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-you