Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Mint On Card "Apollo Moon Exploring" Sets, Genuine Party Favors "Star Ship" Rockets + LP Toys Rocket Gantry


Imperial Toy Corporation "Apollo Moon Exploring" Set #304A. Packaging concept modeled after the SpaceX/Golden Astronaut toys but the forms are much simpler, unlicensed, and many ended up repackaged as cake topping decorations.

or 


Backing card does not indicate prior use as a sponge.


Marvelous collection of goodies, including spacemen, a chromed Grumman Lunar Module, and a simplified Major Matt Mason or Billy Blastoff Moon Crawler vehicle. You get your $.39 cents worth.


Chromed astronauts rather than gilded, or rather lacking the gold hued dye which would provide the classic Golden Astronaut look. These are also differently posed, and in Apollo EVA garb rather than the Mercury-era flight suits LP spacemen were forced to brave the vacuum of space within.


Base markings.


The chromed LM might roughly fit with the chromed Apollo CSM included in another set but you'd need to do some shaving of edges to make them dock.



Apollo Moon Exploring Set #304F, and this one featuring a glorious Moon Base Control Center, a simplified Major Matt Mason Moon Sled and a gilded Gerry Anderson.



Backing card appears to have been used as a pillow.


All of the AME astronauts are actual gilded LP Toys Gerry Andersons.



Fantastic! Am very tempted to open this for use in diorama photos.



I had a very basic Major Matt Mason figure + set as a very young space fan, very fond memories! and am intending to track down some replacements but they get expensive quick. One of my favorites was his inflatable survival tent! I want one of those even if I'm not ready to commit to a figure in decent enough condition to bother with.



"Unique Party Favors Star Ship" set, sold as cake topping decorations and featuring the Checker Rockets from the classic LP Toys space sets. Likely later 1970s, and you can still find them new/sealed as this one is here.

Click here for the Sx/GA page on the Checker Rockets and how to discern original LP castings from the 60s from these later copies above.




"Unique Cake Decorations Space Set", featuring an LP Toys designed rocket gantry appropriated from a 1960s Remco rocket base kit.



Backing card not used as sponge but possibly as bread pan or cookie sheet.


AWESOME. And subsequent to this posting a 2nd example of the set surfaced, giving me one to open. They are not all that difficult to find, though sadly rendered in a static non-launching state. The "Apollo Moon Exploring" set featuring the gantry is a functioning launcher.



All figures marked "Hong Kong". Rocket and gantry appear unmarked, or at least from the angles I can view them.


Classic MPC spaceman poses, but not by MPC. Or Marx for that matter. Marx never made a Geiger Counter Guy in spaceman form.

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