COPIES & CLONES

LP of Hong Kong

LP is the brand used by the Lik Be Plastic and Metal Factory of Hong Kong, which is still in business to this day. Although incorporated as a limited company in July 1969, it must have existed longer to have supplied the astronaut figures for Spacex toys right from the start.

The initials in their trademark often get misread as ID, LD or IDL, but the image above clearly depicts them as LP, being held in the arms of a giant figure against a background of light rays.

Looking at the figure, it might possibly be well-known in China but unknown to us here in the West. But it could equally be a composite of various positive features, which would then bring prosperity to the company it represents. The figure is obviously strong and powerful, while it has large ears (and a bald head) like Buddha, which I gather are tokens of luck and wisdom to the Chinese. The light rays might again represent strenght, or a bright future perhaps?

Production may have started in the early to mid-60s, judging by a few clues. Their ubiquitous astronaut figures are based on US Mercury astronauts, pictures of which were published from 1959 and particularly when Mercury missions were undertaken in 1961-3. Their larger Moon-Explorer Car was based on an illustration published in 1962. And a number of their toys are copied from other toys such as Mattel's Major Matt Mason and Triang's Spacex, which respectively appeared from 1966 and 1968. The astronaut figures of course predate Spacex to have a plated version included with Spacex toys from the start. But, a number of LP sets exist that do not include the miniature MMM Moon Crawler, which would suggest the toys in them predate MMM and so would be from 1965 or earlier.

The LP trademark was still present on Lik Be toys marketed as Apollo Moon Exploring (linked at left) by Imperial Toy Corp in 1970, but disappeared from their figures as included with later Pippin-produced Spacex toys, probably in 1971. The company was still using the trademark in an advert in the Hong Kong Toys 1986 trade magazine (showing a range of music boxes) so why it was dropped from many of their toys is anybody's guess. What is certain is that their toy designs lived on and continued to be available in one form or another and sold under a variety of brands. And that even last year (2011), the ones shown below could still be bought brand-new as cake decorations, marked with a little gold sticker.

Although not all LP toys carry their trademark, the ones listed will most certainly have been produced by the company, having been available in their own packaging next to having been repackaged for others. The best-known smaller space toys are listed first, followed by the larger space toys (the latter listing only such toys as I have images for).

A third list further down has examples of LP's own packaging for the smaller toys, while the last list has examples of their small toys repackaged by others. This last list does not include the Apollo Moon Exploring series by Imperial Toys of Los Angeles and the Apollo Exploration boxed set, which are important enough to be listed in the main menu at left because they were such major competitors to Golden Astronaut toys and are still very well-known amongst collectors today.

One note on the packaging listed below: I have included only packs that I own myself or such pictures as friends could take of the toys in their collections. I have numerous other pictures collected from the internet and auction sites in particular, but have decided not to include these through lack of picture quality and especially for not having their owners' permission to use them. Although it's not the main subject of this website, if you have LP sets not included here and can supply good photos of same, then I'll be happy to add them with full credit to you of course.

At the very end are some LP products as featured in the Hong Kong Toys '72 trade magazine, published by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. This extensive coverage was the reward for LP taking out an advert in that magazine, but sadly this advert was cut out of my copy by a previous owner.