Italy's Quercetti is well known for rockets and parachutes.
Their JR21 marketed Fireball XL5 has featured here many times, as has the Mach-1 and TOR.
These toys incorporated a small blow moulded parachutist and chute.
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I've written about these before but I'm always amazed when they turn up on Ebay, the Greek Leizer 200 made by Alpha.
Its clearly a Greek knockoff of the much more famous Johnny Seven by Topper, but still its got some style of its own.
The red pistol at the front detaches too.
From Will's new TV21 comics collection, his JR21 XL5 parachuting spaceship and the ad in a November 1965 edition of the comic.
Did you have one of these XL5's or the other rockets advertised?
There's nothing quite like a long launch ramp for a rocket.
Here are two famous ones.
The Ark from When Worlds Collide.
Fireball XL5
Can you think of any more readers?
have you got any models like these?
At the top of this old auction pic is possibly a Japanese toy space rifle new to the blog. It recalls the Fireball XL5 rifles I blogged about some years ago here https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2017/11/sounds-of-zodiac-fireball-xl5-toy-rifle.html
Did you have anything like this readers?
This was a British doll maker that branched out very briefly in to model railway kits - locomotives and rolling stock - from 1959 to 1962.
They only did two non-railway kits, a motorcycle and the Lyons Maid Fireball XL5 spaceship which is usually listed as an Airfix kit - Airfix did buy all the Kitmaster moulds in late 1962, but only re-issued a few of them.
This is the XL5 page. The model was a true-to-life 12" model, and came with 50 parts, glue, transfers & stand. Also, a button hole badge. The kit was moulded in silver-grey plastic, with transparent parts, and there was a detailed cockpit and two crew figures.
The kit was yours for only 4/6 (22 1/2 New Pence in modern money) plus two ZOOM ice lolly wrappers. The photos show the model, the assembly instructions, the badge, ice lolly wrapper, and advertising.
The rest of the site is also worth a look.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
I was fascinated by the detail of this online gallery for one boxed toy, the US Rocket. A battery-fired plastic rocket with parachute, each component is lovingly photographed. The most interesting item is the box of engines and wires, which we don't see, just the box, the contents of which were made in Macau. Having never had anything like it I have no idea really how this worked.
Its a strange title, US Rocket. Bland, non-specific, but overall the toy recalls the JR21 Quercetti Tor and Fireball XL5 rocketry missiles seen on the blog.
What do you think of the US Rocket? Were you a rocketeer?
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/rocket-flying-model--us-rocket/nasm_A19930629000
