Ahead of the Moonbase crews outing at the weekend to Bolton Train and Dinky Fair, I thought it would be good to see an often overlooked Dinky space toy, the Lunar Rover. I picked mine up recently in a box of old cars and it was missing the astronauts. But a friend of mine had the Dinky kit version of the model years ago and somehow I ended up with the figures. Now, I can only find one, but I also came across a near relative from the Zygon War Chariot! The rover itself is a basic model, with a large handle at centre, to steer all four wheels. The body lacks detail, showing only essential parts, but its still a nice toy and would stand up to being driven through the dirt by small hands. This version seems to be the official release, as the kit form required the builder to paint the model and the supplied paint was pretty basic, as can be seen on the hand painted astronaut, with gold visor smudged away!
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| ZYGON WAR CHARIOT (EBAY) |
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| GALACTIC WAR CHARIOT |
Mine has the more convincing paint scheme of bare metal and bronze fenders. I wonder if that was the kit?
ReplyDeleteA lovely little die cast, and as you say generally overlooked.
ReplyDeleteI note that the white plastic cover on the steering lever is from the Dinky SPV.
Probably kev - Model 1027 was the kit form and appears as bare metal with orange fenders.
ReplyDeletenever noticed that SPV cover before, mine was the early release with the metal tab. The two later Chariots had a field day re-using anderson parts!
ReplyDeleteIsn't the whole metal firing mechanism and missile off the SPV? and is it the same missile as FAB 1?
ReplyDeleteLovely rover. Only street legal on the moon!
Galactic War Chariot has Shado 2 Mobile firing mechanism, missile and Macs Car engine! I think the missile was standard between Fab 1, SPV and mobile, just different colours. Triang also nicked it for the Moonmobile toy too, in white body and blue rubber tip.
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