OMEGA VEHICLE
PIKO MILITARY LAUNCHER
PIKO MARS CRANE
PIKO SATURN* ROCKETLESS VARIATION
(correct name thanks to WOTAN)
PIKO JUPITER ROCKET LAUNCHER
Well we're back back from our holiday in Berlin. Phew! What a great city! So much world history in one place: The Kaisers, the Schlosses, WWII, the rise and fall of the Wall and of course East Berlin and the former German Democratic Republic or Deutsches Democratisches Republik (or DDR - pronounced "Day Day Air") as its known in Germany. The Wall may have fallen in 1989 but Berlin was still officially 'occupied' until 1996, when thousands of Soviet troops, living behind a smaller walled disctrict within Potsdam called the Forbidden City, finally pulled out leaving behind street after street of grey houses falling to bits. With awesome zeal the Potsdamers have transformed these into the beautiful villas they once were. And just like parts of the Berlin Wall are left behind, so too are countless old socialist artifacts from the former DDR including fascinating urban space mosaics and you've guessed it - sovietised space toys!
I first stumbled across these toys in a fabulous German toy mart magazine called Sammler Heft ( like a colour version of the old US Toy Shop paper), where people still place ads with pictures just like in those pre-Ebay days here. Nestling in the toys section where pictures of amazing space vehicles with caterpillar tracks, missiles and radars, all designed with a strange Soviet economy and grace: socialist space toys by East German companies like PIKO and ANKER. Wanting to find out more I asked in a Potsdam bookshop if they had a new hardback book called DDR SPIELZEUGE and on its cover was what for me had become the quintessential East German space toy, the PIKO JUPITER ROCKET LAUNCHER! Wow! Being a similar size, it would fit sooooo well into the Project Sword fleet ( not sure of the politics of SWORD!) Having bought the book I then, along with my long-suffering wife Birgit, set off to find at least one old DDR space toy in one of the many junk shops in Potsdam. After visiting about three and having no luck we were losing hope. Then in one final push ( or pushkin!) we asked in another shop if they had any old 'Raumschiffe oder Raketen' ( aka space ships or rockets)! The kindly shopkeeper rubbed his chin and said 'Ja'! Opening a cupboard he pulled out a huge box revealing a very strange 1960's silver moon rover from Russia - a Lunokhod replica (correctly named thanks to WOTAN) pictured here in a museum with a small red astronaut stood on top. At 250 Euro's this was not the one for me! However, he delved deeper and emerged with a plastic bag containing - yep, the PIKO JUPITER ROCKET LAUNCHER! I couldn't believe our luck and at 90 Euro's ( a bit overpriced but the moment was priceless) it was on it's way home to Blighty deep in the Western zone! What an impressive toy, easilly a foot long but alas missing its missile and cosmonauts, lost in some heroic struggle in Jupiter's red storm! Unfortunately there is a modern-day sad capitalist end to this tale - going through the incredibly busy Customs (Zoll) at Schonefeld Airport a young zealous X-Ray operative mistook the toy for a 'lamp', requested that I take it out of the suitcase and show him directly. Satisfying himself that I didn't have a 'lamp' ( I'm unsure what danger it may have posed) I had little time to pack it carefully as there was a bottle- neck of would-be 'lamp' owners behind me. Back home I unzipped the case to find the long missile launch unit of the toy snapped in half! I couldn't believe it - this toy has seen off Socialists, Soviets and the fall of the Berlin Wall but I couldn't get it through German/ UK Customs in one piece! The Iron-y of it all.
Since getting home on Friday I have done a little more research into East German space toys, which are often called RAUPE ( caterpiller) or MONDAUTO ( moon car) mostly made by PIKO and ANKER. They really do look great and I absolutley love the sovietised design of them, managing to be charming, utilitarian and military at the same time. I have posted pictures of some of the principal toys above and for those interested there are lots of these on Ebay Germany, especially the seller DDRTETE (unfortunately hardly any are for sale outside Germany's confines).
Have a look and see whether you think they would look out of place in a SWORD fleet?
Like JFK, Ich bin ein Berliner,
Woodsy
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