From WOTAN:
Following on from Paul Vreedes ATS origin article, I thought i'd offer my memory of the actual Spacex toy. To my mind the ATS was the nadir of the second series line, principally because it showed a design which I was all too familiar with from my childhood poring over space exploration books and it wasn't a nice flashy TV21 style spaceship. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it was a very flimsy and fragile toy. The main body was essentially a very primitive telescope, just like the kind of thing you would get in an xmas stocking or lucky bag. The blue centre section slid back and to into the rear housing to allow 'focussing', but with the two large reflectors and massive solar panel arrays attached, this was basically impossible. In terms of playability, apart from spying on the neighbours with the barrel body, there was none. The solar panels were thin and damaged very easily, and the only real plus point was the rare Spacex Commander badge that came with it.
Nowadays, all that remains of mine are the reflectors, parts of the main body and the badge. Also shown in the photograph are a few other parts from my spacex heyday - the painted and generally abused hull and shuttle from the booster rocket, base and legs from the LAMA and the diecast base of a Surveyor. The little bullet thing in the midle is from the base of the LEM. At the right is my impression of the ATS colour scheme and the small monochrome shot is the barrel of the ATS from Will Osbornes collection.
ATS-TASTIC! Woodsy
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