The New Two

So the summer of 2010 continues with more car boot sales and two new space acquisitions, or as I prefer to think of them, new recruits into the Smith Space Programme, or SSP.

This first one entered the programme a couple of weeks ago. I think it cost just 50p.

I think he’s ceramic with a wooden space pack or MMU (manned manoeuvring unit), and most likely homemade. I like his simplicity and if I ignore the MMU he’s wearing, his posture and suit remind me of Alexei Leonov, the first person to walk in space. He’s not very big, just a few inches high, simple with a naive elegance, in stark contrast to the SSP’s other new recruit.

This brash newcomer is Go-Go Gorilla and was an incredible 25p. He’s about 2 feet tall, and a red light flashes inside his helmet when he talks. That's right, that's what I said, he talks. Not only that but he shakes when you press his launch button.

I’m not making any of this up. Press the pad on his right hand and he says five different phrases. The first one isn’t really a phrase just a strange kind of spacey bleeping noise, but press the pad again and he says “Rogie dodgie (?) I read you base”, “Get me out of this monkey suit”, the rather sad “I miss the jungle” and my personal favourite “Houston, more bananas please”. The voice sounds a bit like the actor Wallace Shawn, who you may remember from such films as “The Princess Bride” and “Toy Story” (he’s the voice of Rex the dinosaur) but most notably for me as the Grand Nagus in TV’s “Star Trek; Deep Space Nine”. But it might not be him.

Anyway, when you press the pad on his left hand he says “3, 2, 1, blast off! Yahoo! Yeehi!” and he shakes, quite violently. Easily the best 25p I’ve ever spent.

His feet are weighted (I think he must have gravity boots) so he stands up by himself. This morning I introduced him to the senior chimponaut in the SSP, Space Monkey.

They’re already planning their first space mission together. I can’t wait to see the photos from that one.