R and L Premiums

At a weekend toy show recently, I found a whole heap of...well, very odd things. These little plastic characters, between 1 and 1 1/2 inches tall, were cereal premiums (and sometimes Cracker Jack prizes) made in the late 1960s and 1970s by an Australian company called R & L. The tiny toys were found in packages of Kellogg's cereal worldwide, although there were some country exclusives. In the late '70s, the company was sold and the owners moved the plant to Mexico, where production continued in a range of new, brighter colors.

There were many different sets of odd and imaginative characters produced by R & L, often with spacey, alien themes, and each with individual names. Fanatical collectors strive to get them all, sometimes in every color combination possible.

These, the Crater Critters, are some of my favorites. The original cereal box promotion read: "Here are the cutest creatures you have ever collected -- Kellogg's 'Crater Critters." Normally they live way down in the deepest craters on a far off planet. They are shy little people, that's why we hardly ever see them."
Click here to see an original cereal box ad for the Crater Critters. 

My favorite so far is called Gloob; 

I have him (her?) in orange and purple:

Next are the AstroNits: "Round and round they go in lunar orbit, in their rockets and flying saucers, the mad, crazy Kellogg's 'Astro-Nits.' With retro rockets firing they zoom into Earth orbit to land on your breakfast table. So you can recognize them we have stamped a dotty name on every one of them." Some of the AstroNits shown below include Knot-Nit, Clown-Nit, Goof-Nit, and Yak-Nit.

My favorite is Goof-Nit:

Then there are the Funny Fringes: "Way out fun creatures from a make-believe land on the fringe of outer space." They all have names ending in "inge."

Here are some of my favorites:

Spinge and Fringe.

Sniffinge, Puddinge, and Nuttinge.

These are the far-out Toolie Birds: bird figures with tool-shaped beaks:

 

One of my favorite R & L lines comprises the Stretch Pets, funny animals with accordion bodies. These, and one of the Funny Fringes, I actually remember from childhood:

Collecting R & L premiums can be both a lot of fun (finding figures in cases full of unrelated items at shows) and a lot of frustration (trying to get that elusive last Crater Critter to complete your set), but regardless, they bring a smile to my face every time I look at them.

Collector Mike Speth has written a great guide to these toys, "Collecting Crazy Colored Plastic Weird-Things," that appeared in issue #12 of Freakie Magnet, a cereal collector's zine. It can also be read online, and is chock-full of photos and helpful info. The company history, figure identifications, cereal box quotations, and original ad linked above were all found at his site. Go check it out!

itty bitty robots

When I was a kid back in the 1970s, one of my favorite toys was actually one of my smallest and cheapest: a set of tiny, 1 inch tall plastic robots that came from a gumball machine, or possibly from the "cheap toy aisle" at the grocery store, I can't really remember. They were just the right size to carry around, and they went everywhere with me. My two little brothers loved the robots too, and even though we all played with them and toted them about, we still have them today.

Shown twice as large as actual size!

I've always been on the lookout for more of these wonderful little robot guys, but had never seen any until we discovered some at a recent toy show. Oddly, these are red, although they're clearly from the same molds, and they have exactly the same stamping on the bottom ("H.K." for Hong Kong.) The dealer and I were both really excited to find each other, as we'd both been looking for more information on these guys for the last 20 years, but were both disappointed to discover neither of us knew anything about them. 

Does anyone out there recognize these robots???

1950s Space Race Card Game

I found this fantastic 1952 space themed card game, "Space Race," at a toy show last weekend, and was blown away by its graphics. The deck features classic mid-century space exploration illustrations, including sleek rocket ships, clean-cut space men, and outrageous space monsters.

Here are closeups of some of the coolest cards:

Vintage Dexterity Puzzles

I saw literally hundreds and hundreds of vintage dexterity puzzles at a toy show last weekend. Several dealers had entire display cases full of them, and I spent what seemed like hours (oh: my long-suffering toy shopping companion just told me it was hours...) picking through them. In the end, I selected these three.

A fortune teller "Jiggle" puzzle from 1957:

A tiny Cracker Jack prize puzzle just 1 3/4 inches tall, from the late 1960s-early 1970s, made of paper and fragile plastic, with a fantastic character design:

And a wonderful space-themed, dome-shaped puzzle, from the 1950s, with great mid-century space race graphics:

Antique German Dollhouse Dishes and Tables

At a toy show last weekend, I found a wonderful, very tiny set of antique porcelain German dollhouse dishes tucked away in an old candy box, buried in a pile of junque under a dealer's table. Price: just $10.00!

(I cannot even count the number of times I've found fantastic things hidden in delapidated, unrelated boxes...it's always worth taking a look!)

The set, circa the early 1900s, includes a tureen, vegetable dish, gravy boat, cream pitcher, plates, and a serving tray. For a sense of scale, the itty bitty tureen is just 1 1/2 inches long.

At a different dealer's table a few minutes later, I found these German dollhouse tables, circa the 1920s, just 5 inches long and priced at only $5.00 each. They turned out to be the perfect size for the dishes, and my favorite small doll: