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.

Latest Updates ...

23/10/99 - Well, I am still alive but haven't had a chance to update
                  the site for some time. I do have another 50 or so
                  pictures to add, so hopefully there will be an update
                  reasonably soon....
14/03/99 - Added Feed the Frogs
04/03/99 - Added Pocket Fishing
25/02/99 - Added Pachinko 2, Letter Loose and Dice Trail
08/02/99 - Added Poker and Secret Passage
03/02/99 - Added US Dragon Trap and Touchdown
01/02/99 - Added US Space Invasion,US Baseball Box,US Pinball

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.

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.

Back to my home page