Back in the early 1990's I bought a Chinese tinplate Moonship like the one pictured above. It was unboxed and only years later did I see what the box was like as one appeared flattened in the book Future Toys by Toni Emchowitz shown above. Since then the Moonship, with its Century 21 connection, has been a regular guest on the blog from its very outset, as in my 2008 post Moonship Meltdown, where I challenged anyone to find another Moonship and as such is one of our original blog legends.
Like any good legend not a great deal happens for years and then something amazing comes along and socks you in the mush! This lovely clean Moonship, above, surfaced on Ebay this September, but it wasn't the toy that was unusual, it was this fabulous and completely new box! It blew me and fellow Moonship fan Arto away!
Other than the shape, its completely different to the other known box. Its almost art deco! It features the word 'Foreign' for a start - what exactly does that mean on a toy box? Equally as exciting is the copyright year of 1965 printed on the box side and pictured in the image below. 1965! That's earlier than Century 21's Moonship from 1967! I had always thought that it was the other way round and the tinplate ship came later. Slam dunk! The tinplate Moonship is dated at last. Legendary!
These images are courtesy of Ebay. Any further Moonshop photos, sightings, observations or anecdotes are always welcome at Moonbase Central!
POSTSCRIPT:
I've just noticed the similarity between the way Moonship is written on the two Chinese boxes sides, with a sort of handwritten flourish and those of the later Century 21 and AHI toys. Do you agree?
Chinese 1
Chinese 2
C21
AHI
Great discovery Woodsy, a good rocket for November 5th!
ReplyDeleteNot sure I would place much on the fact that the lettering is similar, but it's interesting that in both cases this was called a "Moonship", rather than changing the name.
I do like the plastic ship, but have to say the tin versions are spectacularly ugly, especially the box art on the new chinese one! But then ive always been anti-tin!
ReplyDeleteHow much did the one on eBay sell for??!
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous, sorry, we don't really talk about Ebay sale prices on Moonbase Central. Maybe google for a completed auction somewhere in the world for this toy.
Delete