Timmee Tuesday Returns! Colossal fighter jets

 

It's another day off on a week when I planned on a full lineup of posts, and this time I have something I've been waiting for. When I started this blog, one of my more frequent subjects was Timmee army-man toys, which were always at the edge of my peripheral vision in childhood. At first, I mixed Timmee with Marx among other things, then I decided to make a dedicated feature. Inevitably, I went through what I had and the modest pool of things I wanted to get, and I let it lapse gracefully after a final installment early this year. For me, it was simply mission accomplished, but I continued to think over whether there was anything more I wanted to get. Finally, about a month ago, I decided to put something I'd had my eye on for a long time with another order (in fact my copy of The Rocketeer). It was advertised as a pair of jet fighters, which I figured would be on the lines of the ones that came with the Galaxy Laser Team. What I got instead startled me enough that I held off writing about it for a while. Here's a few pics of the pair.

What caught me offguard was that these were much bigger than anything I had seen or played with in my own youth. The longstanding rule with "army man" toys is to be much smaller than they would be to hold even a diminutive toy soldier. These, on the other hand, are so big they look at least close to right size for a figure. Here's the inevitable comparison shot of one with the GLT commander and the original/ mini figure, plus the generic X-wing/ space jet.

And why not one with the Truckstop Queen (and Connie)? Holy kaka, how is this bigger than the Truckstop Queen???

Inevitably, I have been fascinated by the scale and proportions of these things. One is a bit shorter and definitely less robust, but then, the big differences are in style. The larger plane is a regular jet, while the other is an almost science-fictional design of a kind that really never got further than experimental aircraft. (Edit: Someone pointed out this is pretty much a Lockheed Starfighter, which did see production, but it's pretty much the exception to prove the rule.) Ironically, if you factor in the cockpits, the shorter plane looks like it would be bigger. Overall, the regular jet looks like it could hold the regular-sized Galaxy Laser Team astronauts, while the slender high-speed plane just might fit the "mini" figure. Here's a couple more closeups of each plane.

One last artifact, my order came with a sort of card and a sticker sheet. I definitely wasn't going to use the stickers, which are exactly the kind I usually peel off, but they're interesting enough that I haven't thrown them away.  By comparison, the card is rather plain, and the "Cold War" bit makes it suspect as a "vintage" design. The stickers, on the other hand, look exactly right for the 1960s, which is my best guess when these things were made. Here's a shot.

One last thing, I checked out these planes for further markings. There are sculpted missiles on both planes, mainly on the underside, which I didn't cover with my photos and didn't find interesting enough to go back for. What did intrigue me was that the bigger jet has the usual star pattern imprinted on the plastic, as well as the word "NAVY". I was struck by the sheer redundancy of these markings on a toy that came with stickers, which of course raises the question what the original release was like. Here's the best shot I could get.

With that, I'm wrapping this up. I admit that it's likely this will be as much as I will do with this feature for now. I've already explained why Timmee was an important part of my childhood. It's been an even bigger part of how I got into or back to collecting, toy blogging, and for that matter writing. I am still kicking around ideas for a full-fledged tribute to Timmee and GLT, but my plate's going to stay full for a while. That's all for now, more to come!