Astrobase

Astro Base was a toy made by the Ideal company in the early 1960s. The toy ran on 4 D Cell batteries. Besides a power switch, it had several features that includes the following modes of operation:

Astro Scope: Switch to Astro Scope and a scene of spaceships, rockets, and jets rotates through a view finder just below a radar dome on the top of the toy. A button on the console let the user "fire" at objects seen on the screen, which would pause the rotating images and emit a machine-gun style sound.

Space Lock: A crane emerges out of the hatch on one side of the toy. This crane has a hoist operation that can be used to raise or lower a plastic astronaut figure, or other objects that the user may have that can be connected to the hook at the end of a chain. The main purpose of this crane is to insert or remove the astronaut from a scout car.

Scout Car: The scout car can be plugged into a port on the console and controlled by a two position switch marked "turn" and "drive" that can actually be used to steer the vehicle with a bit of practice. The scout car also has missiles that can be launched.

Since the Ideal Toy company went out of business a long time ago, little information is available. The following website has some detailed photos and can be used as a reference to the information above: [http://www.prestonmarketing.com/toys/astrobase/astrobase.html Astro Base - Preston Marketing]