Boxed mechanical tin toy rocket made by Masuya in Japan ca. 1965

Boxed mechanical toy in the form of a space rocket. It is predominantly silver and red in colour. The mechanism is activated by pushing the rocket's nose, when this is done the rocket pushes itself into an upright position then it lets down its ladder. Printed behind the ladder is an image of an astronaut. The words 'Moon Rocket' are printed down either side of the rocket's fuselage in red text. The bottom of the box is plain card the top is printed with a fantasy picture of astronauts disembarking from the rocket onto a lunar landscape.

This object was acquired for the V&A Museum of Childhood's exhibition Space Age: Exploration, Design and Popular Culture, which opened on 22nd November 2007. It was bought at Christie's in November 2005 as part of a collection of robots and space toys. The collector, Paul Lips, ran an antique toy shop in Milan from the early 1990s, where he became particularly interested in space toys. The collection covered what he believed to be their golden age: 1955 to 1965.


After the Second World War, Japan became the pre-eminent manufacturer of tin toys through direct financial support from the United States for its toy industry, and through preferential access to US toy markets. Importantly, Japanese manufacturers were able to perfect small battery-powered motors, which gave Japanese toys a superior range of movements. One of the most celebrated subjects expressed in tin toys is space and space travel. Many highly imaginative toys were produced in the era of the Space Age (1957-1972), inspired by the widespread optimism of the times, and by a fresh public appetite for all things space.

B.51:1 to 3-2005