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| 1969.09.07 Childress TX Index Page 6 |
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| 1969.09.07 Childress TX Index Page 6 "Moon Toys Gain New Popularity" Article |
Moon Toys Gain New Popularity
By Frederick M. Winship
NEW YORK (UPI)-Moon merchandise, inspired by America's space program
and the recent Apollo 11 moonshot, is beginning to appear in toy, book,
game, record, and coin stores across the nation.
Space novelties
have been on the market for some 10 years but sales never really got off
the ground. Manufacturers, especially toymakers, were baffled by the
public's resistance to space items. It took the massive television
coverage of man's first landing on the moon in July to reverse the
market trend.
"It's all systems go now," said Lionel Weintruab (sic),
president of Toy Manufacturers of America, Inc. "The moon trip of
Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins has practically turned the toy industry
into a branch of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
There'll be plenty of rocketry under the Christmas tree this year."
Toy
industry theorists believe that youngsters found space items too
impersonal before television involved them emotionally with the Apollo
11 astronauts. New toys place heavy emphasis on the human aspect of the
space age. Plastic astronauts togged out in space suits bear the names
of Billy Blastoff, Johnny and Jane Apollo, and Major Matt Mason.
They are provided with a variety of space vehicles based on NASA prototypes - modules, crawlers and tractors with power limbs.
F.
A. O. Schwarz, New York's gilt-edged toy store, reports that an
unsophisticated Snoopy dog doll dressed up like an astronaut is its best
seller. It is made in Hong Kong and retails for $4. Hong Kong and Japan
are among the biggest manufacturers of astronaut dolls.
One of
the most realistic space items is a Saturn V rocket model almost four
feet long, one of 44 rocket model kits manufactured by Estes Industries
in Colorado. An electronically ignited powder charge blasts the toy 500
feet up and three parachutes bring the Apollo capsule and two other
stages back to earth.
There seems to be something for everybody
in the moonshot market. Stamp collectors are getting a commemorative 10
cent airmail issue bearing the legend "The First Man on the Moon" next
Tuesday. A 200-foot reel of NASA's official film of the moon conquest,
suitable for home viewing, is being sold commercially for as little as
$5, and American Airlines is showing it on its cross-country flight.
Record
collectors can choose among half a dozen $5 album recordings of the
astronauts inflight conversations accompanied by commentary by
astronauts from previous probes.
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