When i was a little boy, I had this toy that i loved, however, it got
lost/destroyed and i want it back however i cannot find out what it is
called.

It was a spaceship that had its upper half lift off and inside was a
selection of spacecraft (around a dozen) that lived on their own
little bit of the craft.
There were also different coloured men depending on what rank they
were. I think the actual craft itself was White and the inside might
of been brown.

If anyone can suggest what this could be.. PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!!

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 05 Aug 2003 18:05 PDT

Dear the_rabbi-ga :

How long ago was this? What part of the world did you live in at the time?

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 05 Aug 2003 18:21 PDT

See this is close to what you remember:

http://www.neatstuff.net/space-robots/Jupiter2Ship-nail.jpg

Also, was the toy plastic or tin or of some other makeup?

tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Question by the_rabbi-ga on 06 Aug 2003 04:02 PDT

Hi,

Sorry, This was about mid 80s time, I was in England.

The toy itself was plastic and was a good 24" in length. It was more
of a Millenium Falcon shape than anything else i can remember.

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Clarification of Question by the_rabbi-ga on 06 Aug 2003 04:04 PDT

Hi..

Also some of the ships inside could fire missiles....

Also these little plastic men could be put into the ships and lived
around the edge of the ship... i'll draw a picture at work of what i
can remember and put it on my site with a link to it

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 06 Aug 2003 07:04 PDT

Ok, I look forward to your drawing. In the meantime take a look at
this page and see if anything jogs your memory:

http://www.wildfire-web.co.uk/bsg/front.htm
(click on VEHICLES link on the left)

tutuzdad-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 06 Aug 2003 07:06 PDT

Also this one:

http://starshipmodeler.org/gallery6/ap_gal_actica6.jpg

tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Question by the_rabbi-ga on 06 Aug 2003 16:40 PDT

Hi,

Sorry, but i can tell you it wasn't anything to do with battlestar
galactica, as i can remember not ever watching it - even to this day,
i think the ship wasn't based on any TV shows but i cant guarantee it

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Request for Question Clarification by jeeagle-ga on 06 Aug 2003 17:14 PDT

Could you be looking for the Manta Force range? 

There's a few pictures here (click on the 'Gallery' link on the left):

http://members.fortunecity.com/mantaforce/

There's also a big photo of a spaceship that matches the one you
describe:

http://members.fortunecity.com/mantaforce/Pictures/MantaForce_large.JPG

I remember these toys clearly...I badly wanted one when I was a boy in
the 80s but never got one:(

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Clarification of Question by the_rabbi-ga on 07 Aug 2003 03:52 PDT

Jeeagle-ga:

THATS IT!!! Oh my god that is bringing back many good memories!!! $15 is yours!

Hello again the_rabbi_ga,

The toy you're looking for is the Manta Force range made by Bluebird.
Unfortunately, information on the range is hard to come by:

"...in 1998 the multinational toy company Mattel bought out Bluebird
Toys PLC to obtain the rights to the hugely successful Polly Pocket
licence. This is why information on Manta Force is very scarce,
because the product information wasn't seen as important by Mattel and
they shun away enquiries of takeovers and those businesses 
discontinued lines."

(from http://www.geocities.com/weirdreality/mantaforce.htm )

There is a good selection of background material and pictures at this
site:

http://members.fortunecity.com/mantaforce/

In case you were thinking of reliving your childhood, there's
currently a handful of Manta Force toys for sale fairly cheaply on
Ebay, but not the particular ship you describe.

There was also a comic strip in Eagle magazine and a cartoon series,
but I was unable to find anything about them other than this brief
description of the comic strip:

http://www.cinemas-online.co.uk/andrew/eagle/stripsearch.php?type=1&term=Manta%20Force

***

There wasn't really a search strategy for this question as I just
happened to remember the name - the rest was a matter of searching
for:

"manta force"
"manta force" cartoon 
"manta force" comic

***

Please post a request for clarification of answer if there's anything
else you'd like help with. I know you were just asking for the name,
but $15 seems quite a high fee for a two-word answer...

Hope that helps!

jeeagle-ga

Even though i just needed a name, more info than i needed was given -
bringing back more memories, the price i put was high because it was
getting on my nerves trying to figure out what it was!!