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| 1969.09.08 Arlington Heights Daily Herald Suburban Chicago Page 3 |
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| 1969.09.08 Arlington Heights Daily Herald Suburban Chicago Page 3 "Moon Toys: All Systems Go" |
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, 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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