MORE TOY RECYCLING: ALPS LUNAR EXPLORER AND THE MINIFLEX SPACE SAFARI SET

Yesterday I talked about the Alps Lunar Explorer pilot and the Project SWORD Scramble Bug perhaps being the same seated plastic figure.

Well, you can't keep a good pilot down it would seem as the little fellow turned up again in the Miniflex Space Safari set. In fact, as in the Alps Explorer, two seated pilots were included in the crawler vehicle and one in the tube-fronted vehicle. There was even a standing figure included too. 

You can see the seated figures in these close-ups of super pictures we've featured on the blog before.

According to Vectis the year of manufacture of this toy was 1970. This would place it three years after the SWORD Scramble BUG came out and four years after the release of the Alps Lunar Explorer if 1966 was its release year. It would seem then that this Miniflex set was yet another toy that recycled the Alps pilots.

But I don't think the recycling stopped there. Looking at the whole set pictured [Dutch version] I can see several other parts from different toys!

The crawler five- legs were clearly influenced by the Billy Blastoff crawler, below [pic: pinterest], and could well be the very same ones if anyone who has both toys can confirm this.

Similarly the transparent beaker, which houses a seated Alps explorer, looks like similar tubes found on this Operation X 500 Rocket Base by Deluxe Reading/ Topper.

Perhaps the most fun connection of all is with the black ribbed pipe coming out of the clear cup above. My guess is that this is a flexible arm off one of Ideal's Zeroid line, either Zerak or Zemo, as you can see below [pic: Scoop]:

There are other more circumstantial similarities: the clear dome on the crawler reminds me of a similar dome on what I seem to recall is a Yonezawa or 21 Century Robo Tractor or Trailer in blue but for the life of me cannot think what its called! The robot may have a peaked cap on.

What do you think readers and can you see anything else?