PLANET Y SPACE STATION - NOMURA - JAPAN

Gold/brown colored lithographed tinplate and battery operated flying saucer. This 9" diameter spaceship has a unique design that tries to capture the scale of a space station. A central cylindrical body is surrounded by a donut shaped ring. A small plastic astronaut sits under a clear plastic dome surrounded by a circle of red lights. The station has a bump and go action, the cockpit spins round and the lights flash. The toy appears in the 1968 Nomura catalog; the picture shows different color lights.

The disparity between the box art and the toy is enormous. The artwork depicts a beautiful slender, and impractical spinning wheel space station while the actual saucer perhaps fails to deliver the promise.

There are two litho versions of the original brown saucer: one with a blue themed central body including a long blue rectangular winow, and a red themed version.

The design forms the basis of a number of novelty Japanese character saucers but this is the original release.