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Man has always been fascinated by space. Fantasies, fears and speculations about what is hidden out there have existed in parallel with actual science. For a long time, there was a lack of knowledge about space and it was only in the 16th and 17th centuries that we were able to use the right tools to really study the universe. In 1609, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei constructed a simple telescope to study the moon and other planets more closely.

Throughout the 19th century, many stories were written about space and the planets. One example is Jules Verne's popular and imaginative books. Above all, "From the Earth to the Moon", but also "Around the World in 80 Days" and "A Voyage Under the Sea". They were all written in the 1860s and 70s and were then classified as science fiction.

In connection with the industrial revolution, interest in space grows and many people fantasize about other worlds and beings. Now it also becomes possible to develop scientific instruments, machines and mechanical toys.

At the beginning of the 20th century, film becomes a success, which is revolutionary! As early as 1902, Georges Méliès' film "A Trip to the Moon" is shown in cinemas. Since then, space has been depicted in thousands of films. In 1977, the first Star Wars film by George Lucas was released, and there have been about ten films in the series since then. A large number of toys are created around the films in the form of spaceships, transformers and figures of the films' main characters; Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan-Kenobi and Darth Vader to name a few.

Interest in space grows sharply after World War II and the space race between the USA and the Soviet Union lasts for a long time. In 1969, the USA becomes the first nation to send a man to the moon, thus writing itself into the history books.

The power struggle and the great interest in space are also visible in the toy industry. Japan took a leading role as a manufacturer of thousands of science fiction toys in the form of robots, spaceships and ray guns. The oldest are from the late 1940s and are often made of sheet metal. The functions are controlled either by springs or batteries. In the late 1960s, plastic took over and space toys became increasingly sophisticated.

Only a few toy manufacturers in Europe have made space-inspired toys. An example is the German company Technofix with its moon orbiter (Rocket Express) and Karl Bub with a little clown clinging to a rocket (Atom-Rocket). Both are here at the Stockholm Toy Museum.

Space toys have also been made in Sweden, a small cast metal rocket called the Moon Express from the company Bapro, manufactured around 1949. Most space toys are of course pure creations of imagination, but some are actually models of the US and former Soviet Union's space rockets, for example the various Apollo rockets.