UFO Space Tank

I just love a good tank and especially if its a space tank, too! I was lucky enough to win this green UFO tank on ebay recently, even though it was advertised as being in damaged condition. It has lost the missile rack from the back of the turret and the four missiles it presumably contained, but it did arrive with the great 'fly-swatter' radar screen and two missiles still in place. Havent managed to get it going yet, but as the mechanism is pretty simple, i doubt that will be a problem.

The UFO Tank has graced the blog before, courtesy of collector Arto who provided the shots of the orange boxed version shown here. Whilst the tank has no direct relation to the UFO tv series, the makers have plundered the show for artwork for the box which clearly shows the Shado Interceptor, Lunar Module, the helijet and also the SWORD Moon Crawler!

The toy itself seems to be based on a standard army tank chassis, possibly designed around the US Army M60 Medium Tank. The real life similarity ends there as a large rocket launching turret has been placed on top. This bears a close similarity to a robot head, having two large square 'eyes'. Its easy to imagine the maker GT7 taking a stock tank body and borrowing a few ideas from a robot production line to create a space tank. I first came across this toy in the mid seventies, just prior to the onslaught of Star Wars.