The main rocket is made of 2mm Styrene sheet that has lasted remarkably well, without age yellowing. The perspex bubble on the roof was vacuum formed from a record player cover and the nose and stern were carved from styrofoam, cast in plaster and formed from resin and glassfibre.
The ship is meant to float with it's boat shaped hull, but I was always to scared to test it out! The small airlock contains a slow friction powered tractor made from rectangular plastic draw inserts and a yellow pill bottle for the windscreen.
Opening the airlock hatch pulls a lever, which slides open a door sealing the upper deck crawl tube, which allows access to the animal cargo areas. A ramp for the upper deck deploys when the main hatch is lowered. The rocket engine is a humble red plastic bicycle reflector -remember them?
The human figures and alien creatures are all made from Das air dry clay with model paint colours.
...and all because I didn't have a proper Space Safari toy as a kid!
Looey,
Oz Base
That's great!
ReplyDeleteThat's such a cool design. I love the mechanisms involved with the ramps and doors! It's great that it's survived, probably testament to that canny packaging design! Bill
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of the Orbitus, a small robot device, from a story in one of the William Hartnell 'Dr Who' Annuals.
ReplyDeleteIt does, I think the Orbitus was in The Dalek World annual. I have often thought about making one.
DeleteI'd never heard of Orbitus. Although I'll admit the name "Ark II" was nicked from the 70's Filmation show!
DeleteI am glad the Ark II has survived, after all your hard work. Well beyond my scratch building skills.
ReplyDeleteThat is glorious! SFZ
ReplyDeleteWow, what an unusual toy! It hearkens back to the days when wooden Noah's Ark toys were popular among children (or perhaps it's better to say, the toys were popular among God-fearing Christian parents who bought the toys for their kids).
ReplyDeleteSo cool what you did forty years ago Looey, a sign of things to come for sure. How amazing and well-realised, a full comic strip and a toy, box and figures! There is something Dan Darish about the ship, which I like. Did you do it in Blighty?
ReplyDeleteNo, this was in Australia.
DeleteIf I'd stayed in England my job trajectory would have been very different. Australia in the 70's and 80's was Cowboy Country.
As a job age kid I had no idea there was a local film industry, so a design career was the best I could hope for. I didn't have the maths for Industrial Design and I didn't consider myself an "Artist", so Visual Communication were out. That left Interior Design which had the most modelmaking. I got my 9nt Des Degree, but decided I was never going to do it for a living. I started as an Architectural model maker. After a year or so, I discovered a firm that provided special props and costumes for the Advertising industry. After a year of paying my dues there, I decided "I can do this for myself" and went freelance. I did various jobs until I encroached on the territory of Make Up Artist Bob McCarron who gave me a talking to. A year later he offered me a position on what would become an Ozploitation Classic... Razorback
What a charming and creative toy.
ReplyDelete