Rocketship X-M (a.k.a. Expedition Moon and originally Rocketship Expedition Moon) is a 1950 American black-and-white science fiction film from Lippert Pictures, the first outer space adventure of the post-World War II era. The film was produced and directed by Kurt Neumann and stars Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, John Emery, Noah Beery, Jr., Hugh O'Brian, and Morris Ankrum.

Rocketship X-M tells the story of a Moon expedition that, through a series of unforeseen events, winds up traveling instead to distant Mars. Once on the Red Planet, its crew discovers the remnants of a Martian civilization destroyed long ago by atomic war and now reverted to barbarism.

THE KIT

The kit comprises a whopping seven pieces, two of which are clear. The two fuselage halves are the main part with two of the four fins molded onto one of the halves. Up in the top of the rocket are windows. The kit provides these on two curved pieces of clear plastic which, like the windows of an Airfix airliner, simply plug into place. It would be wise to prepaint the upper rocket prior to installing these as that will save any issues with masking these tiny areas.

The rest of the kit consists of the other two fins as well as the rocket exhaust area. That, as they say, is it. No decals and no detail on the inside, though you couldn't see it anyway.

The instructions are quite generous, consisting of a large folded sheet of paper with the construction diagram on the inside and a painting guide (as in silver/aluminum). No stand and no display base, which would have been nice. When I build mine, I'm going to put some weight in the lowest level of the body as it looks as if it might be a bit top-heavy.

CONCLUSIONS

Pegasus Hobby has actually done us a favor by doing this one. I'm a fan of old s/f movies and have managed to pick up quite a few kits of the vehicles in them; many from Pegasus Hobby. Not sure if it is worth $30.00 retail, but I'll bet a goodly portion of that price is royalties. Despite its rather, uh, bulbous shape (I had considered heating one into the shape of the vehicle in Flesh Gordon), it deserves a place on the shelf of any fan.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketship_X-M

October 2017

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