"WAY OUT IN SPACE TOGETHER..."

Steve and Zoonie - but how did they fit in the box? (I know.)



Here's a nice little Christmas present for you - a picture of toy company GOLDEN GATE's STEVE ZODIAC & ZOONIE THE LAZOON on a FIREBALL XL5 JETMOBILE. The copyright date on the box is 1962, so it must have been released to toyshops no later than 1963, as it wasn't unusual for a toy to carry a copyright date of the year before it came out. (Another example is MATTEL's MAJOR MATT MASON - it came out in 1967, but bears the date 1966.) Of course, it may well have come out in 1962 just like the box says.

I didn't actually didn't get my hands on this friction-drive toy until 1968, in the Scottish town of Millport (just across the water from Largs) on the Isle of Cumbrae, so it was old stock when I purchased it. Good as it was, I'd have loved to get one of Steve and ROBERT THE ROBOT on a jetmobile, but - alas - such a toy never existed.

Gordie, Steve, Zoonie & Paul.

Here's me as a 9 year old somewhere in Largs, with my original jetmobile on my lap. (Taken a day or two after purchase, if memory serves.) In my hand is a bendy Captain Scarlet figure that I bought at around the same time (a day or two either way). You'll need good eyesight, but you can just about make them out.