“A shot for the folks back home!” |
First off, I came across a nice example of the Cherilea Space Pod, which has been around for over a decade since the early sixties. Cherilea are perhaps famous for a very early Dalek toy, as part of the Swoppet line, which was very briefly accompanied by a Mechanoid figure. For various reasons, very few of the latter were made and Cherilea re-tooled the moulds and added parts to create a space module, to go with their successful line of Swoppet spacemen. You can clearly see the Mechanoid shape in the body of the pod, but the few extant examples of the original show that it was in fact a different beast.
http://thespacemuseum.net/cherilea-article
The yellow/orange pod is my most recent find, whereas the silver one was a gift from Woodsy. Both are missing some small accessories, such as a ladder and some retro rockets, as well as the original engine bell on both models. Some kit bashing provided substitutes for both - aside from ladders so far - and a lick of orange paint on one of the orange legs. All the toys are soft vinyl-like plastic and subject to a little deformation and in some cases chewing - the pale blue chap had his flag nipped off by an overenthusiastic child or a curious dog. Either way, the Cherilea Pods and Crescent Spacemen make a great match!
In a similar, but much later vein, I received a fabulous box of goodies from the ever generous Terranova in the states, which included some excellent Hot Wheels Action toys, such as this lovely Planet Micro LEM, which is only a touch larger than the Apollo Moon Exploring version, but much more detailed. It has some die cast elements too. I will exhibit the rest of the range shortly, but for now I just wanted to mark the moment with these quick snaps.
Oh the things we do in our youth!
ReplyDeleteI had a Cherilea Mechanoid (as well as some Daleks) but i couldn't afford a Major Matt Mason Space Station, so I built my own out of chipboard offcuts and a Triang Lionel Thomas Edison package cover. Being more realisticly minded than Mattel, who had an open frame design, my Space Station had an airlock hatch, so Sgt. Storm could take his helmet off in safety.
The wheeled base of the Mechanoid made a perfect hand wheel for the airlock!
The finished toy was one of the things I gave away when I emigrated to Australia...
As a kid, I really liked the Cherilea pod. I tended to use it with smaller plastic Spacemen.
ReplyDeleteThe beautiful photography adds so much atmosphere. Please don't turn on the lights!
ReplyDeleteBest -- Paul
The lighting was kind of born of necessity, as I didn't have room to spread out and was restricted to a shelf in the Man Cave! Its always a balancing act between showing the toys detail and capturing atmosphere. I'm quite pleased with the group shot though!
DeleteBill
Beautiful toys, beautifully photographed as always!
ReplyDeleteThose are some neat toys Bill! and as always luv your photographs!!
ReplyDeleteDear Moonbase,
ReplyDeleteI thought that you might be interested to know that the spacemen that you show were given away as free gifts with Kellogs Rice Krispies; see:
https://cerealoffers.com/Kelloggs/Rice_Krispies/1960s/Spacemen/spacemen.html
They were designed by Len Carter, then the Executive Secretary of the British Interplanetary Society (of which I am a Fellow); the ship in the background in the advert above is the BIS Moonship; see:
https://www.spaceflighthistories.com/post/bis-lunar-mission
Oddly enough, instead of using the BIS space suit as a model, Len Carter used a suit drawn by Fred L Wolff for “Worlds in Space” by Martin Caidin!
Hope this is interest!
Grif
I only had one space pod with my 4 spacemen in the box. Was I ripped off in 196X?
ReplyDelete