They Landed On A Cake

Scoops Apollo Moon Exploring toys are so cool. I do love that toy range. I'm always amazed that some of them were made as cake toppers and continue to be sold as such. You often find groups of them on Etsy like this lot below I bought last year.

 

There's a fascinating little tale about finding a case of these over on the Dork Horde Blog. Have a read here. Anyone else got any space cake toppers?

Moon Explorers

Prompted by Woodsy's super post about the Hover Moon Base set I thought I'd take a few snaps of some of the similar Apollo Moon Exploring toys.

 

You can never have too many pictures of space toys, especially at this time of the year. 

 

 

WE'VE GOT THE SECRET SERVICE COVERED!

Hi Woodsy, here is a magazine cover showing the Secret Service 'Gabriel' model on display somewhere (?) Surely that is Alan Partridge in the background? (lol!)

Steve Zodiac

HOVER CRAFT

Further to my post the other day about the Hover Moon Base here's a look at the header card. Wotan thinks he can see a Booster Rocket on there but I think he's been drinking too much Covonia cough mixture. Still it's worth a look as it does depict several other spacecraft.

When you compare the Moon Base header with that of the other Hover [my guess] carded SWORD/ Spacex knockoffs you see the differences of style and content. However both do appear to picture a small domed craft similar to that which appeared in the Jetsons cartoon.

I only assume that this header card is Hover as it shows the exact Scramble Bug that appears in the Hover Moon Base set seen below again.

The fabulous little Moon Rover portrayed on the Space Glider header card is fascinating. A small rover is pictured in the drawing of the Century 21 Project SWORD Moon Base Set in the range's Official Manual [shown circled in white below] and I have often wondered if the two rovers were connected in some way, Hover knocking off SWORD again if you include the Scramble Bug.

We can actually see what the Rover looked like as Wotan photographed his own years ago as seen below in glorious colour. You can see that it has the same bright orange serrated wheels as the Scramble Bug in the Hover Moon Base set. I remember Wotan saying that they were made of soft plastic. Wote's rover appears to be missing the satellite dish but otherwise looks terrific.

The other two known 'Hover' [?] space miniatures are the Space Adventure and the Space Glider as pictured on their cards below [M.McLellan collection]

I think that the Hover series of miniature space toys, despite being knockoffs of SWORD and Spacex, did have some merit. A moon rover has not materialised in any other of our beloved space toy lines like Apollo Moon Exploring and Hover went were even the great Tri-ang dared not to 'tread' and gave us a miniature Scramble Bug. I'd love to see more of these Hover toys if any readers have any boxed, carded or loose ones at home.

Kenneth Kendall 1924 - 2012

I read that the former BBC newsreader Kenneth Kendall has died at the age of 88.

He had the distinction of being the first newsreader to appear in vision on BBC TV in 1955.

I mention his passing here on the blog as he appeared in several film and TV sci-fi productions including a cameo in one of my favourite sci-fi films, 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as one of my favourite B movies, They Came From Beyond Space.

 

Hover Moon Base Set

Ever since I saw this Hover Moon Base set on Ebay years ago I've been in love. For a start I've never seen another one and I find the simple box art and design really appealing. It'd be great to get better pictures of this. Most of all, though, I adore the small Scramble Bug. What a beauty! Does anybody have or previously own one?

Dinky Eagle

This is my Dinky Eagle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although the colour is right I did what most people did at the time and crossed an Eagle Transporter pod with an Eagle Freighter body.

The first Transporters were green with yellow navigation rockets, red engine bottles and chrome take off thrusters and engine bells. The white pod came with self applied water slide red decals to create a medical Eagle.

The first Freighters were white with red navigation rockets, red engines and take off thrusters and chrome engine bells. The winch pod was red.

The second versions remained green and white respectively but all had red navigation rockets, silver engines and red take off thrusters and engine bells.

The Freighter had a final makeover in that the main body was painted blue and the winch pod came out white.

 

The Dinky Eagles’ were released in 1975 and ceased production in 1979. They were excellent die cast reproductions, and a fitting end to the Dinky company’s long association with Gerry Anderson’s televised series.

Dinky UFO Interceptor

The Dinky UFO Interceptor. A lovely die cast representation of Shado’s first line of defence - if you ignore the colour!

Like most of Dinky’s output, the Interceptor went through some changes. The missile started off in white and orange but that changed to yellow and black, and combinations of the two. The legs went from orange to red. The chromed parts were eventually dropped leaving just plain red plastic. The canopy went from plain clear to a blue clear plastic. And, I read that the early versions of the model used the figure from Joe’s Car as the pilot.

I got mine in the early seventies. The box is long gone but I did manage to hang on to most of the card display.

There’s still burn marks round the nose reminding me of when I used to put caps between the missile and the model's spring loaded hammer for that added special effect.

The Dinky catalogue and Meccano Magazine for July 1971 both featured the UFO Interceptor, the latter using the card display artwork with the addition of Moonbase

 

The box artwork as seen on this advert which I first remember seeing in Countdown comic.

A promotion for the Interceptor with Oat Krunchies and Puffed Wheat breakfast cereal. If I remember rightly Oat Krunchies carried some features about the UFO TV series on the back.