A favourite toy from the late 1960s, Billy was "America's First Boy in space!". Manufactured by the Eldon toy company, Billy the Space Scout and his robot pal Robbie1 were powered by a pair of AA batteries that fit into their red plastic 'jet' backpacks. The batteries powered small rotating assemblies below the backpack which in turn powered their vehicles, such as the Moon Crawler, Radiation Truck, and US-6 Rocket Sled. They also came with smaller accessories such as bright yellow walkie-talkies and TV cameras, some of which plugged into Billy or Robbie and lit up.
Later editions of Billy and Robbie could also walk, in a ponderous, lurching fashion. (My Billy was an original edition that didn't walk, but the Robbie Robot I got later did walk.) There were add-on playsets such as the Space base and a Scuba version of Billy as well.
Billy was a contemporary of Major Matt Mason, a more "realistic" astronaut toy of the same era.
- No relation to Robbie the Robot of TV fame, aside from the Brotherhood of All Robots.