The Tomy Pocketeers Web Page

Please note, this page has not been updated since October 1999, and is unlikely to be updated. However I have left it here for historical interest.

From the late 1970s all the way through to the early 1990s, the Tomy toy company sold a range of pocketable children's toys. They marketed them directly in the US as "Tomy Pocket Games" (some US Pocketeers are also marked "Pocket Fuls"), and sold them via Palitoy in the United Kingdom under the name of "Pocketeers". They were generally based around ball bearings (either shooting them, or guiding them) however there were many non-bearing based ones as well, such as driving and horse racing games. Myself and my brother shared quite a few of these, alas they succumbed to the inevitable parental "lets tidy up this room" clear out though.

I started noticing Pocketeers for sale around various UK car boot sales, and decided to begin collecting them once again. This page serves as a fond remembrance of Pocketeers gone by, and as a list of known Pocketeers along with pictures.

If you have any Pocketeers that are not listed below, then I would be very greatful to hear from you. If you can provide scanned pictures of them then that would be even better. However please note that I have many other Pocketeers which I haven't had time to photograph and add to this page - so please check before going to the trouble of scanning/photographing them as I may already have them.

Also, although most Pocketeers came with their name, copyright date, and model code written on them, some Pocketeers do not have names or other information anywhere on them. If you can provide a name for any of the Pocketeers below that are currently nameless, or have different names than those given below (some Pocketeers seem to have been sold under multiple names at different times), or can add dates and/or model codes to those which do not currently have them then again please contact me.

Pocketeers seem to come in various series/themes.

• Puzzle ones - You navigate a ball bearing around holes, grooves, obstacle courses, or mazes, e.g. The Amazing Maze Game

• Shooting Gallery ones - You shoot ball bearing at knockdown targets, e.g. Bombard

• Rotating Rows - You flick a lever and the various rows (3 sides to each with different pictures) spin around and make a picture, e.g. Flip Flop Faces, Robot Factory

• Sports ones - You flick a ball bearing at targets over various sports backgrounds (Soccer, Hockey, Basketball, etc.)

• Gambling ones - Flick the lever and spin, Fruit machine, casino, etc.

• Tomy also made some which are like cubes, you wind them up and flick plastic balls at different moving parts,
  for example Monkey in Tree, Helicopter, Duckshoot etc.
  

Name	Model	(C) Date	Case Colour	Notes	UK Game	UK Box	US Game	US Box
Angler	31325	1976	Green
Basketball	?	?	Blue
Basketball	31283	?	Clear	2 Player version
Baseball	2079	?	Dark Blue
Big Hit	31372	?	Red
Blowpipe	?	?	?
Bombard	31323	1976	Mustard Yellow
Casino	31330	1976	Sea Green	Also in white cased version (see picture)
Cat N Mouse	?	?	Orange
Clam's Casino	?	?	Black
Cracked Crab	7040	1978	Yellow
Crossbow	?	?	?
Cup Final	31271	1975	Lime Green
Derby Day	?	?	Blue
Dice Trap		1976	Red
Dragon Trap	9816	?	Yellow
Drop N Catch	31326	1976	Orange
Feed the Frogs	7037	1977	Dark Blue
Flick N Spin	31288	1976	Orange
Flip Flop Faces	7029	?	Dark Yellow
Fruit Machine	31272	1975	Red
Gobble	31373	?	White
Golf	31278	1975	Blue
Grand Prix	?	?	?
Home Run Baseball	7039	1975	Dark Blue
Las Vegas	31320	1976	Red
Letterbox	31333	1978	White
Marble Catch	7039	1976	Fluro Orange
Monkey Puzzle	?	?	Yellow
Moonshot	?	?	White
MotoCross	7029	1987	Black	(C) Coleco (!). This seems to be a rebadge/licensed version. Note the date is almost 10 years after most of the other Pocketeers
Mutineer	?	?	Orange
Pachinko	?	?	Black
Pachinko Type 2		1976	Orange
Pac Man	7015	1982	Dark Red	Comes on a card instead of in a box
Pass the Puck	7040	1978	Red
Pile Up	31371	?	Dark Blue
Pinball	31277	1975	Orange
Pitfall	3136	1978	Red + Yellow
Pocket Fishing		1976	Lime Green
Poker	31287	1976	Sea Green
Rack Em Up	?	?	Black
Rally	31285	1976	Orange
Rat a Tat	31334	1976	Burnt Sienna
Rebound	31326	1976	Purple
Robot Factory	?	?	Blue
Rock N Roll	31282	1975	White
Roll Up	31322	1977	Blue	Double sided game. The picture in the "US Game" column is the reverse side of the UK game.
Roller Ball	?	?	Pink
Shooting Gallery	22	1976	Mustard Yellow
Space Invader	31374	?	Red
Spiral Score	?	?	Pink
Splash Down	31375	?	White
Steeplechase	31335	1975	Dark Green
Stock Car Star	?	?	Red
Stunt Bike	?	?	White
Target Range	7039	1976	White
The Derby	?	?	Blue	Note, US version has an extra horse!
The Election Game	31324	1977	Orange	aka "Time Machine"
The Amazing Maze Game	2-5	?	Dark Blue
Time Trap	?	?	Yellow
Touchdown!	7029		Dark Orange
Time Up	31281	1975	Red
Tremor	31370	?	Purple
Vampire	?	?	Orange
World Cup	31321	1977	Green

Thanks to Keith Ainsworth who provided the following scans of Pocketeer adverts from 1970's issues of Look-In magazine.

Pitfall	Casino	Big Match	Rat-A-Tat	Rebound

Thanks to Robert Strudwick for providing the following Pocketeer catalogue.

Other similar types of Pocketeer pocket games by manufacturers other than Tomy...

Name	Maker	(C) Date	Case Colour	Notes	Picture?	Box Picture?
Pinball	Minimate	1976	Fluro-Orange

Tomy also went on to launch the "Pocket Arcade" series. Instead of being ball-bearing based, these games are clockwork and mechanical in nature. To play them, you 'reset' them, flick a stop/start button to 'stop', wind the winder up to its maximum, and flick the stop/start button to 'start'. You then play the game until the clockwork spring winds down!

The Pocket Arcade games all seem to be made in black cases, without model numbers or Copyright dates.

Name	Notes	Game	Box
Attack in Space
Cat Dodger
Copter Combat
Desert Race
Knights Mission
Raphael's Sewer Battle
Safari Drive
Sky Catch
Space Dock
Torpedo Terror

Tomy also later sold the "Pop-O-Matic" range of which we know of only two, if you know of any more then please drop me an email...

Name	Game	Box
Cricket
Darts

Another Tomy branded release are these two odd sports-related square cube games, a soccer game and a golf type game. Neither of these are mechanical, they both require you to move the cube to 'score' a goal.

Many thanks go to the following people for providing information, names, or actual Pocketeers.

Michael Davidson, Stuart McDonald, Adam Mawdesley, John Yeates, Keith Ainsworth, Jon Dyton, Robert Strudwick.

How to contact me

I can be eMailed here.