I’m all for learning “moon talk”! Image via x-ray delta one.

I admit, I’m a sucker for space toys, especially awesome retro space toys, like the Ideal Astro Base shown above (buy it on Etsy! It looks like a blast!! No, I’m not being punny on purpose.)

Astro Base was a toy made by the Ideal company in the early 1960′s. The toy ran on 4 D Cell batteries. Other than a power switch, it had several features that includes the following modes of operation:

Astro Scope: Switch to Astro Scope and a scene of spaceships, rockets, and jets rotates through a view finder just below a radar dome on the top of the toy. A button on the console let the user ‘fire’ at objects seen on the screen, which would pause the rotating images and emit a machine-gun style sound.

Space Lock: A crane emerges out of the hatch on one side of the toy. This crane has a hoist operation that can be used to raise or lower a plastic astronaut figure, or other objects that the user may have that can be connected to the hook at the end of a chain. The main purpose of this crane is to insert or remove the astronaut from a scout car.

Scout Car: The scout car can be plugged into a port on the console and controlled by a two position switch marked Turn and Drive that can actually be used to steer the vehicle with a bit of practice. The scout car also has missiles that can be launched.

Ideal made two variations of the Astro Base. The original all-red version featured a lighted Astro Scope that illuminated the pictures spinning around the Astro Scope. Ideal Toys discontinued this version and offered the common red and white version.
— CollectToys.net

I also liked this Moon Patrol XT-978 Tank, because I’m amused at the mental image of tooling around the lunar surface… in a tank. Any tank, really, but especially one with bodacious tail-fins!

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!