BIRTHDAY TRIFLE: THE ESTRELA RIFLE

 There are a few things that have only ever been seen once by us on Moonbase, as rare as the birthday cake you always wanted.

One of them is the beautiful Estrella tinplate space rifle, the Patrulha do Espaco, from 1969.

Seen once years ago online in Brazil courtesy of  the Brinquedos Raros sales site this old toy rifle is emblazoned with fabulous space art.

The graphics include the MEV2 on the rifle's stock, as featured on this blog's masthead!

..... together with a Booster Rocket on the box - both inspired or even lifted from Ed Valigursky's well-known space illustrations - along with Robbie the Robot and what looks like a Crater Critter maybe. 

I really like the box art and the central astronaut with the rifle is really well done. Overall its a gorgeous toy and box, the graphics used not dissimilar to one of Estrela's other space toys, Robocom, a tin TV robot, not quite as rare but almost, seen on Moonbase.

Searching for the rifle is made harder by the fact that a Brazilian rock band has the same name. I'm surprised they didn't use the box art for an album cover!

However, some new googling garnered some new pictures of this Brazilian!

From the seller's Facebook page, Brinquidos Raros, we can see more of this elusive gem!

What do you think?

Has anyone actually got one of these scarce treasures?

ESTRELA ROBO COM TV

 

I've blogged this before but its so nice I can't resist!

This Estrela box has artwork which includes some Tri-ang SpaceX vehicles no less!

The robot has them too on his chest TV.

These pictures are from a South American auction site.

Have you got one of the robots readers?

ESTRELA FOGUETE SUPERSONICO ROCKET PLANE

I do like this old Brazilian space toy I saw online.

Its by Estrela.

There's something Project SWORD-like about this supersonic rocket.

What do you think? Do you like it?

*

UPDATE

I think its a version of this Turbo Jet Car by Ideal. Do you agree?

ESTRELA ROBO COM TELE VALIGURSKY BOX ART

I got excited about this rare Estrela robot when I first blogged it years ago

This Brazilian Horikawa-Estrela robot is the only one I know with Ed Valigursky Spacex-related imagery on the chest TV and the box.

There's a Booster Rocket on the box front and a MEV-2 on the TV!

But this is only the second decent box, albeit a repro on Ebay, I've seen on all sides online, I think, so I saved the pics.

Its this side that's just brilliant.

Closer we can now see that its the MEV-2 and the Booster Rocket on the side.

How cool is that!

You got one?

For much older posts about this including the TV drum and a similarly illustrated tin rifle then click on the labels below.

Here's an older pic of this box art from the blog years ago.

BRAZILIAN TV21 TOY 21 TOMMY BIRTHDAY BUSTER!

I had to look twice at this Brazilian toy space plastic rifle, the Metralhadora Super Mira by Estrela, 1980.

I thought it was a a Agent 21 Tommy Buster special from the pages of TV21 we've blogged about before on our 2010 birthday! 

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2010/09/agent-21-birthday-mystery-3-tommy.html

It looks a helluva lot like it. Do you agree?

Anyone got a Tommy Buster?

tenth birthday robot news: paya spacex and sword TV robot chest film

five years ago i found these chest films on an estrella TV robot of brazil

the moving rolls contained spacecraft similar to spacex and project sword designs like the MEV2 and the Booster Rocket.



just this week, in time for the celebration, i found another chest film on a spanish TV robot by paya.

it features paya's two spacex/ sword like designs; the moon buggy and the lunar climber.

shown on you tube courtesy of robothut.

PROJECT SWORD AND SPACEX ROBOT

This is the TV screen film, seen in two different ways, inside the Robo Con TV toy robot by Estrela. Featured many times on MC I never get fed up of seeing Project SWORD and SpaceX vehicles on a robot screen: namely the Booster Rocket and MEV2.

Estrela made a rifle to go with it, which had the same graphics. Also blogged. 

Anyone got one of these beauties? Clink the label below for more posts.

ARGENTINIAN SPACEX RIFLE BY ESTRELA: YEAR OF MANUFACTURE

Years ago I posted this toy I found on an online Argentinian Toy Site, Brinquidos Raros. The toy is a rare tin space rifle emblazoned with the SWORD Booster rocket on the box and the SpaceX MEV2 on the butt, at least on the side we can see. Its called Patrulha Do Espaco. Does anyone have one of these?

Well, here's a new development. I've found this small scan of an old toy catalogue depicting Estrela rifles. You can see what I think is the Patrulha do Espaco bottom right. 

Below is my rather poor close-up, which doesn't really help us. However, what is new is the date at the top of the catalogue scan i.e. 1969/ 1970. Although it's younger than Project SWORD, which surfaced in 1967, the 1969/ 1970 date would place this toy at the same period as SpaceX toys. If 1969 is correct then perhaps even one year earlier than SpaceX! Could this be the first toy to picture a MEV2? I assume both the Booster and MEV2 illustrations were lifted directly from the Ed Valigursky artwork in the LIFE Book Man and Space from the Sixties.

BIRTHDAY 5: THE ESTRELA SPACEX ROBOT: THE INSIDE STORY

There are a handful of legends on the blog. One of them is the Brazilian robot,  Estrela Robo con TV or what I nicknamed the SpaceX Robot back in 2010, when I first posted about it.

 

 

It's claim to fame for us here at Moonbase is the Estrela's use of Ed Valigursky SpaceX/ SWORD imagery on the robot's TV screen and box!

 

 

Legends have a way of popping up agin and over the summer I corresponded with Martijn a fellow member of the cool Alphadrome Robot Talk forum. Martijn has restored a battered Estrela Robo Con TV robot, the 'SpaceX' robot and has kindly agreed for his pictures of his restoration appearing here [they first appeared on the Aplhadrome forum in a long thread beginning in 2003 no less]. So here goes and enjoy!

 

 

 

The battered bot

 

Head and arm removed

 

TV barrel exposed

 

Ed Valigursky's MEV2 and Moon Base Units visible on the barrel

 

LEM, rocket and mounted canon? - unidentified artwork

 

Robert McCall's jetpack Astronaut and unidentified space vehicles art

 

Ed Valigursky's Booster Rocket,

 

ear lugs

 

new ear lugs

 

coming together!

 

Ta da!

 

and the box:

 

This is what the chest TV film might look like. I've put it together from a picture of the rolled out 'film'

 

 

and here's a short film of the robot moving around kindly sent in by martijn [sorry, I couldn't get it to rotate!]