SpaceXtra

Well the summer is here in the UK and I enjoy nothing more than drinking a nice cold beer and googling for space toys. June has proved fruitful so far. Whilst researching for part 3 of my look at SWORD for Fanderson's FAB mag [issue 69 - out late Summer] I came across some great stuff from sister series SpaceX. First up is one which I'm sure many of us noticed, a cool blue Space Glider on fleabay, nestled amongst more common Tri-ang SpaceX. It really did look like an excellent example with the front blue rocket and blister canopy [top picture].

Second and little more leftfield is a black and gold Mexican version of the P3 Helicopter, described as OVNI on flickr [above middle], shown with kind permission from it's owner Rod from madhunter collection. WOTAN has pointed out that it's more akin to the less detailed version by Apollo Moon Exploring [pictured carded next to it] than SpaceX [pictured below along with the 1966 TV21 'Agent 21' origin page supplied by the Toadster in 2009].

Last but not least is a fellow we've seen before, the Estrela Robot from Brazil. When I last posted about it I looked at the use of Valigursky 'Man and Space' images on the box front and the chest TV screen, namely the Booster Rocket and the MEV2. Having cyberama'd a little more I came across a cool image of the box side and lo and behold, there's an even bigger picture of MEV2, a little Booster flying over and a LEM to the right [above pictures, final four]. Clearly the designers at Estrela just couldn't put their copy of 'Man and Space' away! Anyway, there's so much Valigursky proto-SpaceX artwork on this robot and box that I think it's safe to say it's our SpaceX Robot [or as close as damn it!].

Anyone got any more pictures of these or any other obscure SpaceX or related lines like Apollo Moon Exploring? Knockoffs and bootlegs particularly blogworthy!