1958 Chein Musical Mechanical Space Ride in Original Box
Fantastic air-go-round amusement park "ride" manufactured by Chein. Called the "Musical Mechanical Space Ride" it was produced for only a brief period. I found sale catalogs which listed it only for 1958. It comes complete with its original box and it works great! This all tin litho toy features a mushroom shaped canopy connected by a central column to a circular base. The base is slightly larger in diameter than the canopy. Both the base and canopy were lithoed with a turquoise blue background which is covered with space stuff. The canopy, with rockets, ufo's, planets, etc. represents outer space. The base with its large rocks, futuristic buildings and low flying objects represents the ground forces. The column which shows two lads entering their ship represents the means of travel between the established ground cities and outer space. And, of course, the 2 yellow and 2 red space ships are the rockets in transit from the ground to space. Pretty clever when you think about it! The toy uses a simple spring activated lever. Pull it to one side and let go! It actually rotates very fast with centrifugal force pulling the 4 ships nearly horizontal. As the canopy rotates it generates an ascending scale of three different plinking sounds; each is slightly higher in tone than the previous. It then repeats. This is the "musical" part of the toy. The box was printed with an accurate color illustration of the actual toy on all four main panels. Each panel including the endflaps were printed with continuous red and blue stripes around their perimeter. Catalog number and toy name are also on the endflaps. Over the past 18 years this is the first decent example I've found with its original box. The toy itself is fairly scarce. Size: 9½" tall. Rockets 5" long. Base diameter 7½". Sold: Oct. 2012
Price Sold: $ 520
