ROSKO ASTRONAUT, RED VERSION - NOMURA - JAPAN

Tin/vinyl battery operated astronaut robot. Advances with walking motion. He stops, raises the lighted walkie- talkie and makes a beeping sound as his dome light flashes. Robby TN. Rosko is the distributor.

Two versions exist, red and blue. It's not yet clear which color appeared first or whether they are contemporary. They seem to turn up in equal numbers.

The Rosko Astronaut appears in the 1962 catalog for the 1st Japan International Toy Fair and in the US market in 1963, (in the early catalogs it appears as "Space Man") the Rosko Astronaut is a reworking of the later D-Cell Mechanized Robot (Robby) pressing. The body, legs and dome are retained. New vinyl arms are added along with a new face and a lighting walkie talkie. Air cylinders and a pair of thin spring antennas complete the transformation.
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