HOVER CRAFT

Further to my post the other day about the Hover Moon Base here's a look at the header card. Wotan thinks he can see a Booster Rocket on there but I think he's been drinking too much Covonia cough mixture. Still it's worth a look as it does depict several other spacecraft.

When you compare the Moon Base header with that of the other Hover [my guess] carded SWORD/ Spacex knockoffs you see the differences of style and content. However both do appear to picture a small domed craft similar to that which appeared in the Jetsons cartoon.

I only assume that this header card is Hover as it shows the exact Scramble Bug that appears in the Hover Moon Base set seen below again.

The fabulous little Moon Rover portrayed on the Space Glider header card is fascinating. A small rover is pictured in the drawing of the Century 21 Project SWORD Moon Base Set in the range's Official Manual [shown circled in white below] and I have often wondered if the two rovers were connected in some way, Hover knocking off SWORD again if you include the Scramble Bug.

We can actually see what the Rover looked like as Wotan photographed his own years ago as seen below in glorious colour. You can see that it has the same bright orange serrated wheels as the Scramble Bug in the Hover Moon Base set. I remember Wotan saying that they were made of soft plastic. Wote's rover appears to be missing the satellite dish but otherwise looks terrific.

The other two known 'Hover' [?] space miniatures are the Space Adventure and the Space Glider as pictured on their cards below [M.McLellan collection]

I think that the Hover series of miniature space toys, despite being knockoffs of SWORD and Spacex, did have some merit. A moon rover has not materialised in any other of our beloved space toy lines like Apollo Moon Exploring and Hover went were even the great Tri-ang dared not to 'tread' and gave us a miniature Scramble Bug. I'd love to see more of these Hover toys if any readers have any boxed, carded or loose ones at home.