I've often thought that the closest we will ever get to the fabled Project SWORD Moon Base Set is the Spacex Moon Base Set or Super Set. Above is an incomplete example in a battle-damaged box, which appeared on Ebay 2005. I've never seen any of the large Spacex sets in the flesh but they look stunning. Wonder what Superset 2 involved? Interestingly fellow Spacexers have made me aware of the similarity bewteen the plastic moonscapes found in the Supersets and the Johnny Astro toy [below]. Great for completing a Superset if your'e missing the moonscape! Makes sense as both were made by Tri-ang but can anyone confirm that they are actually exactly the same?
Photo above - Ebay 2010
No they're not the same, Paul. Although both moonscapes have similar-looking moulded details, the Johnny Astro version (which predates the Spacex version by a good year or so) is some 25-30% larger in size.
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Paul
Wow, that set sure brings the memories flooding back.
ReplyDeleteI got it one Christmas after seeing it in a shop months before...I just could not wait for it and Christmas seemed to take forever to arrive that year!
I don't think I ever played with any toy I ever had so much. Most of my space toys went to my fiendish cousin but not this one, I actually played it to death. I have one or two little remnants left and a couple of golden astronauts.
I remember the lunar surface so well, almost every feature, especially the indentation in the upper right hand corner, it was nice and deep!
I used to get the plasticine out and make weird thin mountains and stick them onto that bit of lunar surface too, even inside the big crater...yes I committed some real geological heresy!
Thanks for the memories!
Johnny Astro. Oh yes! Never could get the balloon lander to land in the crater, it just used to fly off round the living room. The plastic crater came in handy to pose the Dinky UFO interceptor on though.
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