This beautiful card art for the LP Space Explorer has been cleaned up by our very own Man in Las Vegas, Mister Ed Berg. It appears with a really beautiful set of Ed's photographs of the toy itself on his own ubercool blog Toys and Stuff.
I was so intrigued by the graphics on the card that I thought I'd have a go at trying to identify the parts so here goes:
1. The strange colander-like sphere I think I've seen before - on the cover of this ANALOG magazine, The Trouble With Telstar by John Berryman from June 1963.
2. The Rocket with the rear wheel and front antenna I think is another LP toy as well, the blue rocket shown here next to the red Space Explorer in Ferryman's collection.
In fact I think the card illustration is a re-use, albeit very basic, of this LP box art
3. The small ringed planet reminds me of the LP dome car but short of that it could just be a random illustration done for the card.
4. The ring space station I have no idea about!
5. The striking zooming Dyna-Soar-like rocket in the centre of the backing card does ring a bell but my mind's gone as blank as the vastness of space.
Any ideas about the missing elements readers?
Ya know Woodsy, that small rocket leaving the long white contrail looks like the last stage of the rocket from the mobile launch platform. or.....?
ReplyDeleteNo idea about the other details, but -very- well done on finding the Telstar link. Spot on. Eagle-eye Woods does it again!
ReplyDeleteBest -- Paul
Cheers Paul. And I see what you mean Ed about that small rocket!
ReplyDelete