Despite never having owned one as a kid or adult, the Tri-ang SpaceX MOLAB is one of my favourite SpaceX toys and I especially love the card art as pictured above. As discussed before, I believe it to have been inspired by the MOLAB cover of Rocket Stories from July 1953 by American artist Alex Schomberg seen below.
On a completely different note, I never thought that the US Golden Astronaut series of toys included a MOLAB until I read this recently on WORTH POINT from 2009:
GOLDEN ASTRONAUT - MOLAB SERIES NO. 507 DELUXE DIECAST CHASSIS
AUTHENTIC VEHICLES OF THE FUTURE
SCALED TO SPACE ENGINEERS' DRAWINGS
1970 MULTIPLE TOYMAKERS, N.Y. A DIVISION OF MINER INDUSTRIES, INC
MADE IN THE BRITISH CROWN COLONY OF HONG KONG
WOW!!!! APPOX. 40 YEARS OLD AND STILL IN IT'S UNOPENED PACK, IT'S ALL IN IT'S ORIGINAL CONDITION. PRETTY COOL CAR. THIS WOULD MAKE A GREAT ADDITION TO ANYONE'S VINTAGE COLLECTION.
Alas, there is no picture included. Was there really a Golden Astronaut MOLAB?
NEWSFLASH! Mike B has kindly sent me this amazing picture he saved from Ebay . Here we the American Golden Astronaut MOLAB and it's boxed! Wow! What a fantastic toy! Is it bigger than the SpaceX one I wonder and are there any more in the die-cast chassis series? Thanks Mike! Result!
I've got an old photo from eBay showing the molab in It's G A packaging. If I remember rightly it was a buy it now from the States.
ReplyDeleteI'd be glad to send it to you.
It's exactly the same toy, a lot of the second wave of toys have metal bSes, lama, lunar transporter and surveyor all have sturdy die cast bases. Clearly branded spacex.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see the painting sports the old smaller style wheels too, like the forklift.
ReplyDeleteaw shoot, scooped again... I'm the lucky owner of that Molab, and I can confirm it's the same size. And one of four later Spacex toys that made it to the US, the other three being the ones mentioned by Wote. Small additional detail: my first Molab does have a metal chassis, but unmarked!
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Paul
Amazing Paul, I didn't even know they existed! Such is the wonderful world of SPaceX and SWORD, always something new. The LAMA, LUNA Transporter and Surveyor must look great in their boxes. Wonder why Multiple Toymakers opted for window boxes rather than the backing cards that SpaceX had? You must have been chuffed when you landed that MOLAB! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyin' the Space Art Woodsy. No matter if it's a header card, magazine, or book cover, it's almost all really neat.
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