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As many science fiction toys as I collect, you probably wouldn’t think of me as someone who bemoans the lack of science fact toys. But the fact of the matter is, there can never be too many toy replicas of real spacecraft on the market to keep me happy.

Ironically, 2/3 of this this diverse cross-section of three American space trailblazers in toy form don’t even come from the United States at all. To find readily available toy replicas of the Voyager and Viking probes launched in the 1970s, one must apparently be able to get them from Japan. (Click here to see the rest of the article plus pictures.)

Released to coincide both with Christmas 2006 and the 40th anniversary of the launch of the original Star Trek, this year’s main Star Trek Christmas ornaments are a testament to just how far we’ve come from the original NCC-1701 ornament - assuming that engineering is on the ball and everything is working. (Click here to see the rest of the article plus pictures.)

The time had finally come. I had longed to get my hands on the Ultimate Collectors Series Star Destroyer, but that $300 price tag was an effective deterrent. No more. A quick order from Lego.com (whose S&H is quite reasonable, I might add) and a week later a BIG box arrived in the mail.

I realized that I was in for quite a project when I opened the box and discovered four more boxes plus a 226-page spiral-bound instruction manual. The first task was to figure out a place to assemble this behemoth. (Click here to see the rest of the article plus pictures.)

Published by the same outfit that was turning out Doctor Who “annuals” at the time, the Blake’s 7 1979 Annual is a curious snapshot of the BBC’s eyebrow-raising marketing of what was supposed to be an adult science fiction drama series.

It’s even made clear, in the opening pages which introduce the characters to young readers, that some of Blake’s crew are murderers, thieves, and embezzlers - this is fairly stout stuff for kids. (Click here to see the rest of the article plus pictures.)

The year was 1983. The Star Wars franchise was winding down, and the Pac-Man craze had mostly subsided. What was a toy company like Kenner to do? The next best thing to Pac-Man at this point was to hop onto a multicolored flying disc with Q*Bert.

The D. Gottlieb Co. video game was an almost instant hit because of its unique game play and an extremely marketable cast of characters. CBS rushed a Q*Bert cartoon onto the air, and Q*Bert merchandise began to hit the store shelves. (Click here to see the rest of the article plus pictures.)

Whereas Coleco only had non-exclusive toy and electronic game licenses for Pac-Man, the company had grabbed almost all rights to Nintendo’s Donkey Kong. The primary reason for this was to ensure that the game would be the first game packed in with the ColecoVision game console. But Coleco also took advantage of the license to produce small PVC figures of three main characters from the Donkey Kong games in 1982. (Click here to see the rest of the article plus pictures.)

In 1982, at the peak of Pac-Man Fever, Coleco introduced a line of Pac-Man toys, including a half dozen bendable PVC figures based on the game. The characters included Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Blinky the ghost, Mr. Pac-Man, Mrs. Pac-Man, and - perhaps oddest of all - “Pac-Angel.” Other companies also cashed in, and Midway - Namco’s American licensee for the game - handed out the rights to produce Pac goods like a bunch of dots in a maze. (Click here to see the rest of the article plus pictures.)