Looking through some pictures of box art I thought I'd compare Moon Prospectors. Above is the Century 21 toy's and below is the Imai UFO model's. There's is a striking similarity between the vehicles don't you think? Yes they are both of the same toy but the style looks similar.
We know that Imai's art is by Japan's Shigeru Komatsuzaki. Could it be that Century 21 hired him as well? Pure speculation I know but it's New Year and my mind's wandering! After 5 years of blogging, we still don't know who Century 21 used as box artists [for any of their toys] so its worth a punt just to speculate. What do you think readers?
It looks to me as though the Imai box art has used either the Sword model or the Sword box lid as a reference- I think I can even see a trace of the red Sword badge on the Imai prospector?
ReplyDeleteWell-spotted Andy, amazing!
ReplyDeleteWell done Andy, its a SWORD log alright. Looks like Komatsuzaki has plagiarised the art directly. He's turned the angle slightly, but otherwise its a direct lift.
ReplyDeleteHe was active in the mid sixties doing box art, so its entirely feasible, but I think the C21 has a certain english reserve to it. The moonscape is almost Bonestellian. (yes, I know he wasn't english!)
Perhaps you were already aware of this, but the Lunar Prospector was an actual NASA/JPL proposal for a vehicle that would soft land and deploy a rover to explore the lunar surface, an intended follow-on for the Surveyor landers. To my recollection, this is a pretty accurate rendition of the rover as seen in several contractor artworks that appeared widely in early space books and magazine articles (though it's now so obscure, a Google search has turned up only text, and no artwork). So it's possible that both paintings are independently cribbed from the same contractor concept painting.
ReplyDeleteWe were vaguely aware that it was a real vehicle, but finding actual documentary evidence has been tough.
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