I (still) wish I was a Spaceman

Way back in the summer of 68, my dad came home from work and handed me a small brown paper bag. As was his custom when working away from home, or when he got paid, he'd always bring me a little something. At the time, I was languishing in the afternoon sun, in a round inflatable paddling pool, bright red with a floor covered in bold pictures of viking longships. Careful not to wet the bag, I opened it and my 7 year old jaw dropped. Inside was Triang Interspace Miniatures Space Patrol 1.

 From that moment, I was hooked. My previous ambition to become an astronaut was permanently cemented and a love affair with space toys and Spacex in particular, began. Now, 46 years on, that passion is undiminished and fuelled by the discoveries made by blog contributors.

The Space Patrol 1 itself has a colourful history too, as this series of articles shows. An early catalogue advert for Spacex shows a lemon yellow variant, like the artist impression above and cheap copies of Spacex also saw a lime green version appear on an unmarked card by the Linda company. The photo below is courtesy of modeller Barry Ford.

But for me, probably one of the most exciting events, was when custom model maker Kevin Davies decided to bring Spacex up to date and add a touch of authenticity...

Kevins wonderful model is much larger than the original toy and packed with detail. In a moment of wishful thinking for a new modern line of toys, I speculated what a 21st century line of Space toys might look like..

Maybe one day.. here's to the future.