Whilst the foreign car factories were laying off staff in favour of this toy’s older brothers, kids across the land were celebrating their new-found ability to move objects around the kitchen table by a mere complicated sequence of instructions input into the Armatron’s console. Of course, anything slightly more delicate than the plastic blocks included in the box (an egg, say) would break under pressure between the rubberised jaws, so any notions of performing David Banner-style laboratory experiments were soon similarly shattered. ... more>>>

Let it be known that the law of remote controlled toys of any sort must adhere to these commandments… ... more>>>

There had to be a happy medium between your grown-up proper remote-control plane (the likes of which would eclipse many an attempted bonding session between father and son on Britain’s windy hilltops as dad quickly became entranced with the buzzing machine whilst son whimpered to be allowed a go on the controls) and the worthy, solitary ‘merriment’ afforded by an assembled Airfix Fokker. And there was, thanks to Mattel. ... more>>>