Yonezawa – X-27 Explorer.

I always wondered why this astronaut was dressed in such a strange suit but I never took the time to find it out because i never had this astronaut in my collection.
When i found a very nice example in the US i finally took the time to invest this strange astronaut a bit further.

His somewhat “inflated” astronaut suit is based on a 1962 Grumman design that was made for a real suit. The design for extended lunar surface operations allowed the astronaut to withdraw his arms from the flexible manipulators and allowed him to work in the pressurized cabin of the can enclosing his upper torso and to move free in the “blown up” space suit.

This ultra rare and scarce astronaut was reproduced in China in the mid nineties. It looks like they reproduced it with their eyes closed because the reproduction, compared to the original, looks terrible and I think its one of the worst reproductions every made.

Back to the original robot now. made out of tin with a crank friction mechanism. X-27 Explorer was made in 1963 in Japan by Yonezawa. The robot / astronaut was made in 2 versions, this one and an astronaut in different color styling with number 3 on this chest.

In action the astronaut walks forward with pling pling musical sound.
The condition of this example is really excellent, all original and complete. Even the original antennas that seems to hang over the years are firm and still stand as they were meant to be. The astronauts face shield has been replaced because the original one was missing and the antennas have been re-attached because they came loose with the astronaut.

The astronaut works fine and strong with its “musical ” sound, no rust and only very light playwear and some minor scratching. Absolute an above average example of this ultra rare and scarce astronaut.

Hard to find and never shows up in the open market.
The last photo shows the original astronaut ( on the right ) compared to the reproduction astronaut ( on the left )

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