1966 Gilbert Toys Catalog- James Bond-Man From U.N.C.L.E-Honey West
In the late 1960s, toymaker Gilbert (known for Erector Sets) was one of the leading action figure producers in the US, focusing mainly on licenses and totally cornering the Spy craze with James Bond, the Man from U.N.C.L.E, and TV detective Honey West.
Unfortunately, all crazes end and so did Gilbert, this would be their final year as a toy company.
This one is a little before my time but it’s such a gorgeous catalog and cool subject matter that I wanted to showcase it here.
The company got it’s start making Magic sets, so it’s not a surprise that they tried to integrate them with popular licenses, no matter how weird they may seem.
These hand-painted Bond figures must have been put out by the millions as carded examples were everywhere when I started collecting in the early 1980s.
The little Sean Connery Puppet is adorable, I want one.
The 12″ Bond figure gave some serious competition to GI Joe in 1965.
The Honey West figure was nowhere near as beautiful as Anne Francis.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E range were solid sellers for Gilbert, oddly the Girl from U.N.C.L.E would be scooped up and produced by rival toymaker Marx.
Moon McDare was a homegrown Astronaut concept, he even had an astro dog!
Gilbert utilized some long-haired kids from Liverpool to sell their toys.
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I want the Martian Magic Tricks!! Was there any other merch for My Favorite Martian? ALSO- the artwork is gorgeous. The people do look a little stiff, but the likenesses are first rate.
You know what I miss about the old site? I can’t seem to find a way to zoom in on the pictures on my phone.
Anyway… I can’t believe you used to see those Bond figures everywhere. I was today years old (to borrow an Internet saying from the kids) when I learned of their existence. Too cool. Just a tad short for my 3 3/4″ universe.
Surprised the zooming isn’t possible, the old site was apparently “not mobile-friendly”.
As for the Gilbert Bond figurines, they were everywhere for a while, must have been a find but eventually like all things, they dried up.
I had the Martian Magic Tricks. They were classic toy tricks, with some theming to the show. Uncle Martin’s space ship would slide down a string at your command, and his face appeared on a plastic panel in place of the usual appearing/disappearing star.
On a James Bond DVD they had a featurette about the toy merchandising. Lois Maxwell studied her tiny Moneypenny likeness, evidently for the first time, and joked about it.
Was this catalog before or after the infamous James Bond slot track? Supposedly it was cursed by production problems and ended up taking down the company.
I’d never heard the story about the slot track before.
Fantastic!
In the Gilbert 10 piece set; everyone gathered around the shoreline at the beach to watch Odd Job throw his hat – or maybe skeet shooting?
Auric Goldfinger and Dr. No in the same package? – Amazing.