing up the Earth but felt that American audiences would be too squeamish over such an idea.  He settled for blowing up a chunk of the moon.

In the pilot episode titled “Breakaway”, a nuclear fuel dump on the dark side of the moon is ignited by accident.  The resulting explosion throws the moon out of its orbit and sends it hurtling through space.  There is no time to escape, no way to stop it.  The people of Moonbase Alpha are caught on a veritable runaway train.

On board for the ride was the husband and wife team of Martin Landau and Barbara Bain (chosen to help sell the series in the United States.)  Landau played Commander John Koenig.  Barbara Bain played Dr. Helena Russell, chief medical officer and love interest for Koenig. Barry Morse rounded out the major cast as the genius scientist Victor Bergman.

The first season of Space 1999 was very harsh and sterile looking.  The plots were complicated, (often too) and the dialogue was serious.

When Anderson pumped up for the second season it was a whole new ball game.  The show was suddenly full of color, full of action and Victor Bergman was gone.  In his place was a brash young security chief Tony Verdeschi played by Tony Anholt.

The opening episode of the season also introduced us to the character that would take over the series, Maya The Metamorph played by the mesmerizing Catherine Shell.  Maya was an alien capable of taking on the form of any other living creature.  This bit of magic gave the show a chance to use dozens of far out monster costumes pushing the series toward a more childish fantasy feel.  Many fans mourned the loss of the serious adult Sci-Fi show that had aired during the first year. but a whole new crop of fans began tuning in to see the romance blossoming between Alpha’s dashing security officer and the resident alien.

Collecting Space 1999

Space 1999 collectibles are very popular, but not extremely high priced. Most items sell for under a hundred dollars and are still easily accessible.  Since the show was made in England there are additional toys and books that were made for sale only in Europe that have since found their way here.  Expect to pay more for English trademarked items.

Probably the most sought after toys in the line are recreations of the Eagle spaceships that were used in the series.  The best of these is a very accurate metal diecast by Dinky.  Mattel released a 2 1/2 foot plastic ship that was made to hold their action figures.  You can buy these in box in the $100 to $200 range depending on the specific model. You can find some on Amazon and of course on eBay.

Action figures of Koenig, Russell and Bergman in the eight inch style that was very popular in the seventies.  These figures are very accurate in their likenesses and are a great find if you can get them still in package. Mattel also designed a vinyl Moon Base Alpha control room and launch monitor center reminiscent of the old Barbie playhouses. Figures Toy Company is currently making a new line of Space 1999 figures including Tony, Alan and many of the villains on the show.  You can buy these through FabGear, which is the best place to buy all of the new Space 1999 collectibles.

If dolls aren’t your thing, Remco released a Space 1999 Utility Belt complete with a fantastic replica of the series’ stun gun.  AMSCO created the Adventure Playset, a great big box full of die-cut cardboard. With a sharp knife and a lot of patience you could put together this lame looking version of Alpha and surrounding moon surface.

On the easy to find list, look for the board game by Milton Bradley in it’s oversized box, boxed puzzles by HC Toys, bubble gum cards by Donruss and the lunch box by King Seeley Thermos.

Still popular today are a full line of Space 1999 model kits. If you prefer to scratch build or customize your models, you must visit Starship Modeler for detailed photographs and tips.

For a closer look at the whole line of toys and collectibles visit the Space 1999: Memorabilia site.

Space 1999 has been available on DVD for awhile, but A&E recently released the first season on HD and it’s terrific. There are some excellent special features including a closer look at the actual models made for the show.

You can read my full review of the DVD on my TV website: TV of the Absurd.

Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files from Syfy – March 2011

This box had a rubber stamp inside with the instructions “Tell Your Co-Workers Where to File It.” The choices are Fact, Faked, WTF, Call FBI, Run Away or Watch Syfy.

I only wish I had a bunch of papers I could stamp! Very cool swag.

One of the best designs I’ve ever seen was the Ben Cooper Bewitched costume.  The black outfit was decorated with gold stars and a golden cartoon image of Samantha.  The mask was made with the blond flip hair-do with a witches hat perched on top.  The bizzarest award goes to the Mr. Ed costume from Ben Cooper.  The horse-face mask is highly detailed with a hinged mouth for that talking animal effect.  The suit was also unusual in that it had long sleeves.  The outfit was done in brown with a cute graphic of Mr. Ed and the words Yak Yak Yak on the front.

Other nice suits from the era include the Banana Splits with their cute and highly detailed masks, The Rat Patrol with Troy’s Aussie hat sculpted in plastic and the Man From UNCLE costumes if you and your brother wanted to match.  Two very collectible suits are the strange pair from The Land of the Giants.  The Giant Witch and Giant Scientist both bear the logo from the series, along with a graphic of tiny humans climbing up your body.  It would have seemed wiser to reproduce the flight suit used in the series but that’s why I’m not a toy designer.

In the seventies, little girls could be the Bionic Woman in a red suit with a cartoon of Jamie Summers bending metal with her bare hands.  You could be Farrah in a pink, dress style suit and a plastic mask made to resemble Farrah’s famous hair cut.  The Charlie’s Angels costume had the Angels logo on the top and a silhouette of a city at the bottom.  Though sold under the logo name, the haircut on the mask was distinctly Kate Jackson.

For boys there was the CHIPS costume that showed the motorcycle cops coming straight at you from behind their CHIPS shield.  The face mask resembled a helmet and goggles but the expression cut into the mask is enough to scare any speeder into giving up on the spot.  Want to be a teen idol?  Go for the Donny Osmond costume by Collegeville, or worse yet, the Jimmy Osmond costume.

If you weren’t sure if you were a boy or a girl, try the suit that bears the words, One Of The Brady Bunch. This red suit was covered with bubbles and a funky psychedelic photo of the Brady kids.  The mask was just a plain red eye mask, ala the Lone Ranger.  If you wanted to be Marsha or Greg this suit worked for you.

If you decide to collect TV Halloween Costumes, keep a few things in mind.  Tears in the seams can be repaired but they do reduce the value of the costume.  Tears in the material are hard to repair and you should pass them up unless it’s a true bargain.  The same goes for cracked masks.  While the boxes are no real gems of packaging, expect them to be in good condition.  Usually you will find the front viewing plastic torn or missing.  This is because you could never put the costume back as neatly as you got it.  Costumes show very nicely when hung on the wall.  We put ours inside a large Dax frame, then hang the mask above it on a peg.  Try not to use straight pins when securing your costume, as pins rust and leave holes.

The real incongruity of all these great costumes is that they weren’t really made to make you look like the character as much as they were great advertising.  Almost all the suits bear the name of the TV show somewhere on the outfit and many used pictures of the character in the design.  Now, have you ever seen Charles’ Angel’s wearing shirts with their own likeness on them?  As far as the networks were concerned, these costumes made great once a year commercials.

Thomas Hezekiah Mix was born in 1880 in Cameron County, a rural section of Pennsylvania.  His early bios would tell you that he was from Oklahoma or Texas and that he was part Indian, but Tom wasn’t born a Western boy at all.  He began his adult life by enlisting in the Army but he never saw any action and soon deserted.  Again, his history was often exaggerated, placing him with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders and placing him in the center of half a dozen different wars.  Rumors that he was a Texas Ranger likely came from his short stay as a town Marshall and deputy sheriff.

Tom’s movie days began when he was riding with various Wild West Show’s in the early 1900′s.  One of the local ranches provided cowboys and Indians for the silent movies and in 1910 Tom was hired to work on his first of more than 300 films.  Soon Mix was writing and directing and by the 1920′s he was the king of the cowboy stars with the help of his super smart horse Tony (yes, Tony)  Mix’s flamboyant lifestyle and thirst for action made him the talk of people in Hollywood and all over the US.  He married seven times, made millions in the movies, then lost it all in the Great Stock Market Crash.   With the birth of talking movies, Tom’s fame began to fade.  He left the big screen and went to work with a traveling circus.  It was during one of his stops that he met with an advertising representative working on behalf of Ralston Purina. He signed up Mix with a contract (so the legend says) written on the back of an envelope.  The contract gave Ralston permission to use Tom’s name and likeness for Sunday comics, advertisements and premiums related to a new radio series.  For this Mix would be paid three payments of 5,000 dollars spread over five years.  After that, Ralston would own the rights to Tom Mix forever.  The money turned out to be enough for a lifetime since Mix was killed in a freak car accident just months after the last payment was made.

Before the radio show took over the airwaves, Ralston had a test run, announcing Tom Mix’s Straight Shooter Club in the Sunday comics.  The feed company was overwhelmed when more than 25,000 requests showed up.  They knew they had a hit.  Tom Mix premiered on the radio in 1933 with Artells Dickson playing Tom.  Over the next 17 years, various people would play Tom with the longest run going to Curley Bradley who had played Pecos Williams earlier in the shows run.  The fifteen minute serial ran five times a week on NBC radio and kids and adults alike tuned in each week to hear the exciting chronicles of this western hero.

Like many serials of the day, Ralston offered premiums that fit into the plot of the show.  One of the coolest is the Tom Mix Telegraph Set.  Tom used his special telegraph to contact his Straight Shooters when the bad guys laid down on the railroad tracks in order to derail the train.  (kids, don’t try this at home)  For ten cents and a Hot Ralston pouring spout you could have your very own telegraph set, but not quite like Tom’s.  The blue box with a telegraph key didn’t actually work.  Many kids were disappointed so they didn’t order the new improved red battery powered telegraph offered more than a year later.  The red set could be connected to a second box, allowing the child to actually send signals.  60,000 were given away but very few remain.

If you wanted to be a Straight Shooter you could get The Life of Tom Mix and Secret Manual from Ralston.  For those into jewelry, you could buy a “24-karat gold plated” ring with your own initial or Tom’s engraved on the front. There were more than a dozen styles of rings offered, including the Magic Tiger Eye, the Siren Ring and the slide whistle ring.  To be totally dressed there was the cowboy belt for twenty cents, a Ralston bandanna, a baseball cap and chaps.   No good cowboy would be caught dead without his spurs so you could be a Glow-in-the-dark pair or ones with leather straps.  Either will run you several hundred dollars today.

For those secret cave expeditions, get the Glow-in-the-dark plastic compass and magnifying glass or gun and the tiny glowing arrowhead whistle to call for help. Even better in the dark was the Tom Mix Bullet Flashlight with Mix’s brand right on the sleeve of the bullet.  For those undercover moments, there were two versions of the Mix Make-up Kit.  The kits include false beard and mustache, fake cardboard teeth and tins of make-up say Ralston Straight Shooters.  A complete kit will run you around 300 dollars.

In one episode Tom bluffed his way out of trouble with a wooden gun.  This premium had a revolving cylinder and Tom Mix markings on the grips.  Later the item was reproduced with no working parts but all three versions bring in more than 200 dollars.

Incredibly, many toys and premiums have survived these seventy years.  Perhaps it was because many were made of indestructible metal, unlike the crop of plastic toys made in the ’50s and ’60s.  But perhaps these items survived because of what they represented.  Tom Mix was a hero to children, a larger-than-life figure that they all dreamed about while drifting off to sleep.  I’ll bet that these rings, and medals, and whistles were loved and cherished and stored in a treasure box with a child’s new penny and favorite marble.  I think Tom Mix premiums have survived for the same reason Tom’s memory has survived, because they’re just too cool to loose.  For Tom Mix and his horse Tony, round-up time has yet to come.

Remco, the sixties manufacturer of all those cool TV toys, moved into the craft market with “Remcraft”, Creative Materials for Young People.  Capitalizing on the success of their other Giants toys, Remco designed a great box for a silly product.  The face of the box is a small rectangle with an extension at the top of the box.  The extension features the Land of the Giants logo and a photo of a happy boy with his newly built toy.  The box itself features two very nice photos from the series and a close up of the finished model.  (At least they didn’t try to hide what they were selling) The ad copy on the box says, “Build the authentic space ship as seen on TV.  Toothpicks, full color details, easy to follow instructions.”

Inside the box you find, as mentioned, a box of wooden toothpicks and several cardboard shapes cut from Spindrift orange.  There is also a top fin for the ship done in blue with the giants logo at the tip.  The “easy” instructions can only be followed by a 10 year old with a degree in engineering.  “Tape the two parts of (6) together at center points (underside).  Then insert piece (6) through the bottom slot in center frame (9).  Insert piece (1) into the top slot in center frame (9).”  The space shuttle went together with less effort.

The mere fact that this toy is so dumb is what makes it so very cool.  Give this one four rabbit ears for nonsensical fun.  After all, any toy that proclaims; “AS SEEN ON TV”, has to be a winner.

Advertisements for televisions!

My favorite ad was for a “new slim portable-table TV” by Zenith.  The sketch (no photos here) shows the TV fitting on top of a mantel because it’s so slim! Or on a table because it’s so small.  It even shows a woman carrying the TV because it’s so portable!  But that’s not all.  Buy back then and you could receive, “for the first time ever.  Space Command remote TV control”.  Can you imagine being able to turn your TV on and off without getting out of your chair?  (I think this invention caused the national weight average to double)  The gizmo was the size of a cigarette box (not a coincidence if you ask me) and it had 3 buttons.  Hey, there were less than 6 channels at the time so how many buttons did you need. (My current remote has 25)

TV ads come in color glossy from magazines and newsprint ads from the paper.  Age adds to the price but stars really make the difference.  Many TV companies used their stars to advertise their latest models.  These advertisements look great framed.

In 1951, Magnavox hired the cast of the movie That’s My Boy for their ad.  It includes Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and Polly Bergan, all hanging out with a “Big-screen” 13 inch television in a lovely Colonial cabinet.  In the same year, General Electric was advertising “See it Big As Life” with their new 17 inch TV with the rectangular tube. (Is that better than a round tube?)

Throughout the 50′s and 60′s, TV manufacturers were pushing the advanced technology that today seems on par with an etch a sketch.  In 1965, RCA was hawking true-to-life color with an ad that showed Jack Benny and Johnny Carson with no TV in the ad at all.

Combining TV ads with the space age always seemed like a good tactic.  RCA used it when they ran a full page ad in Life magazine showing a family watching Star Trek on television.  A truly fun ad has the Bonanza cast in black and white behind a TV showing the same scene only in color.  RCA wanted to prove that color was exciting, but they should have picked a show that wasn’t done in all green and brown.  A similar technique was used with a Joey Bishop ad, but at least Joey was wearing a red sweater.  And speaking of red, comedian Red Skelton was a popular TV hawker appearing in numerous ads as was Dinah Shore.

Imagine the days of radio, hours and hours of listening to Dick Tracy, Jack Benny and The Shadow.  Now imagine the day when you could see your favorite radio stars right in your very own living room.  In the 1940′s NBC released a series of ads proclaiming that very thing; “Imagine Fibber McGee and Molly on Television!”.  The ads show a sketched family watching a brand new television with a scene from an NBC show.  Imagine the days when a magazine ad was needed to get you to buy a television….it wasn’t that long ago.

If you decide to collect TV ads, don’t pass up those ads that feature the TV instead of an actor.  It’s great fun to see TV’s go from big bulky pieces of furniture, to portable, to space-aged in the 50′s and funky in the 60′s.  The evolution of the television is easily documented with these ads, showing that Televisions aren’t just appliances, they’re art.  And face it, paper advertising is a lot easier to store than the actual TV’s.

RESOURCES:

Adclassix – hundreds of ads to buy, or just browse through for fun.

Vintage TV Sets - no bells and whistles at this site, just a long list of great, vintage ads.

AtticPaper – features a terrific Star Trek television ad and many more.

If you’d rather collect the real thing, here are a number of books on the subject of Vintage Televisions.

Someone in SoCal is selling their Six Million Dollar man action figure, along with Jaime and Oscar and it’s even autographed by Richard Anderson all for $260.

Pretty cool.

Amidst a struggling economy, the business of auction hunting has emerged as a thriving trade for many Americans. “Auction Hunters” follows two of the best prospectors in the business, Clinton “Ton” Jones and Allen Haff, in their quest to win auctions, acquire abandoned treasure and sell it for a profit. The series offers viewers a rare look into the high stakes, financial risks and potential rewards where the right purchase can bring in serious cash.

Allowed only a brief glimpse inside the units before each fast-paced auction begins, skill and strategy are paramount as our hunters have only seconds to estimate the value of the unit and determine how high they’re willing to bid to beat out the competition. Once an auction is won, the story and true monetary worth of the unit emerges as Haff, a second generation antiques dealer and Jones, a gun, knife, sword and military paraphernalia expert, begin “the dig,” a process by which they literally dig into the contents of the unit and assess every single item within. Sometimes, they find nothing but at other times, they score big, bringing home a trove of items for which prospective buyers around the country will pay top dollar.

“Auction Hunters” also follows our prospectors during “the sell” as they consult experts, establish value and ultimately scour the antique and collectible markets in search of buyers. The show will focus mainly on items with great historical and cultural significance such as America’s first black powder revolver and a depression era slot machine.

“Auction Hunters” is an eight half-hour episode series produced by Gurney Productions, owned by Scott and Deirdre Gurney. Credits include Animal Planet’s “I’m Alive” and Discovery Channel’s “I Was Bitten.” Sharon Levy is Spike TV’s executive vice president, original series and animation, Tim Duffy is vice president of original programming for Spike TV and Joe Weinstock is director, original programming.

Obviously, they’re going for a retro, worn kind of look. And it’s nice to see they have a sense of humor about them.

Chicks really do dig the uniform!

The t-shirts should hit stores in September.

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