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Unknown Mercury Capsule + Mid 60s Gumball Machine Rocket Model Kits


space.trucks

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No info on this at all. Soft rubberized flexible material, and interestingly it shipped to me with a small white ball inside of it. Vendor had not known if it belonged with the capsule & let it be. Pulled the damn thing right out of there, not comprehending what purpose it could possibly serve (floatation aide? like maybe it's a bath toy?)

 

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No markings anywhere. Accumulation of grime consistent with the vendor's description of it being "Vintage 1960s or 1970s", have opted to leave it as-is.

 

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Pretty far out little form! if anyone wants to see the white ball it's kept handy with the capsule, just not inside.

 

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With Cape Canaveral crew & bits of stuff which look futuristic. 

 

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This thing rocks. Vended as "Gumball Machine Mercury Redstone Rocket Kit, Mid 60s" and I believe it. Would enjoy learning anything about it if someone recognizes the form.

 

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Just an empty tube with a decal of some sort. No markings on any of it I can discern.

 

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Another piece from the same vendor, this one described as "Gumball Mercury Atlas Model Kit With Escape Tower, Mid 60s" and never assembled. Rocket tube is about twice as thick as a soda straw -- Am working up the nerve to try putting them together once I understand what kind of decal it is. I like that escape tower!!

 

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Very cool. No markings I can discern but some nice detailing.

 

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A third unit from the same source, this one described as "Gumball Polaris ICBM Model Kit, Mid 1960s". All three came with what were described as their original gumball machine eggs, all clear plastic with no markings. Keeping em. 

 

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Have not sat down with these to try and figure out proper use. From the mess on the assembled rocket I'm presuming they are water transfer. Keeping them in their eggs for the time being.

 

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In application with a newly arrived friend.

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are you sure the red thing is meant to be a Mercury capsule ? To me it has no feature identifying it as a model of sort and being of soft rubber it could be some plumber gizmo which shape reminds us of a space capsule?

 

JCC

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O.0   .... Had not considered that! Object was vended to me in a "Lot" buy which included my only genuine Giant spaceman, a painted Marx / Hong Kong spaceman & an LP posed astronaut. I hear you on the water function too. The positioning of the holes going all the way through is suspicious and not at all a rectangular hatch as per Mercury design. Here it is compared with an LP capsule at left and a Mattel made Friendship 7 at right.

 

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  • 1 year later...

Interesting development regarding the red rubber form. I had to pass on this impressive pile of bling described as an incomplete "Fireball XL-5 City" playset but there it is off to the right. As far as my eye can tell everything else in the Lot is molded plastic.

 

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That's definitely the same red form.

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The red rubber capsule with the white ball inside sounds like some kind of one way valve. Fluid could go up but gravity and the ball prevented it from going down. The top obviously is a fitting for a hose.  It certainly looks like a capsule though and if I ever found one I would so use it in one of my sculptures.

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I'm sorry, should have started a fresh thread. The hose thing sounds good but it turned up again last week in another space toy context and with no plastic ball. I posted more for amusement to note someone else getting it wrong, though having a 2nd person do so is quite a coincidence. I guess I should try to find a home/garden catalog from 1968 and look in their hose fixtures department.

 

On 9/13/2020 at 3:49 PM, space.trucks said:

Interesting development regarding the red rubber form. I had to pass on this impressive pile of bling described as an incomplete "Fireball XL-5 City" playset but there it is off to the right. As far as my eye can tell everything else in the Lot is molded plastic.

 

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That's definitely the same red form.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think that it would be unusual for a rubberized element to be included in a toy set that was otherwise all rigid plastic. Considering how much it resembles an apollo capsule, I don’t think it’s at all beyond the bounds of possibility that some enterprising young kid might “borrow” it from dad’s tool kit, especially if it were flexible enough to stuff with one of those pilot spacemen 😁.

my first thought was”turkey baster bulb”; I wonder if it might be a pump bulb for some sort of siphon?

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 9/25/2020 at 8:37 PM, Action Robot said:

I think that it would be unusual for a rubberized element to be included in a toy set that was otherwise all rigid plastic.

Yeah I'm good with that conclusion. Here's somebody else's Fireball XL-5 city playset, no clue if it's complete but there are no space capsule forms let alone one made outta rubber. Ain't shown or mentioned on the box so it is very likely neither of the space capsules shown in the above lot are from that Multiple Toymakers playset.

 

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I doubt a solid answer to what it is will be forthcoming beyond chance of seeing a match presented in appropriate context (garden catalog, old chemistry set contents, vintage turkey baster kit unlike anything currently used). But I will offer that one person getting it wrong when listing up their space toy lot? OK. Two getting it wrong, I don't know. If a third gets it wrong then we have a real problem here, and in the end believe that the most useful thing which can be done would be to delete the whole discussion as I cannot modify the original post to reflect what may have been learned. Stay safe out there!! Until there's a vaccine I'm quarantined with mom  ❤️

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On 9/25/2020 at 8:37 PM, Action Robot said:

I think that it would be unusual for a rubberized element to be included in a toy set that was otherwise all rigid plastic. Considering how much it resembles an apollo capsule, I don’t think it’s at all beyond the bounds of possibility that some enterprising young kid might “borrow” it from dad’s tool kit, especially if it were flexible enough to stuff with one of those pilot spacemen 😁.

my first thought was”turkey baster bulb”; I wonder if it might be a pump bulb for some sort of siphon?

That would be a holey baster. I'm thinking it is some kind of gravity valve for maybe a laundry sink or a toilet.

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If 1960s toilet control technology benefited from having such a device which relied on a ping-pong ball to cap the flow from spilling onto the floor we can only thank God for the evolution of bathroom appliances over the intervening years.

 

I showed the stupid thing to my father who is 84, was once an avid gardener, handyman and the family expert on tools, hardware store fodder and the like. Asked him what it was and after waving off his first response that it looks like a space capsule he too offered the hose fixture idea, then pointed out that it has no threading to fasten it in place. Without threading it'd just pop off as soon as any water pressure hit it. Took it out back and it will not fit on either male or female hose ends of current manufacture: too wide for one, too narrow for the other. It also won't fit on the threaded pipe sink faucet in our basement, for whatever that is worth. I will also concede that screw-on hose technology standardizing may have changed since 1967, am not a gardener, and don't spend much time in the workshop tinkering with old plumbing/gas fixtures.

 

Pops did like the chemistry set flow control device idea (or gas range input flow control, that kind of thing) as that would allow for a special clamp to seal the input end from leaking. Though if the purpose was simply to split flow in two directions there's no point for the circumference-wide hole on the bottom, and where are the elements transmitting the flow in (or gathering the flow from) two directions? If it's something which would cover such a device to protect it from wear that would explain why it needs such a wide hole to fit over the fixture being protected while being installed. Be fun to walk into the Pawn Stars shop with the damn thing and have them waste half a show debating what it might be, other than a space toy. I'd watch that.

 

And again return to the idea of Brian deleting the fffing thread before anybody else wastes another minute's thought on it. I think we're good.

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On 10/19/2020 at 7:48 PM, Andyman said:

But I'm just getting warmed up!

 

Maybe not a fluid so much as some kind of gas or exhaust valve?

Yeah OK, let's keep it going. I recorded a "What Is This??" video clip for YT and flagged "unknown vintage hardware garden shop kitchen bathroom implement" etc to tags, should troll up a response or two within the next calendar year. I'm actually excited by the prospect of it being identified & easily finding a dozen of them for a couple of bucks to use as space capsules in artworks.

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10 hours ago, space.trucks said:

Yeah OK, let's keep it going. I recorded a "What Is This??" video clip for YT and flagged "unknown vintage hardware garden shop kitchen bathroom implement" etc to tags, should troll up a response or two within the next calendar year. I'm actually excited by the prospect of it being identified & easily finding a dozen of them for a couple of bucks to use as space capsules in artworks.

Good show. I really do want to know what it is.

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