A TVTA mystery toy special! NASA formed in 1958 and West Germany ceased to be in 1990 – so this toy set which I picked up for under a tenner at my local vintage toy shop was produced anywhere between those two dates, likely the 1970s following NASA’s successful lunar missions.
The figurines are approx 1 inch tall, and like the lunar module and rocket vehicle have ‘W GERMANY’ stamped on them as COO (Country Of Origin). The red pilot figure has no COO stamp but has the same uniform as the others, and was likely meant for a vehicle that’s missing from the set? I made this quick dio using card, rocks and sand.
Edit: 20/11/17. Thanks to TVTA agent Arohk over on the TIG forum I’ve found out the origins of these toys. Fast forward to the end of this post to find out!
Mystery solved! The figurines and “Luna Station play set” were originally made by Jean Höfler in the early 1970s, with the figurines eventually being licensed out to Plong bubblegum in North America. The following images are all courtesy of the excellent site: blechroboter.de
image by blechroboter.de
image by blechroboter.de
Thanks for looking 🙂
The Vintage Toy Advertiser 
Woww😍😍😍
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Hi TVTA, this post takes me back to my schooldays! Back in the early 80’s I had to produce a project on Space Exploration, so I built a model of the Lunar Lander and I used an Action Man figure as the astronaut (aka G.I. Joe in the U.S.). I dressed the Action Man in a deep sea diver’s rubber suit and used a German Paratrooper Backpack. The backpack was inserted into a matchbox wrapped in aluminium foil to look space age and the backpack straps extended from either end. The look was finished with a space helmet. I think your playset looks way better, but I was a kid when I built mine LOL! Thanks for sharing.
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Hy Tyeth, your project model sounds awesome, and has good imagination to use all those components to get the desired result. Like you, in the early 80s I also did a space exploration project along with a friend. We didn’t build anything 3D but did make lots of drawings, and I also remember we used some Star Wars books for ideas on vehicles and planets. Fun days!
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Hi TVTA, thanks, I think we both were lucky as we were able to see the end of Rocket spacecraft and the beginning of the Shuttle age so Space Exploration was a hot topic at school for us. Hopefully we will get to see more regular space exploration in our lifetime to come. Thanks again.
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Great find!
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