My project to collect Project Sword toys in miniature has lead me to think about a similar project for Spacex toys. Inevitably collecting Spacex/ Golden Astronaut at different scales would have their own intrinsic pros and cons. The motivation for doing this in the first place might be as a diversion from collecting SpaceX itself or a collection to assemble once your SpaceX/GA fleet is completed or an possibly interesting area in itself.
For completeness I'll talk about collecting SpaceX toys at a larger scale first. When I say larger, I mean Project SWORD toy-sized, which I've discussed before on the blog. Some SWORD toys are already large versions of Spacex: Moon Prospector, Nuclear Ferry, Space Glider and Booster Rocket. Some though could be pulled from other toy and model ranges, including SpaceX itself, as pictured here. For a full description of these look here. Such a collection would be very expensive and time consuming to bring together but would look very very impressive on a display shelf.
Secondly, you could collect SpaceX/ Golden Astronaut knockoffs, which are usually SpaceX toy sized. In effect you would create a knockoff SpaceX fleet. To collect such a fleet you would have a whole range of SpaceX bootlegs and pirates to choose from such as Hover, Sitap, Linda, 2005 and Beyond, Apollo Moon Exploring, Moon Traffic and more. Some of these knockoffs are rare and expensive but with sufficient time and funds you could pull it off. This way of collecting would give you the best chance of as complete a fleet as possible. I would particularly enjoy collecting a loose, uncarded fleet in this way, but would have to re-mortgage the house first I reckon! There are a few different makes of knockoffs pictured at the top of this mixed squadron from Bill's collection.
Last but not least and my personal favourite, is to collect Spacex in simpler plastic versions. Some of these are smaller than SpaceX, which is my real area of interest, but some are a similar in size. The theme of this collection would be SpaceX style craft, similar but not necessarily replicas, manufactured in simple, coloured plastic. The big attraction of such a collection is the relative inexpensiveness of the toys, which can be found in dimestore bags and cereal premiums on Ebay, dimestore toy sites and flea markets amongst other outlets.
My own meagre collection, which began earlier this year, is pictured below, I hope to add a few more simple plastic toys to it soon. I call it FakeX or Dimestore Astronaut!
SpaceX/Imperial Toy sets have really started to fascinate me, but I'm afraid to branch out much further - don't think I could afford it :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff! If I could find just find three of the toys displayed in the center photo I'd be happy. Oh, Ed; I haven't been able to leave you comments which is the only way I've ben able to speak with you. Miss you buddy.
ReplyDelete