Boxed battery operated toy robot, made in Japan by Nomura about 1955.

Boxed battery operated tin robot. The robot has a grey box shaped body with forward facing arms, upper arms moulded at the sides, it has forward facing red hands. One hand is holding a spanner. It has straight red legs and black feet. Its head is grey with a red face with small light bulbs for eyes. It has black circles for ears and a metal coil running across the top of its head. The battery case is on its left hand side. The box had a plain card bottom and printed lid. The images on the front is of the robot walking with lights shining from its eyes. The text reads 'Radar Robot, battery operated, brilliant lite in each eye'.

This object was acquired for the V&A Museum of Childhood's exhibition Space Age: Exploration, Design and Popular Culture, which opened on 22nd November 2007. It was bought at Christie's in November 2005 as part of a collection of robots and space toys. The collector, Paul Lips, ran an antique toy shop in Milan from the early 1990s, where he became particularly interested in space toys. The collection covered what he believed to be their golden age: 1955 to 1965.


After the Second World War, Japan became the pre-eminent manufacturer of tin toys through direct financial support from the United States for its toy industry, and through preferential access to US toy markets. Importantly, Japanese manufacturers were able to perfect small battery-powered motors, which gave Japanese toys a superior range of movements. One of the most celebrated subjects expressed in tin toys is space and space travel. Many highly imaginative toys were produced in the era of the Space Age (1957-1972), inspired by the widespread optimism of the times, and by a fresh public appetite for all things space.

B.49:1 to 3-2005