Rocket ship/doll house

The Educo Discovery Rocket is one of those toys I see in gift shops around the world and always think, huh, if that thing wasn't so big and unwieldy, I'd probably take it home. It's basically a nicely built doll-house shaped like a handsome modernist rocket ship. I just spotted another one and went off and read some reviews by people who own 'em, and it sounds like it holds together well, too. I'm thinking Christmas.

Educo Discovery Spaceship and Lift-Off Rocket

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Games • gift guide • happy mutants • Space • toys

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PrettyBoyTim

It reminds me a bit of this death star toy I wanted when I was a kid:

http://www.toltoys.com/2007/01/star-wars-month-death-star-playset-play/

Although, actually what it reminds me more of is the DIY one my Mum built for us. The official one was made from cardboard and cost a lot of money. Therefore my Mum got out the bandsaw and some plywood and made us one herself.

At the time I didn’t think it was as cool because it didn’t have the ‘authentic’ Death Star art on it, but we played with it for years – it was incredibly durable. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s still got it in the hold of her boat somewhere…
- garyg2
  
  Even as a kid I seemed to realise just how stupidly expensive that death star was for what it was so I made my own out of a couple of cardboard boxes. Still remember the blisters from cutting thick corrugated cardboard with kitchen scissors… happy days.
  
  And it sounds like you just may have the coolest mum ever. :)
- Mister44
  
  re: “It reminds me a bit of this death star toy I wanted when I was a kid:”
  
  That is EXACTLY what I thought too.
  
  ETA – no actually I was thinking of this playset (which I had… well… still have) http://www.plaidstallions.com/kenner/starwarsdeathstar.html
  - http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
    
    Wow! And it looks like it’s endorsed by a young David Letterman!!
- blueelm
  
  If your mother is around, call her today and tell her the internet loves her.
Jean Baptiste

It would’ve been nice if the company had chosen to show a boy AND a girl playing with it in the photo, I think…
- xzzy
  
  That’s not nearly enough kids playing with it to be truly impartial. You need three or four different skin tones to really seal the deal.
  - Jean Baptiste
    
    Gender stereotypes such as this tend to insure that young girls will be less likely to develop and/or maintain interests in math, science, technology, engineering, etc. Yes, inclusivity of children of color in ads such as this would be a good thing too, but you have to start somewhere. I see one very white little boy. A little girl (of any ethnicity) would be welcome.
    - Henry Pootel
      
      On the other hand it’s a boy playing with a doll house so…
      - chgoliz
        
        No, it isn’t. A home is a place where people live. This is an exciting work environment.
        
        Actual doll houses come in all sorts of styles. Some are very plain or rustic. They’re not gendered.
        
        And yet they are.
- Just_Ok
  
  Why just kids?
  - http://www.kmoser.com kmoser
    
    Why just humans? Don’t aliens play with toy rocket ships?
- RaidenDaigo
  
  I thought the child was a genderless clone with short hair.
http://profiles.google.com/maknight Megan Knight

Tim, that is officially one of the coolest comments I have read online.
digi_owl

So is it for the kid, the dad, or both? ;)
Ramone

Dollhouse? I think you mean ACTION FIGURE PLAYSET!

(Batteries not included.)
- Mark Dow
  
  I was hoping for a flexible solar panel to deploy for power.
aljones15

I just love the thought of your Christmas :) so many thougful gifts (mouse for wife rocket ship for you) you will have the coolest toys. Everyone will want to come over and play with you :)
http://johnstonsigns.blogspot.com/ dejoh

Watch your language when you step on one of those little pieces in the middle of the night.
lorq

Strongly reminiscent of a softish-plastic, cylindrical, multilevel rocket-dollhouse I had in the early ’70s. Scaled to the MPC “plastic spacemen” of the day. Opened and shut like a briefcase. Anybody remember this?
pjcamp

Barbie’s Dream Missile.

The perfect gift for the guy with all the bananas.
mariancisar

I’ve seen this. Lots of small parts. It seemed like it was constructed from compressed paper. As long as you aren’t too rough with it, it should last a while. If you have destructive kids, look elsewhere.
- Ramone
  
  “…seemed like it was constructed from compressed paper.” Now that’s the weirdest description of “wood” from FSC managed forests I’ve ever heard of.
  
  So “destructive kids” = arsonists?
http://twitter.com/axoplasm Paul Souders

What’s cool is the floors are perpendicular to the direction of travel, so at a constant acceleration of 1G the astronauts can have Earthlike gravity.

The deck plans of 99% of all scifi spaceships have bugged me for like 30 years. What holds Cmdr. Adama to the floor, huh? HUH? Magnets?
- Jean Baptiste
  
  Kinda like how when the USS Enterprise is circling/orbiting a planet, it’s always flying sideways…
  - http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
    
    One of the reasons I always preferred Babylon 5 to Star Trek was that the first had a greater tendency to get the physics right. Rotating space platform = instant gravity.
    - garyg2
      
      ‘Moon’ bugged me on this matter; Earth-like gravity in the base, low-gravity, bouncy-bouncy time outside on the surface. Yeah, ‘artificial gravity’ I guess, but a little inconsistent with the tone of the rest of the film.
      
      Though excellent in all other ways I have to say.
- lev36
  
  I noticed that too! And then you can turn it around and decelerate at 1G as you arrive, likewise.
  - vinculture
    
    So in all respects it’s very much like the Moon rocket Hergé designed for Tintin…
    
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e5/Tintin_cover_-_Explorers_on_the_Moon.jpg
Boundegar

Rocket ships are for boys. Doll houses are for girls. This toy therefore promotes perversion, and must be destroyed.
http://twitter.com/illusiodesign Chuck Spidell

We actually bought this for our sons (2 & 4 yrs.) for x.mas last year. They played with it for two days and quickly got bored. While all the little custom pieces are cool, there’s too many to keep organized. It certainly looks cool but lacks on usability.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  They played with it for two days and quickly got bored.
  
  Well, duh. You should have told them that they’re only allowed to play with it one day per week.
- chgoliz
  
  Pack it away and bring it out again when they’re 7 and 5. Right now they’re too young for detailed imaginative play. Their fine motor skills aren’t ready for such tiny pieces.
  
  Unit blocks (wooden blocks with mathematical precision….2 triangles are exactly one square, rectangle is exactly the same size as 2 squares, etc.) are a great investment. They can build their own rocket ship instead.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Johnson/100000200112663 Michael Johnson

Does it have a lot of small parts/choking hazzards?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Johnson/100000200112663 Michael Johnson

If it’s a dollhouse, where’s Eliza Dushku?
Henry Pootel

Here’s an old school popup book that folds out to a space station. Circa mid 60′s.

http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2012/01/space-station-for-fine-young-astronaut.html
Robert Cruickshank

I remember being a bit ticked-off as a child when I got a Major Matt Mason book and read the statement on the copyright page stating something about Mattel owning the trademark for their DOLL. They actually put DOLL in all caps, for some reason, perhaps just to make 6-year-old boys’ heads explode.
(edit) You can read said book here, if you are in the mood for moon worms and giant space-rabbits): http://www.majormattmason.net/blb.htm
http://twitter.com/the_damned_fool the damned fool

Glad to see an acknowledgement of Major Matt Mason. The Mattel space station set lacked advances like a solar array as seen in the article.
- Robert Cruickshank
  
  just looked it up, and not only does it look way more like that rocket ship than I remembered (not quite apple/samsung levels of similarity, but still…) but it specifically mentions “swing down solar panels” in the catalogue. They were just blue pieces of plastic as I recall…
  http://www.majormattmason.net/catalogs/catalog2/m3c2p02d.jpg