Category Archives: Cold War

Atomic Robot Man

2019 Atomic Advent Calendar Gift Ideas Day 13

Atomic Robot Man is coming to take over your city. Look out, he’s walking down the center of the street. Run away before he runs amok!

The original Atomic Robot Man was released shortly after World War II in Japan, where there was a well-established tin toy business. Robot toys were indicative of the times, where we suddenly lived in a world with atomic bombs and rockets. The next frontier with all this technology was robots, doing the work of humans.

Modern versions of this tin toy can be found for about $15 in a multitude of colors. But if you really want to go retro and rule the world with your 1940s original Atomic Robot Man in stunning greenish-beige, expect to shell out over $1500.

Watch this original bad boy try to take over the world!

Atomic Bomber

2019 Atomic Advent Calendar Gift Ideas Day 12

Let’s practice dropping atom bombs! Test your aim! A thrill a second! Cyclone action! It’s not for enormous destruction, just enormous pleasure!

Mutoscope’s 1946 arcade game, “Atomic Bomber,” allowed coin-droppers to line up a set of cross hairs to colored dots on the rotating drum. If a hit is achieved, a “bomb blast” is see on the backglass of the machine, or the Reflectograph.

With lots of atomic jargon in the sales brochure, the marketers practically guaranteed an outlet for “Atomic Thinking” and “chain-reaction” sales of the arcade game.

For an interesting video describing its history and to see the game in action, visit: The Story Behind 1946’s Arcade Game Atomic Bomber from GameInformer.

Uranium Rush

2019 Atomic Advent Calendar Gift Ideas Day 11

Uranium Rush was an “exciting new electric game for the family” produced by Gardner Games in the 1950s. In fact, this was an Educator Approved Prestige Toy and selected as one of 104 Outstanding Toys of 1955. For only $2.95 ($24.01 in 2019 dollars), you could join the prospecting hoards.

All the players begin with $15,000, then spin the arrow to determine where on the board the player can prospect. Stake a claim for only $1000! You can test the claim to make sure it’s belching with uranium using the Geiger Counter. Touch the base of the Geiger Counter to the player’s master plug and touch the tip of the wire to the small metal circle around the mine. If it buzzes, you’ve just received $50,000 from the gub’ment! Follow the directions, and pass to the next person. When all the claims have been staked, the most money wins — just like how it really happens! Yeeehaw!

Buzz your way to fun and fortune while decked out in your best uranium prospecting duds!