Tarheel Industries, Inc Nova II Spaceship

Okay, so here's the deal. I was gonna start the next series of small space toys - Imperial Toys Apollo Moon Exploration - but it turns out I only have photos of them still in their blister cards! A few days ago I started breaking them out and photographing the individual sets but there are twelve sets so it's goin' to be a while before I'm finished.

But that's okay because our post actually ties in to the SpaceX / Golden Astronaut theme we've been following. Today's featured toy is Tarheel Industries Nova II Space Ship - or Rocket Ship if you prefer. You'll notice right away that it's a clone of the SpaceX/GA Swing Wing Hawk, only much larger. It measures 10 5/8" (26.98cm) L x 2 1/4" (5.71cm) H x 3 1/8" (7.93cm) wingspan - wings folded in or, 7.75" (19.68cm) wingspan - wings deployed. The tie-in to SpaceX/GA is that this Nova II ship is much more to scale with the 25mm figures that came with the Triang toys than was their line of small craft. The small toys were of course meant to be cheap pocket-money fare, but for those who may have wanted to set-up a right proper Moonbase or space colony display, they were too small. You can find out more about Tarheel at SpaceX Central. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Here's a Golden Astronaut figure along with the GA Hawk

Here's a Golden Astronaut figure alongside the Nova II. By physically comparing the GA guy with the figure in the cockpit, they appear to be the same size.

My sample came in quite dirty. After about an hour cleaning this was about as good as it got. I didn't want to use any abrasive cleaners instead opting for Armor-All and Windex, but it's going to need a little more TLC