In 1975, British toy company Palitoy released a range of 8-inch action figures based on the new Gerry Anderson TV series Space: 1999.
Unlike previous Palitoy action figure lines, these were not licensed from America but were newly originated toys that Palitoy produced under agreement with Gerry Anderson’s UK production company.
There were five figures in this Space: 1999 range: Captain Koenig, Paul Morrow, Alan Carter, Captain Zantor (from the episode ‘Earthbound’), and ‘Mysterious Alien’ (from the episode ‘War Games’).
The figures were blister packed onto large card backing boards with the series logo and eye-catching artwork front and back, and initially retailed for £2.25 each.
At the same time, the US toy company, Mattel, also acquired a licence for Space: 1999 figures, and released their own set of four figures in America and Germany in 1975 (but not in the UK, as Palitoy’s licence prevented them from doing so).
Mattel’s range of characters were Commander Koenig, Professor Bergman, Doctor Russell, and a weird alien called ‘Zython’ (whose head glowed in the dark, and who was a complete invention of Mattel, having never appeared in the series at all).
This Mattel range was accompanied by a ‘Moon Base Alpha Control Room’ playset.
Related Posts
WWF Action Figures Action figures had many faces in the early 80s - the blonde brawn of He-Man, the buzz-cut ruggedness of G.I.…
Action Jackson The Mego company got its start as an importer of toys and household novelties but in the early 1970s, they…
Intellivision It was an Atari world back in the late 70s and early 80s, but Mattel’s Intellivison staged a pretty good coup.…
Arcade Games Early 1950s fore-runners of arcade games included photo booths which became a national craze and shuffle games which moved beyond…
Six Million Dollar Man Action Figure If there was ever a television series that demanded a toy line for its merchandise, it was The Six Million…
G.I. Joe The G.I. Joe story began in 1963 when a marketing man approached the Hasbro toy company with the idea of…
Planet of the Apes figures Few science-fiction concepts were as durable as the one that fueled Planet of the Apes. The success of the first…
Tank Into a world of Pong clones rolled a pair of tanks, firing artillery shells that rocked the arcade game world.…
There were five figures in this Space: 1999 range: Captain Koenig, Paul Morrow, Alan Carter, Captain Zantor (from the episode ‘Earthbound’), and ‘Mysterious Alien’ (from the episode ‘War Games’).
