WEB EXCLUSIVE: Extra pictures from Worthing toy fair

This is an excerpt of the Worthing swapmeet first published in Collectors Gazette's April issue. To see which issues of Collectors Gazette are available to buy, click here.

You don’t really expect the smaller toy fairs to come up with much that’s novel or bizarre but at the Worthing meet in January, there were several toys of note. First off, and perhaps most important, was David Price’s little lead figurine. It looked very much like it belonged to the Coco Cub family: a little old lady with a shawl around her head was interesting enough but what singled her out was the fact that her head was attached to a tiny strip of sprung steel, so that it wobbled as you jiggled her. She was holding an outsized cup and saucer, which might have been a clue to her role in life: that of advertising.

A complete mystery, David was hoping that the little lady would be recognised by someone on the day; and because of her lack of background, he was having trouble in pricing her.

What he could value, though, was the large cardboard boxed set, in glorious white, red and blue, that proclaimed itself to be the Rocket Base USA. Despite its Deluxe Toy London script, the box (and contents) looked very reminiscent of Marx’s products of the era, which would have been the 1960s.

For £65 you got several (launchable) rockets plus a gantry, some building parts, an articulated lorry to transport the missiles and an array of white soldiers, somewhat skinny in stature, and around 54mm in scale. It looked complete, too.

Organiser: SRP Toyfairs
Next event: 20th March