RADAR SCOPE SPACE SCOUT, ROBOT VERSION - HORIKAWA - JAPAN

A small nine inch brown tin and plastic battery operated TV robot. Tinplate body, brown plastic legs, arms and head. The robot has a small version of Attacking Martian head with fly eyes and distinctive white ears. The robot has a lithographed tin chest plate with a TV screen. The robot walks forward, stops as light inside chest flashes illuminating a stationary space scene that is mounted towards the rear of the chest cavity while making a clicking sound. Light goes out, clicking sound stops and robot continues to walk forward again.

The chest screen is a magnifying lens which makes the space scene seem larger and more "other-worldly". The space scene looks very much like the box image. English and Japanese box versions.

There is an astronaut version with the same name. It has "Magic Mirror" instead of the TV screen.

First seen in the 1969 Horikawa catalog where it is described as a new item, and it is still available in 1972. This would appear to be one of the first of Horikawa's new generation of smaller robots. Structurally it is very close to the later version of the Engine Robot and the later version Gear Robot: Attacking Martian head, tapered plastic legs and arm pressings

Note that the earlier versions of this robot use the same head as the Mars King robot.

There are at least five variations known:

1 Mars King fly eye tin head, flat body with litho stripes on each side of the screen, tin arms, and tin battery door

2 Mars King fly eye tin head, no stripes and the body is not so flat, it’s embossed on the 2 upper corner, and on the circles with stars visible on the side views

3 New style plastic head and metal ears

4 The most common: plastic head, plastic white ears, plastic battery door

5 The new body style and tin arms : this suggests Horikawa first changed the body then began to cut costs by adding more and more plastic