Dan Dare Space Ship No 1 (Bartram)
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Dan Dare Space Ship No 1 (Bartram).jpg) (i)
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Arch Two , Area 6 1954 |
~1954: Dan Dare Spaceship Builder, box sticker artwork [image info]
A silver, metal, assembled Dan Dare Space Ship #1 with red fins, built from the Dan Dare Space Ship Construction Set.
The set was made in around 1954, by A. & M. Bartram Company, Birmingham.
Dating
The sets are commonly referred to as being from around 1953-1954. We've only found advertising for the end of 1954, in the build-up to Christmas. Since a toy's promotion would tend to be strongest on its first year, towards its first Christmas, we're tending to assume that (unless someone has any older dated evidence) that the sets are most likely to have entered the retail supply chain in 1954.
2024 restoration
Until recently, the model has been somewhat stumpy and abbreviated, only having a single cylindrical stage due to four of the quarter-cylinder plates being missing.
In 2024, having come into receipt of a large quantity of period Meccano, we realised that we could add the missing second stage to the rocket by repurposing four plates from the 1930s Meccano Mechanised Army range, and using a bit of matching silver paint. This also finally let us use some of the long black "tube" pieces that we already had for the rocket.
The result is (finally) a model that corresponds properly to the construction set's advertising.
Variations
The rocket's front end is assembled from two identically-shaped dished pieces, one of which is painted with a grid of windows. We've seen photos of other examples in which the window outlines are pressed into the metal. We don't know which version came first – we're tending to assume that the painted-only windows are likely to have been produced later, as a way of cutting costs.
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