K is for Kennedy Space Centre - Rocket Gantry

Continuing to look at the contents of the Carry All Action Cape Kennedy Play Set, from the mighty Louis Marx Toy Co., we get to the important bit, the launch tower, there were the bits of two towers, in the tin, but only enough pieces for one working tower, and by 'working' I mean the gantry slides back and forth, the spring-mechanism for firing the missiles is missing, and will have to be searched for.

 

First, though, the flag! Did Marx ever issue a play set without a flag (or flags!)? The Cavemen sets, maybe, the Troll villages, Disney . . . OK, there were lots of sets with no flag! But it was a feature of many and there are variations, this is the common one, two-part plastic, the base an earth-pile, with a slip-on tin-plate National Standard.

 

The full construction with the main gantry pushed back to its start position.

 

The main components of the tower and base.

 

The launching spigot, which is clearly missing a spring or something?

 

Rocket in-situ, with the gantry slid forward.

 

For a toy, under the tree at Christmas, this is a fine thing, isn't it? More representative of what NASA was doing on the TV news night-in, night-out as the Apollo launches drew near, and more realistic than the earlier sets from MPC, Deluxe/Topper, or Marx themselves?