Earlier in the summer I came across this beautiful toy by Estrela of Brazil on an excellent website called Brinquedos Raros. The title of the rifle translates roughly to Machine Gun Spatial Patrol of Space. Of great interest to us in SWORDland is the fabulous artwork! You will immediately notice that the box lid is graced with no less than the Booster Rocket and a red Moon Base LEM. A Lost in Space robot joins the fun too together with astronauts and moon man, which look vaguely familar but I just can't place them.
The rifle is no less interesting. On the butt we can clearly see a MEV2 a la SpaceX! It's a veritable SWORD-SpaceX rifle!
All of these SWORD-SpaceX images are likely to have been lifted from Ed Valigursky's artwork from the important Man and Space book. The website dates the toy exactly to 06-03-1969.
We have seen Estrela featuring MEV2 before on it's toys in the form of a robot. More to follow on this!
The astronauts seem to be wearing the Mercury-Gemini style of spacesuit, so suppose the inspiration comes from them or Major Matt Mason! The bug eyed monster reminds me of the artwork on some of the Revell and Monogram hot rod cars in the 50s and 60s. eg look at the Ed Roth Revell kits at the bottom of this page - http://s3.invisionfree.com/bogleech/ar/t1017.htm
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