Carpet Crawlers

 

Alongside all the Thunderbirds and Sword space toys from TV shows and other media, there was always room for the more impulse buy space toys. Among all the various zap guns, rockets and robots, there was always a staple design of novelty toy that turned up in various guises during the sixties. The Moon Climber or Moon Buggy was a neat little vehicle which incorporated a simple mechanism which allowed it to keep rolling even if it hit an obstacle which made it roll over. The big rubber tyres helped it climb over stuff and when gravity made the vehicle flip, the clever roll bar ensured it righted itself immediately and carried on rolling. The basic idea had been used before in cars, but the space fever of the period resulted in many different versions of the toy. The main manufacturer seemed t be an anonymous company with a logo consisting of the letters 'TW' in a diamond shape, although the smaller boxed versions below were produced by 'AA'. Some of the larger versions featured elements that we have seen before - the  grey Space Explorer has a switch on the back very similar to that seen on the C21 Space Glider and the yellow version next to it has what looks like an Apollo Moon Exploring LEM on its back. Indeed the wheels of most of the versions are remarkably similar to the wheels on the mini LP Prospector.

TW Army Tank Climber

Space Explorer pics via ebay

AA Moon Rover and Moon Patrol 12 cm long

 

LP Prospector / LEM ? Space Glider Switch