Last month I acquired a bundle of cake toppers from America, which I blogged briefly at the time. I said I would talk about the rocket topper in more detail and you'll see why.
The rocket topper came with the Major Matt Mason topper [read more about this MMM item on the fab Wildtoys site] in a bag marked Create A Cake and hailing from Ohio. I believe that the shop keeper bagged them up together back in the Sixties.
The rocket itself is the reason why I got the toppers in the first place. It looked like an Apollo Saturn from Project SWORD!
The rear states the name of the maker in raised capitals: EGC, CINCINATTI OHIO, MADE IN HONG KONG, the same maker as the Major Matt Mason topper.
Initially I thought the topper was based on the Century 21 version of the Apollo Saturn from 1967 featured below [1].
But then I found this ad for the Sears 3-Stage Rocket [or Rocket Base] from their Christmas Catalogue 1966 and bingo! An almost perfect match! So, I'll stick my neck out and say the topper also dates from 1966, which makes it one year older than the C21 SWORD fleet.
[check out the HUGE Sears 1966 Catalogue yourself here - couldn't see any Major Matt in there though].
The Apollo Saturn topper is only a couple of inches tall, the same size as the SpaceX Mobile HQ.
Here it is making friends with the gang! The icing on the cake!
That Sears catalog is nothing short of astonishing. I don't remember this particular edition (I wouldn't have been looking at a catalog until the following year) but I remember so many of those items! Not just the toys, but the clothes and appliances and housewares. I wore outfits like those! I can't imagine a more perfect time capsule of suburban American clothing and home furnishings circa 1966 than this.
ReplyDeleteI'll never know how Moon McDare could have passed me by so completely, though.
It is amazing isn't it Richard! So big as well and toys are only a small part of it! I suppose they were similar in the UK thinking about it. Family friends and neighbours were often agents for the catalogue companies and got some commission if they created sales. Sort of a cottage industry. Not sure if its still like that. The best thing I ever got from Kay's catalogue through my sister I think was a mock Samurai Sword. Totally blunt of course. I still have it after 40 years!
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