A boxed Technofix clockwork Terra Lune space toy made by Gebruder Einfalt, in Nuremberg, Germany Ca 1955.

Boxed clockwork spinning captive trackway toy. The toy is approximately teardrop shaped, with one end being wider than the other. On both faces is printed an image of the Earth and the Moon. Two small wheeled vehicles are propelled around a track inside the toy, so they appear to be travelling to and from the Earth and Moon. On top is a wire with two vehicles on either side that spins as the cars race around the track. The box has a plain card base and the top is printed with an image of rockets flying in space.

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.

Trademark Technofix

B.58:1 to 7-2005