JAPAN circa 1955

One of the robot collecting enigmas is Naito Shoten.This Tokyo-based toy company produced a small selection of toys in the mid-1950s designed around a key set of humanoid tooling.

There is a contemporary speculation that Naito Shoten and it's A.N/AHI toy brands were resellers of rare variation Nomura toys.This theory is supported by design similarities and identical component-sharing between toys as Interplanetary Explorer,Deep Sea robot,and Nomura's Earth Man..

Keywind,lithographed tinplate,he walks forward,moves arms back and forth,carrying a space gun in one hand..

A great ,expensive ,highly desirable toy..

Original packaging is colorful,and adds to an already expensive purchase.

Chinese reproductions are widely available..

Height - 8 inches /20.3 cm

MIOB $ 4.500

(Griffiths auction 9-12-00)