As the Space Race heated up in the 1950s, Hollywood embraced science fiction as a viable (and profitable) genre, and toy manufacturers around the globe followed suit. The graphic art on the tin toys' boxes, meanwhile, was often incredibly vibrant, imaginative, and—let's face it—trippy. The illustrations managed to capture both the optimism (science will save us!) and the dread (science will destroy us!) that, in some ways, defined the Space Age—and that still inform our debates on everything from stem cell research to the prospects for a manned mission to Mars.
RSS
