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Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Lido Spacemen: 90mm Futureman No. 1 - Blue HP without Helmet

The previous Lido 90mm figure was identified as Captain Video himself, however, there were two other spacemen with no names given to them. I simply call them No. 1 and No. 2 - unless anyone out there has or knows of a better name! This guy was photographed without a helmet on even though I could've snatched one from another figure and plopped it on his head. Enjoy! Opa Fritz












Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Lido Spacemen: 90mm Futuremen Captain Video - Silver HP Without Helmet

This was one of my first purchases of large plastic spacemen, before I became fully aware of Lido's output, and it took me a while to realize this was their Captain Video figure. He's bit worse for wear but I like him. Enjoy! Opa Fritz












Monday, April 22, 2024

Lido Spacemen: 90mm Futuremen Captain Video - Green HP with and Without Helmet

Captain Video and His Video Rangers aired on the DuMont Network from 1949-1955 and was a live broadcast. There are few surviving episodes and those that do survive are kinescope versions - essentially using a camera to record the show directly from a television screen. Lido produced these large 90mm (3 1/2")  figures staring in 1953 and are an early form of licensed tie-ins. This line only had four figures: Captain Video, Tobor the Robot, and two spacemen. The helmets used in my photo shoots are modern day repos unless otherwise noted, as early helmets tended to shrink. I've included two sets of photo essays here: one with and without the helmet. Enjoy! Opa Fritz



























Sunday, April 21, 2024

Lido Spacemen and A New Series

Well folks, it looks like imma gonna start a new series! Hot on the heels of the Lido Spaceship series we're going to look at their spacemen and aliens, THEN we're going to segue into other makers. I've been gathering spacemen and alien figures for years now in an on-again-off-again fashion as whim and funds dictate, however, it's been four years since my last concerted posting efforts and I got a bug up my keester to do some more! 😀

Lido apparently made four separate series of figures:

-90mm "Futuremen" hard plastic figures sold in boxed in sets starting in 1953

-50mm hard plastic alien and spaceman figures made for T. Cohn's Captain Video Spaceport playset 1952

-35mm soft plastic alien and spaceman figures made as cereal premiums for a variety of cereals mid-'50s to '60s

-"Ringheaded" Spacemen

In addition, they either provided the molds or made figures available specifically to be used as cake toppers or decorations.

It should be noted that I do not have examples of all the figures Lido made, but I can present about 98% of them. If I acquire more, then those can be posted later.

The 90mm "Futuremen" series came out about 1953 and were offered - from what I can gather - primarily in boxed sets. There were four figures:

-Tobor the Robot (as stated in BLAST OFF! Rockets, Robots, Ray Guns, and Rarities from The Golden Age of Space Toys! by S. Mark Young, Steve Duin, and Mike Richardson). Tobor first appeared in a 1953 episode of Captain Video and His Space Rangers titled "I, Tobor" written by Isaac Asimov. (The robot was played by 7'6" Dave Ballard. BTW, in 1954 a full production movie titled Tobor The Great was released by Republic).

-Captain Video

-2 additional spacemen

The three spacemen came with 'square' helmets - aka, the base of the helmet was square while the top was a dome. Helmets made by toy companies of this era often times shrink. If they were stored off of the figure they would often times become too tight to be worn by the spaceman. If the helmet was kept on, it actually molded itself around the figures head and cannot be pulled off without cutting!

Courtesy Toy Soldier HQ
Note: The robot is incorrectly attributed as 'Grag" - Tobor was the name of the robot as it appeared in the Captain Video episodes.

We'll start with the individual photo essays in our next post. Enjoy! Opa Fritz