Planet Puzzle: Retro Rocket Ships

 

As I write this, I'm just about done with a month back on my old masochistic pace of one blog post every weekday. I decided my best bet for a quick post was to bring back this neglected feature. This time around, I only have two items, both acquired in an online lot a while ago. They're two more examples of the vintage keychain puzzle, covered in the last post I did for this feature. Judging from prices, they're among the more sought-after examples out there. I acquired these for more than I care to mention, in very iffy condition, still for less than a typical price for one. Here's a pic of what I got for the money, with the Galaxy Laser Team Commander and Turtle-Crab Alien plus the original/ mini astronaut for reference.

From the information at hand (see Rob's Puzzle Page, again), this puzzle was first made in 1952 by Champion Plastics and several different companies thereafter. I'm satisfied that at least one of these is from the original manufacturer, unless someone thought the pink nosecone was a good idea more than once. The mechanics are similar to the ray gun: A notch in the midship piece lines up with a projection on the tip, and then the whole thing comes loose. The difference is that here there's a visible external indicator where the notch is, which I still didn't notice until after I took apart the puzzle by chance. Unfortunately, neither ship is very functional as a puzzle. The one with the pink nose has a bad crack that requires careful handing, while the one with the blue nose is so stiff and crusty that it's brutal to twist the middle piece. Here's the only pic I got of the blue-nosed ship partly disassembled.

Now, here's the full disassembly. It's simple enough that this is really more like a "take apart" toy than a real puzzle. It looks like the parts could be mixed and matched, but that's one more thing I'm not taking chances with, particularly since both ships have a broken nacelle anyway

With that, I'm already through the pics I had, and ready to wrap this up. It's a nice design, and an interesting transition between the simple Gernsback rocket and the more elaborate starships of Star Trek. Still, it gives me the same underwhelming feeling I've gotten from other puzzles. The 1970s and '80s puzzles weren't great, but they were still much better than this, at least when it came to durability and functionality.  The upside is that old puzzles like this remain appealing and interesting long after their usefulness as puzzles has passed. And that's all for now, more to come!