Box clockwork vehicle with fold out track, made by Marx, ca 1965 in the USA

Boxed clockwork vehicle with a fold out track. The vehicle is made of tin and has a key that is jammed in one side. It is symmetrical with no front and back and runs up and down a small track. The track is made up of three pieces that are hinged together. The side has an image of a lunar landscape. The track is marked in red. The main colour for this toy is blue. The box has a plain bottom and a printed top. The box has a picture of the vehicle moving through lunar terrain. In red are the words Space -Mobile.

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.48:1 to 4-2005