This is the beast; A soviet-era, Russian
clockwork Luna exploration 'walker'. A simple mechanism allows the thing to
walk slowly and - due to a short spring - for a very brief moment, in a usually
slightly right-handed curve forwards!
Each wind (from a non-original key) gets
about 15-seconds of perambulation, and, if you watch the two crew, not a
journey anyone would want to make in real life; an hour in a vehicle like this
would leave you looking like you'd gone three rounds with Muhammad Ali after
having your arms tied behind your back!
It would be better if the feet lifted and
dropped slightly in mid cycle, but most of the time they are working against
each-other, it's the same with that Tiger
Electronics battery-operated version of the Galoob Action Fleet AT-AT (another candidate for a future movie);
they are OK on a flat surface with a bit of grip or texture, anything
more-contoured, loose or bitty and they struggle.
I like that the 30mm'ish cosmonauts are red! The
inner deck has an odd lithographed graphic which seems to be a forward-looking
view from the cab of a larger-scaled vehicle, but set as the floor of a
smaller-scaled one? It's held in place by the revolving antenna/radar dish.
You can also see how short the spring is, a
Western toy would have three times as many loops in it, when we were kids, our
budget clockwork-railway, starter-sets from Tri-Ang
would send a 0-4-0 shunter and three wagons about four times around a
figure-eight track!
Markings are 'Stop' (as in stop/start)
and 'Price
1 Ruble, 80 Kopecks'; abbreviated - which - by the way - is (or was!) bloody
cheap!
I'm not sure if it should be right-hand
drive, but that's how I found it; maybe it's been captured by some Brit's
hiding in a crater, and converted!
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