Unless you've been living under a rock in Lower Slobovia, it would be hard not have heard of NASA's Mars helicopter 'Ingenuity'. From concept to execution it has been a wonderful accomplishment to follow and proof that helicopter's can function on Mars. The Moon? yeah, don't know about that one, but the conceptualization for these has been around for a long time - at least in toy form. Marx - in their on-going efforts to present future tech concepts - had a couple of Moon Scout type helicopters like the twin-rotor version blogged here back on 10 Aug 2019 - and this one. The twin rotor version was little more than Chinook-like helicopter with some NASA graphics - nothing at all futuristic. But this little beauty on the other hand, appears to have had more creativity behind its design. Did this in-fact mimic concepts floating around at the time or was it strictly a toy designers dream of what a Moon helicopter should look like? It measures 7 1/4" (18.41cm) long (front of fuselage to rear of tail) x 2 1/2" (6.35cm) W 3 1/2" (8.89cm) H with a 7 1/4" (18.41cm) rotor span. The battery compartment holds two 'D' cell batteries and the left button causes the rotors to turn counter-clockwise and the helicopter to move forward in a left-turn arc. The right button causes the rotors to turn clock-wise and the helicopter to move in reverse in a right-turn arc. I took a short video of this for Y'allTube as well. Enjoy! Opa Fritz
I love the box art. even as a kid I would have been annoyed by a helicopter flying on the moon. Most of us space kids picked up the basic facts from How and Why Wonder Books or The Stars for Sam or some such and knew better by the second grade.
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