MARX TOYS FRICTION-DRIVE DALEK..

I've shown this friction-drive DALEK before, but not the box, so because the art is just as evocative of the '60s as the toy itself, I thought you might like to see it. I got my first MARX Dalek from R.S. McCOLL's in 1967, and there's a story relating to it which I may as well recount while I've got your attention.

I'd spotted this toy some days before and told my parents about it, whereupon they said they'd buy it for me at the weekend on a trip to the shops. On the earmarked Saturday, one of my pals turned up at the door as we were preparing to leave. A hasty 'phone call to his parents to see if it was all right to take him with us, and we were off. (In stark contrast to his parents, who'd simply have said they were going out and closed the door in my face.)

While I was buying my Dalek, my pal disappeared, and my concerned parents searched for him for a while before returning home in case he'd made his own way back there. Sure enough, he was sitting on our front doorstep, talking to my brother and showing him a MAJOR MATT MASON MOON-SUIT he'd mysteriously acquired. My parents told him off for wandering off on his own, as they'd been charged with looking after him.

Regarding the moon-suit, he said that one of his friends, whose family owned a baby/toy shop called NURSERYLAND, had given it to him when he'd called in for a look-around, but it was obvious from his shifty and self-conscious manner that he'd nicked it. Funny thing is though, that because of that, forever after and right to this day, I've always associated these two toys from the '60s with one another.

Anyway, enjoy the piccies - the self-indulgent and uninteresting reminiscence is entirely free.