18 February 2021
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Never lost for things to talk about, Rick Wilson delves into his model stash to share his favourites.
The final part of my trilogy of lunar vehicles, inspired by the 50th anniversary of the moon landings, looks at Corgi’s No 806 Lunar Bug – a completely fictional vehicle but with excellent play value.
Released in November 1970, off the back of all the interest at the time in the moon landing missions, this fabulous fantasy vehicle demonstrated the talents of Corgi’s design team and looked like it could truly be a vehicle of the future, although it did seem to take some styling cues from Dinky’s No 102 Joe’s Car from the Joe 90 TV series – the twin jet engines and ‘sit down’ wheelsets for starters.
The main body is white with red roof and underside, the cockpit interior is light blue moulded plastic and is clearly visible through the wide bubble windscreen.
The play value is high and this clearly helped it sell over 300,000 during its two-year production run, being withdrawn late in 1972. With the ability to sit down, the tailgate drops down, allowing vehicular access to the spacious rear compartment and this is perfect for most of the Corgi Juniors or Rockets range to fit inside. I chose the nearest thing to a moon buggy that I have from these ranges in the shape of the GP Beach Buggy.
Not content with these features, Corgi added fold-out wings to add an extra dimension and these are moulded in the same blue plastic as the interior.
The final touch came in the shape of a replica lunar surface polystyrene foam inner tray, clearly visible through the attractive blue and yellow window box.
My original saw plenty of action in my parents garden back in the day and the model photographed here was acquired just a few years ago – and yes, it still comes out for the odd mission or two these days.