Another virtually unknown (at least by me) company, Miniflex brought forth an outstanding toy set in 1970. Clearly taking a cue from the Major Matt Mason Space Crawler and possibly with a nod to the Star Trek episode, the 'Menagerie' - the Space Safari set is a classic toy. A large box would have greeted children on a bleary xmas morning, chock full of surprises and well made toys. The main vehicle is a leggy crawler similar to the Billy Blastoff/Matt Mason lines, with the distinctive spoked wheels for all terrain access. This version has a pressurised cabin and sports a removeable power pack with flashing light and rotating scanner. This can be taken off and used to power the main tractor vehicle, again with pressurised cab and astronaut pilot. This in turn tows two trailers, one with a pair of sealed globes for transporting alien fauna and another unidentifiable unit with some kind of shield or ray projector attached - perhaps to generate a containment field to capture the hapless aliens en route. Alos included in the set are two standalone bubble containers to house the captured specimens in their own environmental conditions. The set is well built, although the paint job on the aliens does leave a bit to be desired! The box has had a lot of attantion lavished on it and shows the actual toy trundling across a mock lunar or alien terrain. I recall the toy being advertised in a UK catalogue alongside the big Apollo Moon Exploring deluxe set, but sadly, Santa must have mislaid my letter that year as he forgot to bring me either toy - and if your listening fat, boy - im still waiting for the Apollo set!
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