To Infinity - Or Next Door's Garden

Woodsy's cabinet of East German toys reminds me of the great outdoor toys I used to enjoy as a kid, some of my favourites being catapult launched toys. Quercetti made a range of rockets and aircraft, that shot into the air and after reaching a certain height, sprung open to release a chute, or as is the case of the bigger MACH X, a separate capsule. The TOR rocket also had a special accessory, the Rotor which as packed into the fuselage and released along with the parachute, to twirl safely to earth separately.

Air and water powered rockets were also a big draw, such as the Merit Lunar Rocket and I discovered this odd German version on ebay a while back. Filling it part way with water and then compressing it with the air pump, shoots it high into the air to deliver the propeller satellite. As its quite a rare piece, i've never had the courage to try it to be honest! There's a similar rocket tucked away in the glass cabinet in the museum.

Besides catapult launchers, there were always the hand thrown toys on parachutes, not as much fun, but a lot quicker to launch.

Here we have the SWORD capsule from the Saturn Rocket and the neat MACH X capsule. Not really a throwable toy, but a nice model, is the Dinky Apollo capsule from the Seaking Helicopter model. Next door is a cheap parachute toy from Truro museum.

Lone Star made an excellent little Mercury / Gemini type capsule in the 60's, with a parachute - when the capsule hits the ground, a lever flicks open the cockpit and unceremoniously throws the astronaut out!

Airfix Toys had a good range of outdoor models, as you might expect, including the Arrowcopter. I found one of these in a toy store in Falmouth a few years back, while on holiday. I took it back to the caravan park and went out to a big field behind the camp to try it. Not knowing what to expect, I drew back the catapult quite a way and launched it vertically, into the air. It shot off like the proverbial arrow and I never saw it again! The idea is that it ascends like a rocket, but after losing velocity, falls back on helicopter wings like a sycamore seed. Lord knows where it ended up. I found a cheap modern version more recently, with an LED light in it, which is much easier to track!

Finally a toy I saw on TV adverts and coveted immediately - the Thundershot. Around 1976, it was always on with kids tv being blasted into the sky by pneumatic power and sailing back to Earth on a chute. I was desperate to have one, but never saw them anywhere. Naturally, one popped up in its box on ebay, so I bought it - for a bit more than its original retail and took off into the garden to try it. Playing safe, I went out into the farmers field behind the house, as I didn't want another Arrowcopter incident!

 The basic idea is two cardboard tubes about 2' long and the rocket sitting on the top. Pushing one tube down into the other compresses the air and blasts the rocket away.

 At least thats what the box said. I spent a good hour pumping and pushing relentlessly on the tube but the best I could manage was a limp pop and the rocket dropping off the end of the tube onto the grass. Ah well, once more I was a victim of advertising!