Yeah, yeah, it’s a little late for Christmas, but these images are too terrific to wait eleven months to post, I’m sorry! (Hat tip to Rachel Hobson for the find!)

Heh heh, Santa goes out on a LM… (limb! Get it? GET IT?? HAHAHA… okay I’ll shut up now.)

A Space Wheel from the "Battle of the Planets" (1978)

Japanese retro-futurism? Hai douzo (yes please!) Two lovely toy illustrations from Battle of the Planets.

Images courtesy of Dark Roasted Blend.

Another beautiful ship from "Battle of the Planets", made by Entex Toys

I found this at the Early Space Exploration exhibit at Kennedy Space Center yesterday — a tin-type battery-powered toy from 1966. Fun stuff!

Image courtesy of Plaid Stallions

Okay, this space playground is AWESOME, and I WANT ONE. See the rest here.

And because it does seem amusingly reminiscent of one spaceship in particular, I can’t help myself:

KIRK: This… playground… reminds me of something. What… is it? Report.

UHURA: Captain, several children are hailing us.

SPOCK: Human children behave so illogically.

BONES: [watching children at play] DAMNIT Jim, somebody’s going to get hurt!

SCOTTY: Cap’n! Tha’ ship’s not MOVIN’, sir. It’s just SITTIN’ there, anchored to tha’ GROUND!

CHEKOV: Did you know, playgrounds were invented in Russia?

So I saw this rereleased 1965 Astronaut Barbie over at Out of the Cradle last month. She’s pretty chic, very Sixties. Nice hair.

But I have to show you MY Astronaut Barbie because, well, I think she’s just SO MUCH BETTER:

Astronaut Barbie -- We girls can do anything! (1985)

Oh yeah… NINETEEN EIGHTY-FIVE, BABY!

I love my Astronaut Barbie — she has awesome puffy sleeves (“straight out of Dynasty!”, says my best friend), a hot pink mini-skirt for dates after a long day of exploring space, an enormous fishbowl helmet, and amazing knee-high hot pink boots! (And an amusing “personal computer” with windup scrolling screen.)

A friend directed me to the Moon Marble Company, where they create a terrific “Universe” set:

The Universe Mib Box holds 48 of the 5/8 inch diameter marbles. This box contains 12 styles of marbles from the Vacor Factory in Guadalahara, MX including; Stardust, Comet, Meteor, Asteroid, Milkyway, Galaxy, Jupiter, Neptune, Earth, Mars, Venus, and Sun.

Definitely worth a look-see!

Woolworth’s wishes you a very merry Christmas Eve… in space. With Robbie and Dottie. Found via Dreams of Space – Books and Ephemera.

This review sums it up pretty well:

“By the time you’re finished assembling paper models of spacecraft from the book’s meticulously die-cut blueprints, you’ll be intimately familiar with many of the details of 20 different iconic spacecraft, as well as the broad arc of space exploration history and the basic principles of spaceflight. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s certainly a blast.” ~SeedMagazine.com

I don’t often plug things so heavily, but if I had a little space cadet, I’d be buying them this for Christmas. It utterly charmed me — a delightful gift for any age!

This night light rocks my world. It’s part of “Lights in the Night” by Seasons of Cannon Falls, seems to be available here and there, possibly at Target, Amazon, etc etc.

(Image from Tin Toy Arcade because they had the best photo and the best price!)

Our adorable large Red Rocket glows at night in your space shuttle or earthbound bedroom. Just plug in the swivel base into a standard outlet to illuminate to red plasma and floating glitter. As the rocket warms up the glitter will slowly dance through the red liquid. The rocket is silver with blue and red, retro space details.

This falls into the “too cute to not post” category — a mobile for your littlest astronaut. I like the gentle shapes.