Ja-Ru Toys "Mission Command" Adventures In Space Playset with Miniature Hing Fat Toys 1963 Convair LEM Proposal

Standing rule on New Old Stock finds has always been to find two & keep one sealed, and finally: Came upon a second of Ja-Ru Toys' marvelous "Mission Command" playset from their 2000 era "Adventures In Space" low-cost Made in China space toy playsets. 

Had scored one as birthday bling January 2022, and "Must Have" reason is the set's charming reduced size Hing Fat Toys style lunar module. Had one as a kid and been fascinated by the form since re-discovering HF's Space Astronaut sets in 2019. My childhood set came packed into a bucket and I use the term "Space Buckets" to refer to the line in general. Finding a miniaturized Space Bucket lunar lander was a startling revelation and almost opened that set 1000 times just to have it on my desk, lookin' at me.

Clocked on an auction for a second last fall, gosh darnit, and am genuinely grateful that a 3rd surfaced in mid August to put the subject to rest once and for all. Our friends at Ja-Ru can take heart that it appears enough of these sold as to make them a genuine rarity! and while my grousing about the quality of the toys is meant for laughs it is worth every penny of the $2.99 the good people at Teufel's needed for one.

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Fantastic. Production costs on everything is about fifteen to twenty cents, pure money once packaged up convincingly and hawked at the right locations. Not toy stores so much as dollar stores, airport news kiosks, railway station gift shops or even grocery store racks. Cultured space toy collectors hate the stuff: It's impossible to distinguish "vintage" sets (1970s in this case) from current production of flimsy, hollow disposable plastic.

Which is just the nature of the business, and Ja-Ru's been at it since 1961, Hing Fat as known today since 1980. I had my Space Bucket kit by the age of five, destroyed it by the age of seven because it's ephemera. Meant to be taken along for the weekend at grandma's or up to the summer camp for vacation and left behind for next time. Or to keep the little varmit busy on the plane or other time when something to fascinate and quiet a kid is in order, then thrown away at the other end.

Just like the one I had in 1972. Nice how the smaller figures fit the scale of the vehicle better: You can maybe cram one of the seated pilot figures into the dome of the lander but two guys went down to the moon. Though accuracy of anything was far from what whomever originated the Space Astronaut toy line was thinking about as the LEM design they utilized never flew.

The original design source, General Dynamic's Convair Lunar Excursion Module proposal from 1963, which NASA declined in favor of Grumman Aviation's more familiar Lunar Module design. Main factor was weight, complexity of controls and lack of a door. Would have needed twice as much fuel to land as the one which did, increasing the gross weight even more. 

A look inside of the crew compartment and it's like a movie set from 2001. Lots of delicate electronics. Big heavy glass windows. Would have flown more like a delicate Space Helicopter rather than a rocket ship. Crews would have to shimmy up & down the side via a rope ladder tossed out from the airlock at top. In a fully pressurized EVA suit with life support pack? That wouldn't have gotten beyond the astronaut corps expected to perform the stunt on the moon, and NASA correctly went with Grumman's flying pickup truck instead.

Interesting view of how the crew would be situated in their little Space Heliocopter. Lift propulsion via rocket bells housed in the skirt of the "descent stage". Maneuvering via the rocket nozzles on the boom wings, which Hing Fat (or whomever conceived the space toy version) eliminated from their lander. Instead the rocket nozzles from the boom arms are positioned on nooks at compass points on the ascent stage.

Hing Fat's toy has no descent stage rockets. Underside is hollow with liftoff platform top. Most obvious similarity is in the legs with triangular support struts. Top "dome" ascent stage held in place by pegs. The choice of basing your toy lunar module on the one which wasn't used is fascinatingly odd, and I vividly recall wondering if it was supposed to be a robot as a kid: There's no door, no windows. All four sides of what would be the ascent stage look mechanical and it's antennae look like bug eyes.

This image shows how Convair proposed to undock the ascent stage from the base to blast back off into orbit. I'd be nervous about having those engine bells clear the lower stage's skirt. Mockup never left the ground unless by crane.

Hing Fat "Space Astronauts" Lunar Module - Using Grumman's Design? What In God's Name Is THIS??

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Yup, that's all wrong. Our Sailor's Tale goes that this oddity turned up in a "Lot" listing of plastic space vehicles produced by Hing Fat Toys for one of their "Space Astronaut" bucket sets. Only vehicles too, none of the distinctive Hing Fat astronauts were included and those shown above chosen at random from my collection. At right the standard Hing Fat lunar lander based on Convair / General Dynamics' 1963 proposal for a LEM which lost out to Grumman's iconic Apollo LM design which flew the actual moon missions.

Here is a link to a prior blog entry examining how Hing Fat adapted General Dynamics' design to arrive at their distinctive lunar lander: https://spacetrucks.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-space-buckets-lunar-module-made-in.html

At first I suspected that some enterprising collector had glued a Grumman LM ascent stage from a model kit onto the Hing Fat made General Dynamics descent stage, which appears to be unchanged but went through a significant design change which included a pressure peg connector to hold the two parts together. The two stages are mismatched, and astonishingly were meant to be that way. Just when the set which included it & why they used a Grumman ascent stage for this particular is unknown to me at this time. It took significant changes in tooling to accommodate the variation, and I've never seen the likes of it before. Only hints that my kind vendor could offer were that it was likely obtained by a family member who used to "pick" second hand & Salvation Army type thrift stores for goodies to re-sell i.e. e-B4y, which is where I found them. The collection was also used when obtained and had not been a family owned toy set. So just when it was originally packaged remains unknown.

Missing is an antenna dish right over the front door and the egress ladder. The gray antenna array on top is oversized but does resemble what should be off to the right (I think?). The boom antenna in white is missing a dish on its right side. 

Apollo 16, 1971.

General Dynamics, 1963

Which also lacked a ladder for astronaut egress to the lunar surface, GD's solution (at this stage in the design proposal) being that the crew would toss a rope ladder over the side from the only hatch at the very top (not seen from this angle). The idea of pressure suited astronauts clambering up & down a rope ladder being silly enough to sink the proposal outright.

The simplified Hing Fat version of GD's lunar lander with astronaut. Lander and figures from a set produced during the mid 1980s, and representative of the lander I had and destroyed sometime between 1971 (age four) and 1977 (age ten). By the time I was in middle school the busted up parts had been discarded and I was saving up for a guitar or binging on Queen albums rather than buying space toys. 

Point being that Hing Fat as the company we know now did not exist until 1980, by which time what was left of my Space Bucket set was buried in landfill somewhere in Central New York. 

SO, WHO MADE IT???

Just to show the Grumman ascent stage wasn't just stuck on top of the Hing Fat descent stage, and that significant changes to the mold (and decal) had to be made to accommodate the peg.

Why is the form not more common?

Left: 1980s

Middle: Unknown.

Right: Brand new from a "Darron Industries" space bucket set.

Hing Fat produces the plastics in China and sells the parts in bulk to companies like Darron who package them for retail sale. So far I've found something on the order of twenty US based companies who packaged these sets, ranging in size/complexity from a bagful of figures on a header card to elaborate collections of vehicles, figures, playmats and sculpted terrain segments fitted into a large tub or handled bucket. Which is why I call them "Space Bucket" sets -- Had one as a kid, destroyed it by the age of 10 and want to find the components matching what I had as a kid again.

Top plates of the three lander descent stages, left to right: 1980s, unknown and brand new. I had a Space Bucket kit as a kid and its lunar lander did not have a sticker on the descent stage, leading me to conclude that it was a somewhat later addition to add verisimilitude in the era of Kenner "Star Wars" toys and their ilk.

Underside of the three ascent stages. Note post pegs on the two General Dynamics tops which are also hollow -- You could at least stick one of their spaceman figures in there to rattle around like a maraca. The Grumman designed ascent stage has no access hole by which to insert an astronaut but is otherwise of superior manufacture. 

Comparing the two descent stage stickers. They didn't just punch a hole in it to accommodate the pressure fit, it was re-designed around the hole.

The lot also included a Lunar Rover with enough differences between the standard issue Hing Fat rovers to also warrant mention. Left to right: 1980s, unknown and brand new by Darron. The rover at center is wider than the other two, has a differently designed seat, and its antenna is more complex with a bend & dish fitted on at the factory. The other two's antennae are simple stalk posts with the dish slid on or off by the owner.

The rucksacks fitted to the back of the seats is markedly different than the two flanking. The hubcaps also have detailing missing from the other two vehicles, the yoke of its control console is less slanted upward, and its console sticker matches the brand new rover at right.

Center rover chassis is wider and shorter, lacking the forward section on the two at left & right. Seat detailing also very different.

In all honesty I despise the Space Shuttle -- it was a scam from day one, the necessity of which is the only point of debate -- but the shuttle included in the Lot with the Grumman LM & rover has some fascinating differences from the standard Hing Fat shuttles, most notably that its cargo bay hatches open and its cockpit windows are cutouts. Both are solid on the 80s kit shuttle at left and the newly manufactured shuttle packaged by Darron at right.

Engine nozzles likewise differ, with the unknown at center lacking the two smaller upper nozzles seen on the examples at left & right.

"Fascinating, Captain."

Even the fonts on the stickers are different, with the 80s produced shuttle at top, our unknown in the center and new shuttle packaged by Darron at bottom.

If anyone out there has a Space Bucket set with a Grumman ascent stage on its lunar lander (or vehicles matching the differences noted above) I would love to hear from you, and the search for a 1970s issued set in original packaging goes on. And on.