Collection Booster

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."

As Douglas Adams wrote in Hitchhikers Guide, space is vast. Infinite. That's something we can take for granted now, but other things we also tend to take for granted, such as the limits to a collection of toys. Just when you think you have finally nailed that elusive final element that wraps up a series of toys or models and you can finally relax, sit back and admire them, something pops up and resets the boundaries once more.

So it was with my personal favourite, the Booster Rocket. I had the Sword version and was lucky enough to find the Spacex version, many years ago and had happily sat back assuming that was the extent of known models of this particular spaceship. Naturally, this was upset by the appearance of the beautiful Hover version of the SWORD ship in 2009. I've yet to add this to the Wotan archive, but im cautiously optimistic! But it was a recent and quite earthshaking discovery by Woodstock of a series of previously unknown models in Mexico. They were what appeared to be cereal premiums in the style of the R & L Kelloggs Space series, but reflected the designs of Ed Valigursky in the Life 'Man in Space' book. Just seeing a new series of space premiums was exciting enough, but to find they included an 'atomic rocket' in the series was amazing. All credit to Woodstock for spotting the models, as they were shown on the sprues, so it wasn't immediately obvious what some of them were. Having previously dealt with the seller for a set of repro Kelloggs Totem Tribe premiums, I assumed the sets would be repro too. Luckily I was able to buy one of the Atomic Rockets directly after the main ebay sales had finished and was delighted to receive it some weeks later in the mail.

The model arrived with no instructions or explanation, but being quite simple, it was fairly straightforward to make, apart from the fact that half of the fuel tanks were not molded in the round and had no obvious way of fixing to the body. The design also reflected the design in Valigurskys art, so the engine was a truncated nozzle. I set to with the Milliput and built up the lower halves of the fuel tanks and a couple of pieces of Lego provided an excellent engine radiator and exhaust nozzle to reflect the large SWORD design. There are some molding defects in the plastic, but a quick spray of ZERO X blue car paint and voila!

A tiny, but very welcome addition to the Booster Rocket collection. Just need to find the rest of the series now....

CEX MEX: MEXICAN SPACEX BOOTLEGS

2012 has been a great year for bootleg Spacex toys from Mexico. Earlier in the year I blogged a black P3 Helicopter clone I found on flickr [pictured below in the middle]. Later I spotted a yellow T3 - Tractor lookalike on Feebay pictured below, which I'm pleased to sat now belongs to a fellow Spacex fan. Last but not least a bootleg R&L mini-kit of the Booster Rocket, snagged by our very Wotan. Pictured below is Wote's lovely built and painted model.

R&L Cereal premium mini-models surfaced again on Ebay in the form of this old bag of CRIATURAS EXTRANUS by plasticos Cristy. Stuffed full of Crater Critters, it also contains several Molabs in different colours. They appear to be toys rather than models. They are very difficult to see on the bag so I've included a picture of an orange mini-model below to give you an idea of what they probably look like. I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who has a bag of these toys.

Finally, Ebay also threw up a whole flotilla of fabulous R&L cereal mini-kits, many of which appear to be have been possibly inspired by the art of Edward Valigursky in the seminal Man and Space book. They include a Nova Rocket, a Booster Rocket [the same as Wotan's] and two Lunar Modules all pictured below still on their sprues. All that's missing from a possible Valigursky inspiration is a MEV model. Does one exist? Their was also a Saturn V and MLP in the range.

The Saturn V and MLP are now in the Moon Base collection and are pictured here on the sprue and also built up. There are some small parts I have left off the model as I'm unsure exactly where they go! I feel as though the gantry should have also been part of this kit but it could be a different kit altogether. Does anyone know?

I would be interested to hear of any more Mexican bootleg Spacex toys or kits that you may be aware of.

MOON BASE SOLD!

No, We've not been bought by Google! Fellow blogger Luke Toywalker, whose SpaceX HQ appeared here last month, has sold. Luke takes up the story as it comes full circle:

Hi Paul, I did a blog on that Moon Base, you might check it out ;) http://blog.toy-sector.de/2012/04/spacex-moon-base-hq-tri-ang-196.html
Cheers
Luke

TOM CORBETT'S RIDE DOWN AT ED ICE BERGS PLACE

Woodsy,

I'm slowly starting to get around to posting my space toys on Toys & Stuff. Today I've got the Marx Space Car from their Tom Corbett set featured:

http://toyconnect.blogspot.com/#!/2012/03/marx-tom-corbett-space-car.html

You're free to copy and paste any of the photos for your blog. I also had to buy some replacement parts for my Deluxe Reading X-500 set and hopefully will be able to photograph it before too long.

Ed "ICE" Berg

Toys & Stuff

The Lost Science of 2001: A New Book to be Published

Stanley Kubrick’s seminal film 2001 A Space Odyssey has been scrutinised by fans and academics alike for over forty years. It’s vision of our future in space seemed effortless on the silver screen.

Discovering material thought lost forever Adam Johnson, the author of a new book, The Lost Science of 2001, has meticulously studied the science behind Kubrick’s vision. With contributions from America,  Canada, Britain, Germany, France and the former USSR, this new book re-discovers the “Lost Science” of this milestone in movie history.

You can purchase this new book via publishers Apogee Prime. You will also get a DVD of a special new documentary "2001: THE SCIENCE OF FUTURES PAST" made by Micheal Lennick, an award winning filmmaker.

Warm Hands, Cold Heart

The initial scans of Rhea suggested that moon was almost entirely composed of ice, mixed with rock into a kind of celestial snowball. The lack of internal heating from a molten core meant that there was no volcanic activity, so the surface remained largely unchanged apart from the action of meteor impacts. Rhea, like its sister moons Dione and Tethys, was tidally locked towards Saturn. One side permanently looked towards Saturn whilst the other was shrouded in night. Nascha Anishinaabe had selected an equitorial region for the initial probe landing, the small package of instruments had touched down on the frozen surface and had immediately began to relay back readings from its sensor array. But this wasn't enough for the impatient astrogeologist, to be so close to the moons surface and unable to touch it was tantalising. The minimal gravity would make a manned excursion extremely hazardous, but the remotely operated manipulator vehicle would make an ideal substitute. Nascha and chief pilot Tom Dachron had separated one of the mobile laboratory units from the Heimdall and Nascha directed the manipulator or 'claw' as Tom brought the lab as close to the surface as he could manage while establishing orbit. Nascha brought the Claw lower and lower towards the pitted surface of Rhea, whilst it was not an ideal surface to land on, she was going to try and obtain a sample using the Claws' projectile coring mechanism. Gently, she guided the Claw to within a few meters of the surface, hovering over a comparatively smooth area. The coring device was a tethered, rocket powered drill which would be fired down into the ice to recover a large chunk of material. Nascha selected a spot which glittered brightly in Saturns light and thumbed the release. The image on the screen jolted slightly as the recoil from the explosive charge shook the Claw slightly, then a cloud of bright particles sleeted in all directions as the drill hit home. She activated the coring head and the device edged itself into the crust of Rhea, drilling down a further metre into the deeper ice. After a few minutes it reached maximum depth and Nascha activated the thermal coils around the barrel to help free the drill and then began to rewind the tether, hauling back the drill and its ice core.

Some hours later, after the lab and manipulator had docked with the main ship again and the initial scans of the samples had been made, Nascha was able to examine the cores directly. In the lab, suited and protected from the icy core, she looked at the long cylinder of material, spotted and flecked with tiny grains of grit, rock and dirt. The core had been taken from the upper edge of Rhean crust, so the majority of the material contained in the ice would be from meteor impacts and Nascha was keen to see what the grit contained. Under microscopic evaluation, she could see the fractures and cracks in the ice and the paths the fragments of meterorite had briefly carved into the surface before the -240 degrees fahrenheit cold had frozen over once more, trapping the particles like flies in prehistoric amber.

One Last Yolk

Well Easter has melted away and life has resumed it's normal non- eggy form. As a last eggxerpt from the Moon Base Easter here's an egg my daughter and I decorated on Good Friday, an egg diver! Later that day we entered it in a local egg competition and lo and behold, it won! Our prize was a delicious Easter Bunny cake as seen below [now all gobbled up!].

T CHIEFTAN TANK: NEW TO THE BLOG

Woodsy, I've made a new T discovery today. I purchased this Merehall Chieftain Tank the other day. To my surprise, the toy is marked with the T logo on the base plate. It's a nice model with turning tracks and still runs perfectly. There is also another more modern version on Ebay in a BPP branded box. I guess there must be a T boxed version as well!

Ferryman