I was intrigued when I saw this old AHI carousel toy on Fleabay. The description clearly stated that its from 1962 and the Disney Moonliner rocket on the box art backs this up. The toy sold for nearly £1000.
It wasn't any of this that I found interesting though. It was the pilot bays in the flying rockets as you can see below. Am I dreaming again or do they remind you of R2D2 sat in Luke's X-Wing [pictured below]? A whole 15 years earlier!
Nope, not dreaming. I see just what you mean. But it also puts me in mind of those gun turrets on WWII aircraft. Not sure which ones I mean, but I might be thinking of Lancasters? (Help me out here, please). And weren't there some smaller WWII planes with a single pilot up front and a rear machine gun dome set back from it? (wish I could think of an example, but I can't).
ReplyDeleteBut Star Wars battle sequences were heavily influenced by WWII battle scenes, weren't they? It puzzles me that the guns seems to use lasers or plasma bolts BUT have recoil! LOL
Found one! I meant planes like this:
ReplyDeleteDefiant
That's a link, by the way.
ReplyDeleteYes Toadster, Lancasters and Defiants, I see what you mean. So the droid-like gun turret or fish-eye shooting blisters were design featues on war planes for years! Excellent! I saw a similar modern Schylling tin toy carousel with rockets today in a shop [like this http://www.schylling.com/products/productdetail/ROCKET+RIDE+CAROUSEL/part_number=RR/329.2.1.1.103157.0.0.0.0?pp=12& ]. I still can't help thinking that that old AHI Kiddy City carousel looks incredibley new with it's plastic propellers. Still it went for a grand so what do I know!
ReplyDeleteYes, it does seem to be in remarkably good condition.
ReplyDelete