Jupiter 2 from "Lost in Space" (1965-1968)

Scale: N/A
Initial Release: 1990
Medium: Resin
Kit Rarity: 4

About the Design

Originally called the "Gemini 12," the Jupiter 2 was an interplanetary space vehicle designed to ferry the over-achieving Robinson Family to nearby Alpha Centauri as the first step in interplanetary human colonization. But sabotage by the nefarious Dr. Zachary Smith sent the craft careening off course, leaving the hapless Robinsons...LOST IN SPACE!!!

The craft itself was a take on the already familiar "flying saucer" concept that peaked 10 years earlier with the C-57D from MGM's "Forbidden Planet." (Note: The crafts' combination landing legs/stairs are virtually identical. Both craft were the work of the same designer.) Compounding the overall silliness of the design is that fact that its upper and lower interior levels were so enormous that there was virtually no room for any kind of propulsion system -- nor was any precise power source or star drive ever even hinted at. (In fact, in one third-season episode, characters descended into a never-before-mentioned "engine room" -- which contained nothing but blinking computers -- left over from Allen's other series, "The Time Tunnel"!)

Still, the Jupiter 2 remains a favorite with Baby Boomers, its simple lines standing as one of the last vestiges of Golden Age innocence.

About the Kit

In the late 1980s-early 1990s, Lunar Models released a series of resin Jupiter II "mini-models" that depicted various incarnations of this famous TV spacecraft. (For example, a "Crash Scene" version featured only the ship's upper two-thirds, mimicking the studio mock-up used to portray the ship "crashed" on a planet's surface.) This was the "Full-Scale Version," although its lines are a bit "squashed" compared to the full-sized mock-up seen in several key episodes, such as "Visit to a Hostile Planet."