Transports of Delight

It’s a very rare occurrence lately to find any Spacex II models, so when one made a brief appearance on eBay, I had to snap it up. Although the Lunar Transporter was among the first of the models that I came across in the early seventies, it has probably faired the worst at my overenthusiastic hands.

Original illustration hacked out of the backing card

Like the Nuclear Pulse, the LT-10 originally appeared on the card illustrations as a blue version, so when I eventually got one and saw that it was gaudy orange, I thought it would look so much better if I painted it. So in my infinite teenage wisdom, I set to with a tin of Humbrol Gloss Black enamel. Needless to say, it looked a mess and destroyed the decals into the bargain. It would remain so for several decades, until I figured out a safe way to get (most) of the paint off. Unfortunately, it was almost impossible to remove it all, as it had bled into the joints and looked messy. So I resigned myself to the fact that I had ruined a rare toy and did not deserve to have such things again.

Original painted Version

Original Stripped and Restored Version

The rarity and scarcity of the toys means that prices, when they do appear, are invariably stiff, so I was very pleased when a 90% complete model appeared with a Buy it Now tag of just £20. The only defect was the chrome engine nacelle was missing and the canopy had a little paint on i

New Model with Chrome Engine Replaced

So when it arrived,  fetched out my old version and it the engine cover on the new one, making a very respectable complete model. A little elbow grease and some WD40 took care of the stray paint.

This now left me with the old model looking pretty dilapidated without the engine, but Woodsy arrived to the rescue, with a Crest toothpaste lid, which painted chrome, makes an excellent replacement!

Hot on the heels of the Spacex model, I came across the Matchbox Skybusters ‘Dream Chaser’ - a real world design for a reusable shuttle replacement, designed by Sierra Nevada Corporation, with a proposed crew capacity of 7.

It’s a fine looking die cast model, slightly larger than the average Skybusters plane. It has no moving parts, or features, but is extremely accurate for its size. Matchbox previously released a tiny X-33 Lifting Body in their standard car range, which is much smaller.

Addendum: Kevin pointed out last night, the similarity to the original BBC 'Star Cops' shuttle prop from the series! Photo courtesy of Google