X - The Unknown

Its certainly true that its possible to learn something new everyday and one thing I find about this blog is that there are new and exciting discoveries to be made in the realm of space toys.

I was utterly amazed to see Woodstocks earlier piece about the newly emerged X-80 Space capsule as Ive had one sitting in my cupboard for the last two years! I picked up the pair on ebay an for some considerable time assumed they were not directly connected and were just a couple of Hong Kong space toys from similar series. It was only on closer examination that I realised the small Mercury style capsule plugged into the back of the Gemini and they were part of the same toy. Perhaps it was my logical assumption that the two ships were not directly contemporary with each other and could never 'dock' or maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention to them as I had bought in some Spacex II toys from the same seller and I was obsessing over them. Anyway, its a great little toy and has the number '240' printed on the back - the larger capsule seems to have a loose marble in the nose cone as I can hear it roll about! Mine is missing both astronauts from the Gemini and the catch is a little loose on the release, but apart from that its survived rather well!

On the capsule front, I also have a Clifford Gemini. This arrived without original nosecone and suffering a few glue stains, but the pilots had held their nerve and not ejected. I wotanised a new nose cone from a mouthwash bottle.

In a similar vein are two lovely vinyl moneyboxes - which I will cover in more detail later - commemorating the Mercury flights.

And finally, the Marx 'Mercury Capsule' with interior seat to fit one of the MPC size astronauts.