Willy Ley Space Taxi (1959)

Scale: 1/48
Initial Release: 1959
Medium: Styrene
Kit Rarity : 4

About the Design

Another classic Willy Ley design, the "Space Taxi" or "Space Buggy" is, in the description found on the 1969's re-release box, an "Intraspace cargo/passenger carrier designed to move men and material between space cargo ships and manned space stations." Its clunky, purely functional design is typical of the brass-tacks engineering aesthetic that characterized conceptual spacecraft during the second half of the 1950's.

About the Kit

Despite its non-aerodynamic shape, the "Space Taxi" proved to be popular enough to warrant multiple re-releases following its 1959 debut. In 1969 it was released with chrome-plated astronauts and machinery cages (the version shown here), and it was released again in 1996 along with the "Passenger Rocket" as part of Revell/Monogram's "Selected Subjects Program." 

This is a refurbished "chrome" edition from the 1960's.