TWO-STAGE ROCKET LAUNCHING PAD, VERSION 2 - NOMURA - JAPAN

Tin battery op rocket launching station. This is the more common light purple version. In this version the rocket is pressed into the silo manually, instead of crank action loader. The launching function is automatically started (battery operated) after pushing down the "launcher" part. A countdown sequence begins, the controller pulls levers, then the rocket launches. This version has extra rockets mounted around the firing tube. Some examples still retain a direction arrow at the point where the crank handle of the earlier version would have been. The earliest sighting of this, the more common version, is in the 1960 Higbee Company catalog. Marked Jupiter on the side. There is a less common green litho version, the Rocket Launching Station.