Want to know what I really like? “Bubble-headed” spacemen from the 50’s…
Check out this vintage Buck Rogers frame tray inlaid puzzle I recently acquired on eBay.
The puzzle was produced by Milton Bradley and the John F. Dille Company in 1952. Dille owned the rights to the Buck Rogers franchise (and some say he even gave Buck Rogers his name!) and produced all kinds of amazing toys, ray guns, and jigsaw puzzles.
When I opened the package, I was amazed at how vibrant the colors were–these photos barely do justice to how bright and colorful the puzzle is in person. This thing is going to look fantastic as the backdrop to the other vintage space toys in my collection.
I’m always on the lookout for those “bubble-headed” spacemen and there are none better than the one’s named “Buck.”
Wow. That is certainl well-preserved isn’t it! Would love to flash back to see the Christmas morning in the early 50s when those were under the tree 🙂
Yeah, this thing was built to last–it’s a full quarter inch thick–twice as thick as modern frame tray puzzles.
Oh man that is beautiful!
That’s an awesome piece. How would you display that? Would the pieces slip out?
I might frame this, but for now it’s propped up behind some other items. The older frame tray puzzles stay together fine if you hold them upright. The pieces are pretty thick.
That is a thing of beauty and i just love it.
Dood, freakin’ awesome. When I was a kid my had this gigantic hardcover tome of the Buck Rogers original series (from the ’30s?). I remember most of it being in b&w then some in color. I must’ve been around 2–3 yrs. old at the time (’72–’73). I used to love how stylized those huge spaceships were, with the total eloquent fins and bubble windows and stuff.
Speaking of cool stuff, have you ever visited Paleo Future? It’s an awesome blog. It’s been adopted by Smithsonian(!) but you can also see the original archive here.
Very cool! I wasn’t familiar with Paleo Future but it looks awesome. I didn’t realize the Smithsonian was in the business of acquiring blogs. hmmm. 😉