MOON PROSPECTING BY WOTAN

Here's another brilliant article sent in by WOTAN.

1970 Rolls Around Again: The Project Sword Moon Prospector has to be one of the most unusual toys ever made. Even for a Gerry Anderson related toy, its an odd design to make with a child in mind - no visible figures or driver,apparently random action, long booms with tiny wheels (which broke easily!) and no obvious front! This aside, its obviously a concept culled from the NASA stable. As earlier articles have shown, this was a definite contender for an unmanned lunar rover and is not far removed from the later robotic vehicles which were actually placed on the Moon and Mars. Here I'm showing a picture (top) from a children's Space Flight book, from around 1961 showing what could conceivably be the actual illustration that gave rise to the Prospector. Although it is an odd design, toy makers clearly saw the potential in mirroring the odd machines NASA was proposing and Jack Rosenthal saw fit to file a patent on his Triang Spacex toy of the same name in November 1970 (bottom pic). Besides the famous SWORD vehicle ( second from bottom pic) and the Triang Spacex version, the Prospector was rolled out in the LP Apollo Moon Exploring range and was also 'plagiarised' by Roxy for the Moon Traffic series of Spacex-styled toys (second to top pic). But, are there any more....