Moon Explorer and Mystery Von Braun

 This was an interesting bundle I saw on auction.

I love the boxed Moon Explorer car. What a design! 

What's the leaflet at the back in German? It says Reach for the Stars or similar? Is that Werner Von Braun pictured?  

Birthday Spotlight: JR21 Commer Vans

 Ever since I started collecting Project SWORD toys I've been interested in other Century 21 and JR/ JR21 toys, especially less well-known ones.

One such range is the Merehall/ JR fleet of plastic friction commer vans.

I thought it would interest readers to see a good few of them. Some I own, many I don't (all images from eBay/ Vectis/ Worthpoint). There's always at least one on eBay UK. 

Other brands did Commers too like Hoda and Petrel. 

They're all plastic copies of Corgi die-casts.

JR marked vehicles came in Merehall branded boxes. There is no reference to JR toys on the boxes.

 Many of the rear end canopies where interchangable and many colour variations exist. 

It would make a fantastic collection if you could track them all down. 

Two series, I and II. 

Do you like them readers?

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Series I

Milk Van, Pick-Up, closed rear van ( there maybe more, rear ends are interchangable, as are colours)

Series II

Fire, Police, Ambulance

ED'S MEREHALL ROCKET LAUNCHER

Woodsy and Fellow Moonbaser's,

Not sure if this is a viable tie-in to the recent SWORD celebration but here goes. 

I've known about Merehall for some time but haven't really taken the initiative to buy anything from them aside from this cool rocket launcher. I like it and the size matches up well to my Pyro, Marx, Payton, Auburn, and other Little Green Army Men vehicles. 

One of the photos has a 50mm astronaut posed with the toy. The figure was close at hand, and I thought it a good size comparison. BTW what year(s) were these made?

From Vegas Base

Ed

USA

*Owing to space restrictions I have had to post Ed's photos as a screenshot, sorry.

THE MEREHALL MISSILE CAR

I've always loved this little plastic Missile Car by Merehall [I think] ever since Bill Wotan posted it on the blog years ago.

Its got all the gear a cool Sixties space toy needed; huge front clear window, small radar, slick lines and a gobsmacking missile parched on top.

The box is just ace of spades too and I would have been drawn to it like a bee in a toy shop!

A rare bird, Google Search brought up just one more Missile Car, a green one in an old Saleroom lot.

Have you got anything like this readers?

SECRET MISSILES BASE BY PETREL: MYSTERY CONTENTS: ONE RESULT!

We've seen this Petrel set before [top right] but I thought I'd blog it again as its unusual. I know nothing about Petrel.

The old Vectis auction pictures aren't too great. Its hard to make out exactly what's in each compartment.

Anyone know what the yellow object is and the orange craft below it with the star sticker?

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RESULT!

As soon as Arto mentioned wheels it rang a bell and here we have it. I think the orange vehicle is the friction powered Missile Car, seen below in blue and boxed as featured here on MC in 2014! Make still unknown.

Further observations:

Top right I now think that the yellow object is a plastic dingy or lifeboat like this [playmobil, as an example] 

and maybe some figures are frogmen or are they simply LP spacemen on their side? What do you think?

Top left I can just about see a black vehicle, possible a jet or a missile. Can you?

HONG KONG TOY ROCKET WITH BOY SAT ON IT

 This is a new one on me, a boy on a rocket

Looks like his legs go up and down.

I reckon a steering wheel is missing.

Its marked MM, which I think might be Merehall but maybe a reader knows.

Do you like this odd space toy?

COMBAT CAR BOXED

 

This fab bundle on an old auction contained some nice morsels.

What really caught my eye was the Combat car on the far left edge.

Its a relative of the Echo Car.

Unusually its boxed which maybe new to the blog.

Anyone got one?

MYSTERY YELLOW SPACE VEHICLE

I saw this on PicClick and thought, hmm, that blue LP X-30 rocket nosecone doesn't look right.

What do you think?

I recognise the red car; its a Merehall Amphibious Missile Launcher we've had on here before. But what is that yellow vehicle? Anyone know?

ARTO'S EXPLORERS

Further to my recent bloglet about these toys, here are reader Arto's pristine examples:

Above, piccies of his boxed and blue Moon Explorer Car, showing the spare wheel under the rear window and the carded Merehall Amphibious Missile carrier. 

Have you anything like this readers?

Rob's Skyers 5 Imai Kit

Imai's Skyers 5 box and built-up model kit.

Enjoy!

Rob C.

Connecticut

USA

SCIENCE FRICTION: THE LN RANGE OF PLASTIC SPACE CAR TOYS BY ARTO

Dear Woodsy,

This LN Fleet is now successfully at Helsinki Base. 

To pay tribute to the Alphadrome posting, that has fascinated me for so long, I took the attached piccy for your enjoyment. 

http://danefield.com/alpha/forums/topic/18091-space-vehicles-from-hong-kong/

LN is a curious one, overshadowed by LP, which of course is a much broader range. 

The Space Radar Car is No. 303 / 303 C and the Combat Car 305 C. 

I'm not sure if there was a picture of the Amphibious Missile Carrier on the Blog, showing the item number. At least it is not mentioned on the card, nor is the LN brand. The Merehall version is 215. 

The numbering would suggest that there is more to the toy line. 

The "C" presumably denotes "Carded". There is a boxed version 303 of the Space Radar Car, so I would assume there be one or more boxed versions as well.

Enjoy!

Arto

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Woodsy adds:

Previous related posts include:

Space Radar Car

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/space-toys-and-me-guest-article-by.html

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=space+radar+car&updated-max=2015-10-29T16:00:00Z&max-results=20&start=3&by-date=false

Combat Car

Loose and misidentified as Argentinian

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/echo-car-mighty-jack-apollo-moon-clone.html

Merehall Amphibious Missile Carrier boxed and carded

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=merehall+carrier

THE LAURIE TOYS GEMINI CAPSULE

Woodsy

You may already of seen these but if you haven't, I've attached some pics of a couple of rare toys that I acquired  recently that might be on interest. One is an unbranded carded version of the Merehall Amphibious Missile Carrier and the other a friction Laurie Toys Gemini Capsule. 

Ferryman

MORE MEREHALL TOYS

Worthpoint

May not be Merehall?

From Gasolene Alley

MORE MEREHALL AMPHIBIOUS MISSILE CARRIERS

Above - Arto's Amphibious Missile Carrier [ thanks Arto! ]

Below - more Merehall AMC [ from Sean in 2009 ]

Sean said this " is an odd one which you may wish to show on your blog. It's the Merehall Missile Carrier, rather like a cross between racing car and polaris submarine! I think Merehall was just the UK distributor rather than manufacturer".

Below is another Missile Car - I'm unsure of the make.