A STACK OF LP's

A Quick Orbit of LP Spacemen on Ebay

 

I've often toyed with the idea of collecting LP spacemen and the last couple of months would have been a good time to start. Ebays US and UK have featured a whole range of colours and sizes of the little astronauts. Despite their relative inexpensiveness and high frequency compared with other space toys, I have still managed to refrain from launching into a collection. One day I might give in! Resistance is futile!

Readers of the blog will know of LP's SpaceX and Golden Astronaut credentials. There is even a tantalising illustration of some of these fellas manning the Moon Base Set in the Project SWORD manual! What a family tree! Lets have a look at a few recent LP's, clones and friends on fleabay.

 

First up we have these greys from Greece. Made by PETALO these fellows came in a pink plastic tub, which oddly enough contained a white motorbike model on a sprue! Unlike many LP clones these are expensive for some reason. I've also seen Greek games containing similar spacemen. There's a Petalo set in Athens, Greece up on Ebay at the mo if you're feeling flush! I've no idea what the makers mark is on the base. Anyone?

 

Next up we have this trio of basic whites, which I must say I did find intriguing. The very rawness of thier look suggested either possible prototypes or pretty ropey clones. Having consulted Maverick Collecting of SmallScaleWorld I settled on the latter. Should you wish to find out for yourself, these US-based clones are still available here. The seller's description is, well, emotional.

This third and carded set of whites, STARSHIP GALAXY UNIT ONE reminds of the Flash Gordon and L'il Jack carded sets we've seen before. The seller confirmed that they are branded LP in the description. Sold for £6.20 in the US. PS. There's a different STARSHIP GALAXY UNIT ONE set on our friend Maverick Collecting's SMALL SCALE WORLD blog.

Described by the seller as 'first issue with hand painted detail', this handsome threesome of painted whites are marked LP and sold for a bargain £2.50 in the UK. For some reason this is how I imagine the SWORD Moon Base Set figures would look if we could just locate one!

Last and definitely least in scale is this beautiful bagged gang of tiny 1 inch tall yellow spacemen, who come complete with a bite-size LEM. Made by BLUE SHIELD for the Great Southern Corp, Memphis, Tennessee, USA and titled Apollo Capsule, this is a set I'd love to see compared to their SpaceX and Apollo Moon Exploring chums. This is my favourite lot from this quick tour around LPdom on Ebay this Winter and they went for £3.41 in the US. Has anyone got any of these Blue Shield toys?

 

 

For more information on LP spacemen then consult our own Paul Vreede's excellent guide to the origin of SpaceX/ Golden Astronaut astronauts, also three excellent paper articles in  One Inch Warrior Magazine [blog deal no longer available I'm afraid] and Maverick Collecting's LP overview on this blog and his own utterly brilliant Small Scale World blog.