Over the last year I have noticed a few toy boxes with a peculiar and recurring image, a white moon dome with red and chequered trims. I first noticed them on the backing card of the awesome TAKEUCHI Project Sword 'UFO' rubbers (or erasers in some quarters!), completely new to me and the blog and kindly donated to the blog cabinet by WOTAN (check out the MEV-2 grabber too!):
During the bloggiversary I noticed these strange lunar domes again on the box of the magnificent T in a Circle Moonbus-relative, the SPACE VEHICLE newly discovered by Ferryman:
To make comparison easier here they are in close-up:
Top - Takeuchi rubbers
Bottom - T in a Circle Space Vehicle
So, as is the way of all Swordheads I got to wondering about the origin of these moon domes. And I think I may just have it. Check out the fabulous painting 'MARS COLONY' by the iconic US NASA Space Artist Robert McCall (copyrighted image so please look on the McCall Studios website). You can see the lettering K-17 clearly as appears on the Takeuchi card and I would say that the T in a Circle box art is almost a straight lift of McCall's dome image complete with astronauts! It's undated but I'm assuming it's the '60's (anyone confirm the date?). So, like his Earth to Moon Shuttle/ Nuclear Ferry painting, Mr. McCall has influenced even more space toy box art. Any more domes anyone?
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