Extended Moon Mission

Having found the two Matt Mason grail piece boxes, I wanted to bring the rest of my models up to par. The Firebolt Space Cannon had been damaged back in the day, when it had trundled down some stone steps at home, shearing off the turret. The delicate laser rod inside had been snapped too, so I needed a way to repair it. Cue ebay and a whole turret appeared for sale at a very modest price, albeit missing battery cover and radar. I bought it and managed to use the parts from my original Firebolt to complete it. The laser mechanism was in great shape, even including the original bulb. I reattached the turret to the chassis, although the motor runs fine, I haven't yet managed to get it rolling. It displays well and some new repro decals and a bit of clean had it looking great once more.

Of course once I had the toys out, I began to see possibilities for other repairs and additions and built a small Moon Probe capsule for the dirorama.

Some months ago, I had picked up a spare drive unit for a Uni-Tred and Mattel's ingenious vehicle includes a removable section under the main body, allowing a train of two or more units to be connected.

The classic Space Crawler, a toy quite unlike any other in its day, also doubles as a winch when mounted on top of the space station. Thinking in terms of the Space Station and prolonged activity on the Moon, I thought that Matt and the team might need extra fuel and supplies, so I made some Fuel cannisters and a trailer to transport them from the Resupply Pod.

The Resupply Pod was a Star Force space capsule, with the two action figure seats removed and some extendable landing gear added on the rear.

Other customisations include the Astro Orbiter Flight Pak and some new arms for the Moon Suit, as the fragile rubber does not stand up to the passage of time when exposed to the air.

Looking at John Eaton's great Matt Mason blog, which has recently moved to Blogger from the original Wildtoys address, I read that rumours persist of a proposed Lunar Drill Site set, so I thought it might be fun to create a drill accessory for the figures too.

Bill