Radar Love

Following on from the Marx article and the missing radar scanners, I wondered where the idea for the multi dish array came from and if it in fact originated in the Marx Moon Scouts. The bubble canopied crawler sports a large silver radar dish with several disks on it and a similar design has appeared on other sixties toys as well.

NON FALL MOONBUGGY

APOLLO MOON EX CRUISER WITH SILVER RADAR

SPACEX APOLLO TRACKER

SPACEX CRICKET AND CUSTOMISED TRACKER

Notable examples are the Non Fall Moon Buggy and the later Spacex Apollo Tracker. Does the concept originate in TV21 or a similar field ? It surely cant work on a practical basis as the dishes would occlude each other. Anyone seen anything similar ?

Marx Grab Bag

If I think of the sixties in terms of space toys, besides the obvious, the main toys I think of would be Mattels Major Matt Mason and Marx Moon Grabbers. A regular feature in toy shop displays, these rugged little trucks were often seen charging about stores as the shops demonstrated their climbing ability. Along with the clapping monkeys, hopping rabbits and crawling soldiers, there was inevitably one of the Marx Hill Climbing range to be seen rolling happily about until it bumped into a parents' foot or was snatched up by an enthusiastic child and sent rolling off into another department.

The basis of the trucks was a heavy duty four wheel drive chassis which appeared as the drive for cement mixers, dumpers and jeeps through Marx production years, such was the success of the design. But for me, the attraction lay in the Moon Scout series or Moon Grabbers which were all adorned with cool articulated arms and massive chrome scanners. The three basic designs were inspired by NASA Molab concepts with large chunky bodies and big wheels. The series saw a variety of colour schemes, but the first ones were uniformly white. A large set appeared in the states which also added trailers to the vehicles carrying equipment and even a space helicopter. The Marx range also included an odd and apparently unrelated Moon Scout Nasa Helicopter, battery powered with flashing lights and bump and go actions.

 Oddly, the large battery powered toys also saw production in small sets like the Apollo Moon Exploring, with a small vehicle, moon rocks and a handful of astronauts. Four sets were made, each one had a small handpainted model of the Moon Scouts and the fourth set had an unusual space tank. The box art has paintings of spaceships lifted directly out of the Ladybird book 'Exploring Space' which has been in circulation since the mid sixties too.

 The Moon Scouts were always a staple in the Marx catalogue leaflets along with other cool toys such as the Nike Missile Launcher and Amphibious Truck.

Over the years ive picked up one or two of these vehicles as they never quite made the xmas list for me as a boy, but each one is always uniformly missing the chrome radar scanners, which for me were always a fascinating part.

Little something for the weekend

 Searching the Wotan Archives this morning for a certain catalogue, I came across a loose page in amongst the reams of Airfix, Matchbox and other sundry booklets. My dad had always been a bit of a magpie and this was evidence of his acquisitive habits. A single page from an old Littlewoods mail order catalogue, the UK equivalent of Penney and Sears, he obviously saw something here that merited further study. Probably it was the rather excellent Corgi Rocket Age set on the first page, showing the Thunderbird and Bloodhound ground to air missiles. Judging by the pre-decimal prices the catalogue would have been around 1964-66 and almost certainly the Xmas edition. Also featured is the Merit Radio Station which was marketed as a Dan Dare product and a range of what look like Wells Brimtoy army vehicles.

The second side has the Ideal Satellite Launcher Truck, a large vehicle with flying spinners and a cool Missile Truck with darts and searchlight. Those were the days!

While the cats away..

 Here at Mars Base it can get a little dull from time to time, especially during the long martian evenings, so theres always a temptation for a little amusement... While Moonbase Commander Woods is on furlough, I thought it might be nice to reveal one or two secrets about Moonbase Central itself, such as how the base is structured. Obviously, specific details are highly sensitive and kept under tight wraps as the actual base is always a possible target for casual saboteurs, so for this reason im using an 'artists impression' of the base proper to give you a small insight...

The Moonbase is a modular affair, being built in stages from units ferried down to the surface by remotely piloted freighter in the first instance and then later by piloted space tugs. Modules are replaced on an infrequent basis dependant on need and if there is any damage incurred. The base is structured around four main core units.

Module One - this is the cargo unit and heavy equipment storage. It serves as a garage for any vehicles currently on base and is fitted with the heavy lifting gear for container transport. This is an 'active' unit in that it is one of the exchangeable units and can lift off to orbit to collect new equipment, or can be replaced by a fresh unit as necessary.

Module Two - this is the core of the base, the communications unit. All Moonbase transmissions originate from here, the heart of the base. A communications antenna and long range scanning array sit atop the module and the power plant (Unit 5) for the base is attached to the side of the main unit with a collapsible solar collector.

Module Three - this is the shuttle element of the base, upgraded from the original modified Lunar Module from the first SWORD base plans, to a short range nuclear shuttle, capable of trans earth orbit and transfer, this vehicle is used by Cmdr Woods for return trips to Earth and for reconaissance duties around Luna.

Module Four - this is the home from home for Cmdr Woods, the Recreation and Living quarters where he spends the long tour of duty when not busy in the Comms Unit. It houses full life support utilities and recycling equipment such as the air scrubbers, hydroponics lab and waste regeneration plant. Visitors to the base can often pick up the strains of Wishbone Ash whispering across the short wave bands or see a reclining figure in the observation dome enjoying a steak and kidney pudding, specially shipped in as an alternative to dried space rations!

Other modules are also located at secret spots around the base to house the MB Archives and Data Dumps and the various emergency vehicles used by Cmdr Woods from time to time.

Watch out for further in depth reports from Mars Base very shortly..

The Spacex Variations

Paul Vreede has recently updated his comprehensive list of production variants in the Tri-Ang Spacex series of toys in light of the recent mysteries thrown up by the rare Needle Probe model that he discovered. Have a look at the details here and see if you can add to the list of discoveries!

Aurora Catalogis

 Aurora Kit Catalogue late seventies - 'nuff said!

Delayed Reaction

 Well space communications being what they are, its takin me a little time to post things on the blog due to the time lag between Moonbase Central and Mars, so please excuse my tardiness. Meantime heres an old favourite of mine. The Daily Mirror Book of Space, an annual sized book chock full of interesting concept space vehicles, arrived on my lap xmas morning 1970.

Apart from some cool lunar rovers and various moon vehicles, one thing which always caught my eye was the 'space lifeboat' (above) which I always felt bore a distinct resemblance to the Nuclear Ferry.

Another lifeboat concept was the 'Rogallo' wing vehicle, a design favoured by NASA engineer Francis Rogallo for safe recovery of space capsules, which gave rise to the parafoil and hang glider aircraft.

Lets All Meet Up in the Year 2000

 It was very interesting to see the 'Tigercaptain' vehicle recently, referred to as the Killdozer, Ive never seen the model before, but being a long time fan of 2000ad comic and Matchbox toys, I was familiar with the design. The classic Judge Dredd saga of the Cursed Earth, where an atomic wasteland existed between the two great mega-cities of America, and the hero had to battle his way across the continent to bring an antidote to a killer virus, was a real classic. The Cursed Earth was populated by mutants, monsters and all manner of crazy things and the air above the ground was home to a 'death belt' of orbiting debris left over from the nuclear holocaust meaning that the Strato-Bat aircraft had a near impossible chance of getting from a-b, so a ground journey was the only option. The story took an existing Matchbox Superking toy and dropped it into the storyline wholesale - im not sure if this was an early attempt at product placement or a blatant marketing ploy, but i worked for me and i went out and bought it! The Adventure 2000 line started off with the Raider Command, Flight Hunter and Crusader - only the main vehicle saw use in the comic. In 1982, the Striker Missile Launcher was added along with the smaller Rescue Hover Craft, Planet Scout and Cosmobile. The last release of the toys saw them finished in blue and the rare Shuttle Launcher added.

The interesting thing about the 2000ad story was that the concept of the Cursed Earth story was lifted directly from Roger Zelaznys story 'Damnation Alley' which was made into a film in 1977, the year before 2000ad was released. In itself a a rather limp portayal of a journey across a ravaged wasteland, it did feature a rather neat vehicle the Lnadmaster with the unusual triple wheel axis. This was based on an all terrain concept tested by the US Army.