Manufacturing Mystery
Who made the Luminous Spooks?
In the 1950s and 60s, it was common practice for producers of breakfast cereals to give away plastic figures etc from existing ranges made by toy manufacturers, rather than commission new ones, presumably because it was cheaper. Kellogg's gave away unpainted figures from Cresent, specially stamped on the base with the Kellogg's logo, for example. Similarly, some free gifts from Sugar Puffs have been identified, as follows:
- late 1950s: Cowboys and Indians, made by an Islyn Thomas company in the US. These were imported by Rosedale/Tudor Rose or Poplar in the UK and sold in Woolworth's as pocket-money toys (source: Kim Stevens & yowiemaggi website (no longer available) );
- 1957: Racing cars, by Caldwell of Canada; *
- 1962: HO scale British soldiers, by Airfix of the UK; *
- 1963: HO scale Cowboys and Indians, also by Airfix; *
- 1967/68: Fairground Rides, by R&L (thanks to Steve Luker).
(* - thanks to Kim for these).
Perhaps then the Spooks also came from an existing range of figures, and maybe the set, or part of it at least, was originally intended for sale for Halloween. The commercial exploitation of Halloween has occurred only relatively recently in the UK, so there could well have been an American influence or origin. The Spooks have 'eyes' or 'loops' and so perhaps were originally intended as 'charms' or pendants. Could they have been sold in Woolworth's too, like the Sugar Puffs Cowboys and Indians?
I received an interesting snippet from Kim, who says a contact recalls Christmas Tree decorations that were luminous, flat, and which had detailed surfaces with holes for eyes etc. They even had the little loops from which to hang them. This was in the mid-1950s, so it's quite possible then that the original Spooks date from this period, too, perhaps even being made by the same company.
Kim wrote a letter to Plastic Warrior Magazine asking for information about the Spooks, including help in identifying the manufacturer. Given the worldwide circulation of the magazine and the specialized knowledge of the readership, if anyone could help, it would likely be a reader. The letter appeared in the December 2008 issue and did achieve a fantastic result with the Haunted Manor picture from Peter Watson. However, there have been no other responses, so perhaps we will never know who made them.
Variations on a Theme
There are quite a few differences between the sets of Spooks shown on this site - see the table for details.
Kim brought to my attention a book about the plastic figures made by Herald and Britains during the 50s and 60s. It described in detail the manufacturing process, some of which may be applicable to the production of the Spooks. It seems that it was usual for several moulds to be made for each figure, to speed up production. These would be made from the same master figure, with fine details being added to each separately. Hence, there would be subtle differences between the figures made from them. So, perhaps we should indeed expect to see differences between the sets of Spooks. However, some of these differences seem to be in the large details, indicating that the different moulds for each Spook were made from scratch. A note I had from Kim confirms that this may have been standard practice with 'flat' figures:
I've asked the editor of Plastic Warrior if he knows anything about the actual cost of cutting dies. Whilst actual figures aren't available, the view is that cutting a die wasn't prohibitively expensive until the late seventies. Dies for flat figures like the Spooks would have been even cheaper; apparently, for such, it would have been possible to cut those directly onto the steel without the need for a master model.