Forget About Buzz Lightyear, Jr. Wants A Rover!
With all the recent
excitement of the Spirit's landing and exploration on the Martian
surface, it seems the next logical step for NASA was to licence its
image for commercial purposes. However, the spacecraft's likeness
has gone beyond the traditional exposure at NASA's gift shops,
filled with mugs and t-shirts and posters. The California
Institute of Technology (Caltech) which runs the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory for NASA, patented and licensed images of the golf-cart
sized rover for a somewhat younger crowd.
Before anyone realized it, toy-versions of the rover were
already popping up on retail shelves. Danish toy maker Lego Co. was
one of the first companies to sign an agreement and is already
selling a build-it-yourself toy version of Spirit. The 858-piece
out-of-this-world toy, which was based on drawings supplied by
Caltech, retails for about $89.99. Lego expects to sell a few
million dollars' worth of its Mars toys, including a smaller, less
complicated set that has 417 pieces. Another company is producing a
collectible, 1/10th scale model rover that sells for $150. A third
is making larger models destined for museums.
But wait, the
commercialization doesn't stop there. NASA also signed its own
Space Act agreement with CKE Restaurants Inc., the parent company
of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's.The fast-food restaurants are selling
children's meals that come with a NASA-approved toy spacecraft,
including the Mars rovers, Debbie Rivera, head of strategic
alliances for NASA's office of public affairs told the Associated
Press. CKE expects to distribute as many as 3.5 million.
While some may wonder how the space program got into the world
of retail toy sales, Caltech officials pledged to donate half of
their earnings to educational outreach programs with the rest
slated for Caltech research. However, lips are sealed at Caltech,
as researchers at the private university would not disclose how
much money they hope to make.
"We did it more for publicity than as a commercial hit," said
Frederic Farina, assistant director of Caltech's office of
technology transfer.
This isn't NASA's first attmept to enter the retail toy market.
In 1999, Mattel Inc. produced a Hot Wheels "Action Pack" featuring
models of NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter, Polar Lander and twin Deep
Space 2 microprobe spacecraft. However, just weeks after Mattel's
$5 set went on sale, all four spacecraft were lost and so did the
market.