TOYSCAPES: Marx Lunar Rover

This Lunar Rover (or Moon Tractor, or, or, or...) from Marx would have come in their small 1/72 scale Moon Exploration playsets. Mine is missing the dome, however, our intrepid explorer is fully suited up so he wouldn't necessarily need to be in an enclosed vehicle for shot trips. The rover is all white (except for the astronaut's uniform) and is camouflaged against the white moonscape. Be Blessed and Relish Life! Ed 

As with all my artsy, toyscape posts, there are several more photos taken than what I post. Here's an example of the shots I rejected. Maybe I didn't like the angle or felt that there was too much (or maybe not enough) landscape in the photo. Whatever)

TOYSCAPES: 'LP' Brand Lunar Rover - Yellow (With and Without Stars)

Another Toyscape featuring yet another 'LP' brand lunar Rover. This is the one I refer to as the Lunar School Bus because of it's many windows and overall  yellow color (here in the States, school busses made by the Bluebird Company are standardized in an all yellow paint scheme). And again, I've included images sans stars and with stars. Be Blessed and Relish Life! Ed 

TOYSCAPES: 'LP' Brand Lunar Bubble Rover (With and Without Stars)

Well, well, well, after years of calling my little 'art' projects every name under the sun, a reader over at the Moonbase Central blog (where I have many posts featured - some even before they appear here) came up with 'Toyscapes'! I LUV IT! ❤❤ It's catchy, it's to the point, and it can be used for any subject, not just space.

Our first Toyscape entry is part of a series of photos taken a couple of few weeks back and features an 'LP' brand Lunar Rover. There are two shots provided: one without stars added, and a second one with stars. I'm on the fence when it comes to adding star detail. On the one hand, stars are a part of outer space - billions of them in fact. On the other hand, they can detract from the central focus of the photo. Anywho, what do you guys think? Be Blessed and Relish Life! Ed 

Triang SpaceX Explorer MEV2

Unlike Ttriang's Prospector, covered in yesterday's post, the MEV2 is a manned exploration vehicle with origins outlined here at SpaceX Central. The toy appears to be small-ish in relation to the standing figure as the seated MEV driver looks to be much smaller in comparison. In real life - if one were to have been built - those tires would have been much thinner in cross section and quite flexible to enable rolling over rough terrain. The toy has a nicely functional sample recovery arm but the weak point is the antenna: too often it is broken off or bent due to long periods of storage within the blister pack. Case in point: the photographs taken at 'eye' level were done back in 2013 and the antenna was already broken and glued back on for the photos. For some reason - heaven knows why - I didn't take the 'birds-eye' photos until just today, seven years later! DOH! But by now the antenna has broken off again and is lost - arrrrgh! Oh well, life goes on. The toy measures 3" (7.62cm) L x 1 3/4" (4.44cm) W x 1 1/4" (3.17cm) H (to top of dome). Enjoy! Opa Fritz

I like to take size comparison shots. Part of the reason is to see which spaceships and land vehicles would work well together should I decide to place them in some kind of diorama. Here we have a Premium Plastic Flash Gordon 9" Spaceship and a Tudor Rose X-100 Space Scout

Triang SpaceX Prospector

The Prospector is essentially an early lunar rover design. With no guns or firing projectiles, it doesn't look very exciting - being essentially a roving satellite dish - but its original concept was to map the lunar surface and take samples much like the various Mars rovers have been doing for years (see the origins here at SpaceX Central). The Prospector desihgn however, has clean lines around the hull or body - no protruding arms for taking samples, no apparent cameras - which leads me to assume all of those were stowed inside the body of the vehicle and deployed as needed via doors that opened along the sides or bottom. The conical hull could be one big solar panel used for recharging the electric motors that propel the vehicle as well as power the satellite and all the other experiments this may house. The toy itself is simply a selectively compressed version of the original concept being essentially a satellite dish on a wheeled chassis. In any case, I can imagine fleet of these being deployed on the lunar surface, mapping, photographing, and carrying out soil collection experiments. The kid in me can also imagine a scenario wherein the Prospector unwittingly comes across an alien base or landing field and reports its findings, let's say, to the Moon Base HQ which has already been established at another location on the Moon. Yeah, you can still have fun with this :-) The Prospector measures 4" (10.16cm) L (small wheel-to-small wheel) x 3" (7.62cm) W (large wheel-to-large wheel) x 2" (5.08cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Hover - Hong Kong Space Explorer 1 1960s

Allow me to wander aimlessly for a while while I try and carve out time to take pictures of the MPC / Multiple Toymaker 54mm astronauts. Up until recently I didn't have any vehicles to go with the various 54mm or 60mm Space Dudes. I mean, there I am with all these Marx and MPC astronauts and none of  'em have any buggies to transport them on their Lunar escapades. That has been rectified!

I got today's vehicle pretty cheap all things considered. It came with a Marx Moon Grabber and the description on the fleaBay listing was vague - "Good condition". I took a chance on it because I really wanted the Marx Moon Grabber (which I'll cover in another post) regardless of whether or not it worked. When they arrived it was as expected, the Marx didn't work but was cosmetically in nice shape (missing the faux searchlight though). But as they tend to get really pricey I was okay with it. Then I put two 'C'-cell batteries in this Space Explorer and lo-and-behold IT WORKED! It ran just fine - Yay! After getting with the guys over at Moonbase Central and looking a bit on-line I was able to find out a few things in general about this type of toy. 

-First, apparently they were largely referred to as 'Flip-over Cars' or perhaps 'Continuos Action Traveller' or something else, not Moon Buggies or Moon Rovers, even though the box art for them often times depicted a lunar setting. The roll bars on top of the hull were meant to right them should they roll over a hill and tumble.

-Second, there were quite a few variations in design and color by several manufacturers.

-Third, they all appear to originally have tank-tread type tires on them which were applied to the rims separately. My sample is missing the treads.
   

While I haven't found out who actually makes today's sample you can tell by the photo below that's it's a decent match for 54mm astronauts and will work just fine with MPC's ringhands. It measures    7" (17.78cm) L x 4 1/2" (11.43cm) W x 4" (10.16cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz.

***UPDATE: As I was writing this post Woodsy over at Moonbase Central provided the following link to Worthpoint. This toy was made by Hover in the 1960s and as I suspected did have rubber treads/tires on the wheels

Many Thanx Woodsy***