In the 1950’s the horrors of war were beginning to fade and rationing was easing. People looked to a new future and the technological advances that war inevitably brings began influencing a future they imagined, especially with regard to new inventions and ideas that would have seemed imposible just five or six year earlier. One of these was propulsion; the development of ‘rocket’ technology, communications, and the awful, yet incredible power exposed by splitting the atom. Anything was possible, even travelling beyone the limits of our atmosphere – space travel.

Incredible as it may seem now, we had no idea in the 1950’s what the moon was really like, let alone our nearest planets. It’s almost laughable now to read some of the things even academics believed. That our nearest planets could be inhabited was regarded as unlikely but feasible, almost believable. Science fiction became an industry, and the makers of toys, including toy figure makers cashed in, manufacturers who had for decades made toy soldiers and farm figures and models now wanted to include this new interest in their ranges.

Two of the earliest to do this were Cherilea and John Hill and Co. (Johillco) with Charbens following on. Hollowcast metal figures still dominated the market but plastic was beginning to make its mark, advances in the understanding of lead poison and the cheapness of plastic production would rapidly make them obsolete. One master maker, probably Alfred Cherrington, seemed to have been the sculptor of most of the figures produced by these makers and was involved with both Johillco and Cherilea. Some years ago I had many of these figures, but sold them. The ones here are what I have now, if I get any others I will add images to this post, but images of all the figures made are easily available on other sites.

Some of the figures are identical from both makers, others issued by one but not the other. Human spacemen, aliens, robots, space monsters, rockets and space stations. All produced in 3 years from 1950 first by Johillco then by Cherilea until 1953/54 when they are catalogued by both makers. Most of the basic spacemen seem to be derived from the American Archer plastic space figures. However, the Archer figures are believed to have been issued at the same time, so its a bit of a chicken/egg conundrum.

I have added two more figures; the green figure with the fringed space trouseres is a very rare johillco late production figure, the other colour variation of one of those above. All of these retro-alien figures by Johillco are scarce and finding different colour variations really fulfils my collecting. I dont have any of the wooden space stations that were also issued, but intend to make on of my own in the same style, just to display them on.

Unlike the Crescent Toys range of Dan Dare figures, already covered in an earlier post, which were inspired by the fictional adventures of a weekly comic hero, illustrators of the popular Adventure Annuals, avidly awaited every Christmas by young boys in those days, would use toy figures as models for their illustrations. The Adventure Annual 1953; typical of these cheaply made treats, has a space hero called Captain Morgan. He, his companions, and the aliens, robots and monsters he confronts are all drawn using the toy figures shown in this post as inspiration, as can be seen on the left.