With the space race in full swing, sweet makers and TV advertisers went into full effect to grab a piece of the action, with the popular Gerry Anderson TV series licences going to Lyon’s Maid Ice Cream, to promote shows like captain Scarlet and Stingray and a more focussed moon shot approach being used by their main rival Walls.
Both makers of lollies and ice creams used the popular collectible card gimmick to help sell their products, especially during the hot summers. Inside each waxed wrapper was a small envelope that contained a standard sized card - the same format as was used in cigarettes and loose tea - printed with a gaudy colour illustration and details on the back. Whilst Walls favoured a special collectors album and badge, Lyon’s Maid went for a poster to accompany the card set.
Cards were usually issued in sets of about 40-50 and covered a range of themes. Most notable for me, were alway the space ones, such as ‘Moon Fleet’ or ‘Into the Unknown’.
After the mon landing and immediate interest waned, they kept the ball rolling with technology based series, such as ‘Space Age Britain’ and ‘European Adventure’, which although they featured rockets and other futuristic designs, were a little dry and uninspiring.
‘All Systems Go!’ Was a mixture of (then) cutting edge technology and space themed cards, such as powered eco-skeletons, walking trucks and space gliders.
Probably the best of all the poster series was the Orbit ‘Into the Unknown’ set. This included classic spacecraft alongside futuristic vehicles in a huge fold out poster, about 4’ long. It’s quite telling to notice the reduction in the cost of the Orbit wall chart, which would have appeared about 1968, before decimalisation. I recall the Orbit lolly being quite expensive at the time, at 9d and my own pocket money at the time being about 5d. At one shilling (or 5p) the poster would have been a special treat indeed. The order form even suggests ‘ask dad for it’ too!
Each section was dedicated to a different aspect, and was ideally suited to being pinned on the back of a bedroom door, as the vertical aspect meant it was difficult to display anywhere else.
The examples I have here were found in a vintage store recently, neatly folded amongst some old LPs. Luckily each one was complete with all the cards and the only damage apart from a few creases was the rust burns from the drawing pins which had evidently held them in place on a wall for many years.
