Beam Us Up, Mr Scott.

I was a lucky child. Maybe because I was quiet and well behaved I got treated to a toy quite often. Or it seemed so at the time. The above pictured item is one which I received as a present sometime in 1976, it might have even been a birthday present, and blimey, it was a cracking toy. The die-cast USS Enterprise was a typically sturdy Dinky toy, which was guaranteed to hurt if you dropped it on your foot. Also guaranteed to hurt was it's "photon torpedo" firing system. Just place one of the plastic yellow discs torpedos in the slot on the top of the saucer, turn the metal lever round on top and the "torpedo" fires out of the front at great speed, usually going missing somewhere under the sofa, or hitting the cat (who was doubling as a Klingon Ship).

Health and Safety was just something that wasn't given houseroom by Dinky Toys in the 70's... this thing was fucking lethal. Attention to detail was pretty good, with the only fault being the shuttle craft coming out of the bottom of the ship when it should be out of the back, as any fule kno. Unfortunately my Enterprise's 5 year mission was aborted far too early when one of the engine bits broke off after a particularly heavy space battle in the Mutara Nebula (or being lobbed into the toy box). Sob.