Post Space Race with Revell – Part 1 describes the circumstances that led to the Apollo programme. The first studies for the Saturn rocket were made as early as 1959, two years before J. F. Kennedy’s famous speech: We choose to go to the Moon. Thus 1961 was the official birth of the programme. Following the example of conservative engineering, the concept was broadly conceived. It soon became clear that a three-stage rocket was needed, because it was essential to get rid of the empty heavy shells one by one. The Soviet design and the NASA design differed on one, perhaps crucial, point that Dr. Wernher von Braun had also considered carefully. How many propulsion engines does the first stage use. The decision directly affects the diameter of the first stage and, as is the case with foundations, what is built on top of it. So the vehicle had to be designed, but also the knowledge and training of the crew of a manned space flight. Thus, in addition to the Apollo missions, the Gemini programme was created, whose task was to test the necessary spacecraft manoeuvres in orbit on a small scale, but also to let the astronauts leave their ship and navigate. Just as the Atlas rocket of the Mercury programme came from military funding, the Titan-II for Gemini was chosen from the field of state-of-the-art military intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Titan was notable for its reliability. It completed two unmanned test flights in April 1964 and January 1965 and all 12 Gemini flights from March 1965 onwards, with the 18 astronauts eventually finding their way back to Earth unharmed. From Gemini-6 onwards, rendezvous in orbit were to take place. Thus, prior to the launch of the Gemini rocket manned in pairs, an unmanned Agena upper stage was launched into orbit. Both the Atlas from the Mercury programme and the Titan rocket from the manned Gemini launches were used as launch vehicles. The Agena upper stage had already been ordered earlier by the US Airforce as a satellite, which was equipped accordingly depending on the mission purpose. The Agena stage for the Gemini-6 launch did not reach orbit, so it failed. It was not until Gemini-8 that an Agena upper stage was again ready to fly into space and 100 minutes later the actual manned Gemini-8 crew launched and docked with the Agena for its exercises. Gemini-9 was also to perform another docking manoeuvre, but the two half-shells enclosing the docking area at the top of the rocket during Agena’s ascent phase only partially opened. This left only one beautiful shot, which earned this Agena the nickname “angry alligator” for Gemini-9.

Gemini-9 – Augmented Target Docking Adapter: The angry alligator (From NASA – Great Images in NASA Description, public domain)

The final Gemini flight, Gemini-12, then took place in June 1966, four months after the first rocket carrying Apollo spacecraft components was successfully launched. The first Apollo mission was carried out with the two-stage Saturn-IB, the Apollo capsule was tested unmanned on this flight, re-entry being the challenge here. The cheaper two-stage design was sufficient here, as it was only for Earth-orbital testing. The upper stage then remained conceptually the same for all Saturn rockets. The first tests of the Saturn-IB date back to October 1961, when the individual stages were successively tested, especially the upper stage, until the first Saturn-V was finally launched into space with Apollo-4 in November 1967. Before that, there had been 13 launches of Saturn I or Saturn-IB. The 14th launch of the Saturn-IB could not take place because one month before the launch date, the Apollo module burned out during an exercise with the astronauts on board. The accident led to the entire vehicle being rechecked for safety, and as a result it was greatly improved.

And after this introductory prehistory, it may be due to the founding year of the Revell company in 1956 that it was not possible to concentrate so intensively on space travel. After all, competing companies had already been established on the market for 15 years or more, so it was certainly necessary to quickly develop a broad base of models. Thus, apart from the A-4, which was founded in the German history, other models from the space programme were left out by Revell. With the Saturn-V, first edition in 1969 in 1/96 scale, the first rocket came on the market, just in time for the first moon flight with Apollo-11 on 20 July of that year. About every 13 years, the model reappears in new, but unchanged productions. Presumably due to the early edition or the secret construction plans, the model shows deviations from the original. Thus a marketplace has developed for the Saturn-V to supersize the Revell model, especially if the model is to be broken down into the individual stages, as it is, for example, in the museum in Cape Canaveral. The company New Ware , for example, specialises in this. What else exciting has been developed from this Saturn V kit at Revell? Well, there is another 03700 kit that contains just the Apollo spacecraft, that is the Command Service Module and the Lunar Module. So the spacecraft can be built coupled but also separated with the lunar module landed.

Mouldings for the Revell 03700 from the Apollo Box

If you are interested into the history of toys, please feel free to find more information here. My father, an old school modeller, was never that satisfied to just glue the plastic together. But when you review the article FineScale Modeler 2006/04 you may assume, that you learn more skills than brush on the glue. How about you? Do you like to give your kits a more detailed look?

The post Space Race with Revell – Part 2 The Mighty SATURN V first appeared on Product Cluster Blog.

Perhaps it has always been the case that nations have measured each other, probably mostly in battle. The battle on the battlefield, bloody and deadly, the battle in the arena against animals. Or for the more intellectually elevated, since, it is thought, 2000 BC, the pan-Hellenic games, which in modern times are fought out all over the world. How do you compete in the Cold War? Physical fighting is not possible. Many animals give up in time when it is clear who is the stronger. With humanoids, the winner is the one who doesn’t stay down permanently. This is bad for the two largest nations, the USSR and the USA, because everyone still wants to exist after such a fight. The Second World War, the starting point of globalisation, when the spoils were divided up by the two big nations, it was not clear which system was better or more dominant. Like in Monopoly, the fields were occupied and cultivated. The Second World War ended with Japan’s surrender. Immediately, the eight or so more local wars began, motivated by decolonisation and bloc formation to define the local power structure as well. The last of these wars, the Korean War, made it clear that the two great powers did not have to face each other, but that a smaller country could be found where the conflict could be fought out by proxy. Currently, such a kind of war is being worked on in Ukraine.

Scalemate presenting Revell’s German A4/V2 Rocket

After this historical excursion we come back to the year… Now this is difficult to define. After the foundation for space travel had been developed in the German Reich, albeit in order to carry warheads as far as possible into the enemy’s playing field, the technology and technicians were in high demand. The two great victorious powers tried to grab what they could. The loot was shipped home and both great nations now tried to do something with it. The USA was able to get hold of some of these missiles, plans, but above all the technicians, who themselves tried to get into American captivity. The USSR gained access to the workshops through the division of Germany, the Soviet occupation zone. Few technicians ended up in the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence, mostly those who preferred to remain in the eastern part of Germany. Both major nations quickly realised the potential of this technology and went to great lengths to occupy as much as they could in the wartime confusion of the German Reich. One must probably mention Sergei Pawlowitsch Koroljow, who was in charge of the Soviet target-oriented requisitioning in the German Reich, especially since he himself had been involved in rocket development since the 1930s and knew what was important. The USA, with its Operation Overcast, took everything that looked like a rocket. No doubt also aided by the volunteer prisoners of war who had worked on it and took the precaution of withholding material from the Red Army. Korolyov, an excellent technician, managed to work out the jigsaw puzzles that were missing and taken away to the USA. In the USA, the captured material, including the people, was stored for the time being. People and material were too contaminated with fascism, pride too great.

Since there was also an effort in the USA to use the missile as a weapon, the US Air Force was in charge of it. They developed the Atlas missile from 1946 to 1957, there was an interruption because funds were needed for the Korean War. Nevertheless, the first of this type of missile took off four months earlier, on 21 August 1957 near Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The Soviet rocket, then named R-7, is still known today as the Soyuz rocket, a family of rockets that has evolved over the years and is still in use. With 1936 launches to date, a solid workhorse. A rocket from this family also launched the Sputnik spacecraft in 1957, which, out of fear, was the spark that finally let the US enter the space race. There, the US Air Force was still tasked with taking on and winning the race. But the US Air Force was unable to build on the success of the Atlas rocket. With the end of the term of office of the 70-year-old 34th president of the USA, a 27-year younger and dynamic president entered the White House who did not have this categorically negative attitude towards the historical origins of the Germans and their team, who had meanwhile settled in Huntsville (Alabama). The pioneer of space travel, Wernher von Braun, who was already conducting research on the German side and whose early goal was to travel to the planets, did not remain idle in the USA either. If he was able to advance his dream through the armament projects in the German Reich, he also managed to get funding in the USA. Thus, the Redstone missile, based on the “Aggregat 4 / Retaliatory Weapon 2”, was developed in parallel with the US Air Force’s Atlas. It was not only to transport warheads, but also the first satellite of the USA and, in the course of the Mercury program in 1961, the first American into space.

Scalemate presenting Revell’s U.S. Army Redstone

The Sputnik shock in 1957, was followed by the first dogs in space, the first man and first woman as cosmonauts in space, the first spacewalk (leaving the spacecraft), much longer stays in orbit than the US, the first pictures from the far side of the moon, the first probe on the moon, the first robot on the moon and the first space station into earth’s orbit. Korojov’s consistent work until 1966 had clearly paid off here in the race.

In the USA, this Soviet superiority was not to be accepted. Attentive observers also realised that the US Air Force was overburdened by its military tasks to also advance space flights, especially since Wernher von Braun’s group worked more efficiently compared to the resources made available. Thus, the civilian US National Aeronautics and Space Administration was founded in 1958, and von Braun’s team was quickly integrated. As early as 1959, the first studies on the Saturn rocket were made, two years before Kennedy’s famous speech: We choose to go to the Moon.

Dr. Wernher von Braun, the NASA Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, and President John F. Kennedy at Cape Canaveral, Florida on November 16, 1963. (Photo: NASA), Courtesy of NASA

And after this introductory prehistory, part 2 will follow, with the Revell company founded in Bünde in 1956 and the beautiful models around space travel.

If you are interested into the history of toys, please feel free to find more information here.

The post Space Race with Revell – Part 1 A Historical Background first appeared on Product Cluster Blog.

Even shortly before Easter, many stores advertise special offer prices, the reasons for which are meanwhile unknown and probably no longer questioned. Called Black Friday or Cyberweek at other times of the year, or Easter specials like now, these are fairly new occasions to motivate retailers. In the past there were clearance sales, sell-offs or closeouts, usually the manufacturer or seller wanted to get your products off the shelves to make room for new ones.

Anyway, I also became aware of such an offer before Easter. The goods were limited and time-limited, I immediately remembered the approach of these TV stores from the early years. However, the price seemed favorable to me that I had bitten. In advance, on the large known market places, at which many buyers romp, one cannot estimate the true product prices any longer, occasionally genuine fantasy prices are queried. I got caught up in a product from Revell, named Antonov, which was destroyed in Ukraine a few weeks ago. I quickly realized that there were two part numbers. At first I suspected a typo by the vendor, but Revell’s own site also showed these two products, so they were real. Given the time constraints, I quickly noticed that according to the Revell site, the products were identical in quality and quantity. From experience, this didn’t seem abstruse to me either, since this Antonov was, after all, originally from the time of the USSR, and was to find a new use in Ukraine after the breakup of the USSR. It was specially developed to transport the
Soviet orbiter from the Buran space program in the troposphere. The transport system is comparable to NASA’s modified Boeing 747-100 , which was used to transport the orbiter of the Space Shuttle system between different locations. There will be a separate post dealing with this, soon.

So I put these two Revell product pages side by side, and I basically saw nothing essential in which the price difference of almost factor 2 should find its justification.

Screenshots of the product descriptions of the Antonov at Revell

Nevertheless, with skepticism in mind, I still made sure on the page of Scalemates, whether I missed something.
The time section presented by Scalemates always quite small, I did not invest deeper, I had the trustworthy product description of the manufacturer. With the mouse pointer over the images I could verify from the image description that the product 04958 is from 2018, the 04957 from 2019. From the “new parts” I wanted to have taken a model improvement, I did not enter a deeper analysis on this non-manufacturer page.

History of Revell’s 04958 at Scalemates

So I had the cheap offer reserved for pickup at my local seller in town. In my memory, the local seller also had the same photo on his product page, as we, the Product Cluster also have it, since the offer was limited, in the meantime sold out, the page no longer exists at the seller.
So as seen in the aftermath, these two products are found and displayed at Product Cluster, unfortunately we had not yet published our product portal on that said day.

Screen shots of the product descriptions at Product Cluster for Revell’s An-225s.

I gladly collected the goods from the local dealer, but was surprised to see Level-3 on the cover, which I did not remember from looking at the Revell site, but was not suspicious enough. It wasn’t until I got home that I verified my purchase. In fact, the intentionally purchased 04957 differed significantly from the Revell page: No Level-5 and also the number of 227 parts I had checked was not reached, but 114, which then also revealed the lower price to me.

The 04957 from Revell landed in my living room by mistake.

If I had not looked for the differences of the An-225 at the manufacturer Revell, but on our, still under construction product page of Product Cluster, I probably would have noticed the correctly reproduced box with the obvious level-3. With some pride, I realized that we were more error-free than the manufacturer itself.

Screen shots of the product descriptions at Product Cluster for Revell’s 04958 and 04957.

Of course, I then noticed afterwards at the manufacturer’s site that despite entering the two legal product numbers, products are also found, but for both product numbers also unfortunately the same product was deposited. I am sure that not even programmers would have noticed this in the forced haste of product verification. The search algorithm of the Revell site should have given a hint next to loud advertising banners: “Product not found”, instead the extremely easy to confuse product was displayed.
This case shows how important it is to have a good product description, as well as mature search engines in the product portals.

If you are interested into the history of toys, please feel free to find more information here.

Or you rather would like to learn some tips about shopping online you may not know? Have a look here..

The post A problem with the Antonov An-225 – Under pressure first appeared on Product Cluster Blog.

The current world event par excellence, the now condemned invasion of Ukraine beginning on 24 February 2022, is writing history. Product Cluster would also like to address the topic of Ukraine, the second largest country on the European continent with almost 42 million inhabitants. While still integrated into the USSR, it suffered the first major nuclear super-GAU (meltdown) of a nuclear power plant in 1986 with European implications, because in the economic system existing at that time, economic plans dictated by the central government were more important than common sense. The incisive event then also heralded the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union experiment.
After all, Ukraine regained its independence in 1991, so that with the help of the EU, the only unit 3 still operating without serious accidents, and thus the entire site, was shut down in 2000. (No. 4 suffered the Super-Gau, No. 2 suffered a hydrogen explosion with total fiscal damage, No. 1 had an incident with an overheated nuclear fuel rod and was shut down in 1996).

So this Ukrainian country, once again breaking free from its grip, then freed itself from the Tsarist Empire during the First World War and soon after brought back into a centrally directed system in the Russian Civil War by Leon Trotsky’s Red Army under Wladimir Iljitsch Lenin. The monarchical tsardom was replaced by the Leninist one, and it is fair to say that the government’s new economic goals could not be implemented so quickly in such a gigantic country. Thus, the great new Soviet Union with mineral resources and agriculture sank into famine, something the so-called West experienced for quite different reasons as a global balance through the Black Friday of 1929. It should be noted that the event has nothing to do with the sales events of large department stores.
The original economic model used by Lenin was then replaced by a centrally planned economy. It is up to everyone to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the real existing economic systems. In any case, many Soviet republics decided to withdraw from the USSR system as soon as it seemed peacefully possible. Measured by economic indicators, no state was worse off after its independence from the disintegrating Soviet Union, which Mikhail Gorbachev tried to save with his policy of Glasnost und Perestroika .

In the years of Ukrainian independence, a democratic, republican, socially and legally organised unitary state with a presidential system of government established itself as the form of state. There are many examples of the economic lows that have to be overcome before something like a free market economy emerges from a planned economy. Thus, privatisation was handled carefully and attempts were made to avoid chaos. Nevertheless, development suffered from the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, suffered from the economic crisis in 2007 and suffers from the inherited burdens of Chernobyl disaster. But all setbacks are being made up well, of course also by the EU’s willingness to support. It is also clear that the EU is the largest trading partner with 40 %, with machinery, chemicals and industrial goods accounting for the largest share of exports to Ukraine. One has to take into account that Ukraine’s energy needs are immense and a large part of its trade goods are in the energy sector, which presumably takes a large share in the total trade with the Russian Federation of 21.1 %. Ukraine exports food (mainly cereals (wheat)), metallurgical products (mainly rolled steel, iron) and chemical products. Thus, many companies have emerged in modern times in Ukraine, including in the field of educational toys.

Current toy manufacturers in Ukraine

The company VEMA KIDS, which produces children’s furniture and furniture for kindergartens, day-care centres and schools, but also products for rehabilitation, is worth mentioning here. Toys are also in the portfolio. In order to export and grow, they are currently looking for distributors in the EU. The manufacturer does not yet have foreign languages on its website, but its portfolio is nevertheless well presented.

The company TIGRES produces toys and games, made of plastic and rubber among other things, as well as soft toys. Have a look…

AVTORSKAYA GALEREYA DIZAYNERA YULII SKARBOVOY, the gallery of designers is known for dolls, also from the area for collectors as well as other toys.

FLAMINGO TOYS PE, CE certified, specialises in games and toys from the musical field, but also produces other games and toys such as toys for the beach or sandbox, tolocars and logical toys.

Then there is the SOFT TOYS FACTORY, as the name suggests, plush toys.

BOMBATGAME LLC builds board games and board games. They have a creative homepage, we think, just click in via the two links.

PRJSC WESTERN INDUSTRIAL GROUP produces watercolour and acrylic paints. Have a look, colourful … Maybe there are also colours for your fingers.

MR.PLAYWOOD is known for wooden toys, maybe you have seen some somewhere, the 3D models for example.

The company Doloni Toys is also active in the market of games and toys, mostly made of plastic. So you can find a lot of things that are suitable for outdoors, and that doesn’t just apply to the playhouses and the garden slides. There are also scooters and toy cars, construction games and board games.

For example, the main services of the company RANOK CREATIVE Ltd. are toys that are mostly electric, sets for girls, creative building sets, science games.

Founded only in 2017, YAROKUZ is a manufacturer of plush toys and stuffed animals. It can also be commissioned for work.

EKOGOODS, found on http://ekogoods-toys.com/ offers very nice 3D models made of wood, some can even be controlled remotely. Their website may be down at the moment due to the political situation, but the Facebook page is very nice.

The toy company LEVENYA was founded in 1996. They make products for children. They are a manufacturer for Cubika, which offers wooden toys, also supply Puzzlika, which sells puzzles.

PARITET-TOYS builds wooden toys, games and playthings.

CADILUCK specialises in model making.

CREATIFWOOD also has a nice website with beautiful products in the field of puzzles made of wood.

PC KAMERTON a supplier of games and toys.

EWT Ltd. is a one-stop shop for second-hand products, including toys and clothes.

It is hoped that the country will be allowed to quickly return to its former glory. We wish it luck, hope and perseverance.

If you are interested into the history of toys, please feel free to find more information here.

The post Toys and Ukraine. first appeared on Product Cluster Blog.