(Google Image find.)
And it's a badass Tohoscope ultra widescreen presentation with no cuts, likely authorized by Toho themselves. Grab it!!
Let's have some fun. I was surfing for Vintage Science Fiction Space Films I'd might not thought of a few weeks ago and came upon Toho Films' "Battle in Outer Space" from 1959. Sure, I'd heard of it before but had never seen. I have a passing interest in Toho's product from having weekly Godzilla movies aired on a local TV station while growing up, and will say with a straight face in dead serious tones that I consider "King Kong Vs. Godzilla" from 1963 to be one of the pinnacle feats of human achievement, and mean it. More on that some other time, but upon realizing that "Battle in Outer Space" was directed by the Kong movie's director Ishiro Honda there was no way to miss it.
The movie is an exercise in what I guess would be called Hard Science Fiction, namely a sober and lingering study on the futuristic technology being celebrated onscreen. I was already with Toho and Honda's techno-futurist thinking from having gotten to know his "Flying Supersub Atragon" and "Latitude Zero" films which likewise exist to showcase miniature vehicle and set piece scenarios for their star vehicles to exist in, and knew we were in for a good time. But I did not suspect an immediate crossover interest phenomena related to my current fascination with Marx Toy's likewise pinnacle of retro-futurist achievement, the stunning "Operation Moon Base" playset first debuting in 1962. Columbia Pictures brought "Battle in Outer Space" stateside in 1960 so they had plenty of time to see the movie and think about all of its wonderful toys.
Put simply: I sense some shared ideas here, enough to even outright suspect that some of the inspiration which went into the overall design ideals found in "Operation Moon Base" may have come from its designers having seen "Battle in Outer Space". Same Moon, for one, or same atomic age pop culture lunar setting. Same emphasis on hardware and placing humans in the midst of a vast cycle of machinery fueling plot that involves all manner of rocket ships, moon buggy vehicles, ray guns, strafing flying saucer ships, exploding mountains, and mischievous diminutive aliens who are no match for the Human Spirit. I'll review the film some other time -- it also shares a lot of ideas with Paul Verhoeven's vision of "Starship Troopers -- leave it for now as we take the fight to the aliens, we slap each other around and then annihilate them when they decide to launch an all-out attack on the Earth.
Though for me the meat of the film is its middle third, set either on the surprisingly massive rockets used to transport men & machine to do battle on the Moon, which is richly depicted as an endless vista of craggy hill features right off the cover of "Astounding Stories". All of it likewise wrapped up in a Pulp Scifi ethos complete with a scene where the jabbering little aliens try to abduct the only decent looking woman on the Moon. For what? is left up to the imagination, though she was a looker. And remember, this post is just for fun, I love writing and pursuing the idea of what inspires the artwork I admire. With above all my deepest thanks to the web resources from which some of the pix below were sampled.
(Auction site find)
The Moon Suit had not been conceived of yet in 1958/1959 when "Battle in Outer Space" would have been in production, but I bet Toho's effects crews would have worked one in if the idea had come up. And while it's just a coincidence related to the way off-world landscapes were depicted in science fiction imagery they used the same lunar terrain which also populates the moon's otherwise lifeless surface.
(Google Image find.)
Sears Roebuck Catalogue from 1962, unless I be mistaken.
This picture found on the auction evaluation site Worthpoint depicting a complete "Operation Moon Base" set with original playmat. For that original $10.88 I am sold, now to be in a position to adjust for inflation -- Current going price for an absolutely complete set would push you upwards to $450 - $800, with not just box condition but which box likely being the final value determinant.
And when able, what I'd like to do would be to contact a reputable dealer with a background in the idiom and ask them to find me a complete set with provenance for a commission. You won't find me bidding for it on e-B4y, or at least not the Bucket List set which has it all & in the box I'd skip a hot date to stay home and ogle. Would certainly consider taking an incomplete or unboxed one until then for the right score! so if you are looking to unload one send me a message using the form to the right. I'll read it.
(Auction site find)
The "other" box design, just referred to as "Moon Base", with instinct suggesting that it is from a subsequent year. Unless I be mistaken the contents are identical, but it's not quite the same on the graphics front. This looks less reckless. More like a designer's idea of how to simplify the printing cost, which may indeed have been the point (another commonly found web ad indicates they knocked a couple dollars off the retail price as well). Trust me, either would do! and to bring up my favorite Chico Marx like again, "We'll find time for both."
site for information on the Marx space toy forms + much much more.
Above an exhibit at the legendary (and now sadly closed) Marx Toy Museum depicting a partially assembled "Operation Moon Base" set, dominated by the incredible painted vacuformed Moon Mountain. Rocket gantries, flying saucers, laser cannons, cleverly designed moon vehicles, re-colored Tom Corbett gear, spring loaded rocket launchers, and guys in foil suits abound. But that mountain makes it a place, a point which subsequent Marx space sets never quite equaled.
(Phone screenshot as are all of the movie stills unless noted.)
"Battle in Outer Space"'s Moon Base, likewise dominated by a mountain formation but centered around a giant flying saucer formation (pre-echoes of Mystery Space Ship, anyone?) under alien control rather than human. It shoots off missiles & blows up mountains too.
(Auction site find)
Another partially assembled set. The vague similarity of form is only a suggestion, not even a theory. All of these ideas were commonplace in the popular culture of 1959 - 1962, including the original publication of "Starship Troopers ... Am eagerly awaiting back issues of Playset Collector type magazines which have in depth write-ups on "Operation Moon Base", and want to learn.
You must have rocket gantries with rockets in your retro-futuristic fantasies.
(Auction site find)
All five of "Operation Moon Base"'s cleverly designed Lunar Surface Vehicles. So far I have one. And to the right the set's Exploding Moon Mountain, with exploding moon features a recurring visual motif in "Battle in Outer Space". Good ideas have to come from somewhere! and sadly the exploding mountain was not issued in later Marx sets as its function gravely violated the Consumer Protection Act's child safety regulations, as did all of the components which fired off missiles, saucers, or other eye-poking projectiles. Darn.
One of "Battle in Outer Space"'s equally cleverly designed Lunar Surface Vehicles; They showed two of them so we could watch one being blown up. Same with the rockets.
It even flies in a pinch, begging the question of why they even bothered with the treads & wheels at all. Then again Godzilla could fly in a pinch it turned out. We learn all sorts of new things watching Toho Films.
Just to throw it out there, the "Battle in Outer Space" moon vehicles have another coincidental resemblance to the Spacex/Golden Astronaut "Mobile Moon HQ" vehicle. Mine came without an antenna so I'm sticky puttying a loose one on in the pix above.
(Google Image find.)
A coincidence for sure. But a good one, you must admit! :D
"Battle in Outer Space"'s strafing flying saucer attack, or "Raider" as I believe one of the characters referred to them as.
(Auction site find.)
"Operation Moon Base" also came with a strafing Space Jet, here adorned with USAF markings. One of the most difficult individual components from the set to find "loose" in its original form, though non-firing static recasts are common. $10 or so will bring one home including postage. I'm holding out for the real thing, and an interesting side note is that like all of Marx's other projectile firing toys the Space Jet became forbidden fruit after the 1972 Consumer Protection Act went into effect, in part banning toys which fired solid shot. Which just makes it even more cool.
"Battle in Outer Space"'s Space Jets come and go from the mothership on the alien Moon Base, which we also get to see blown up real good. I'm telling you, this movie is cool. A toy playset in action, with its own action figure spacemen scurrying about.
"NUKE EM."
Nice crew-served weapon manned by the film's gender-integrated multi-national Moon Squad.
A desperate chase to Landing Zone with Raider ships blasting the exploding mountains to bits. Which can only mean that a scene of Heroic Sacrifice is about due ...
Toho doesn't disappoint, and to me this is actually the most interesting shot in the film, seamlessly perfectly placing its spaceman into a forced perspective environment with a glorious matte painting background.
Yeah it is.
I'm telling you, Rocket Gantries. Without em you're just standing stuff up and waiting for a stiff breeze.
