Sunday, August 20, 2017

Astronaut Neil Armstrong's "Rookie Card" - 1967 Heinerle Card

During a trip to a local vintage toy and model train store here in Germany, I picked up this partial set of 1967 German Kampf Um Den Weltraum (The Struggle for the Universe).  This set was made by Heinerle out of Bamberg, Germany.  The set walks the collector through the development of rockets and the NASA space program up through 1967.  Pictures are mostly of rockets, engineers, and cool space related images (I'm a space geek and I picked up some other German space sets as well that I'll highlight here in the near future.)

Koberich lists the catalog number of this set as the 30825-25 made in 1967 with a total of 190 cards in the set.  This set also as an English-language parallel set that is identical on the front except that the writing on the back is in English....and you can definitely tell it was not translated by an American.  Koberich doesn't mention this fact of an English language version so I am going to get a hold of him and ask if he knows anything more about it.

What is really unique about this set, though, is that it contains a trading card of Neil Armstrong....card #185.  It shows him with David Scott in their Gemini 8 spacesuits together in front of a satellite dish.  Interesting fact is the image is reversed on the card front so this is also an uncorrected error...maybe they corrected it later, which would make it that much cooler.  I did an internet search and could only find his 1969 Topps Man on the Moon card as being the earliest trading card known up to this point.  Anyone know of an earlier card of Armstrong?

There are some other great cards of other astronauts including Alan Sheppard, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee...not to mention the famous Werhner Von Braun on Card #35.  I only picked up a partial set so the full set likely has other cards of other famous astronauts.

Cards measure approximately 2 3/4" x 3 3/4"





4 comments:

  1. That is so cool. I've long been a space nut myself. I had no idea these existed, though that does not surprise me.

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    1. The German card market is definitely underexposed and underexplored. Some cool stuff out there!

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  2. Sweet find. Love anything space related. Very cool Armstrong card. I know Topps made a card of him in 1969, but don't know of anything earlier. As for Werhner Von Braun, I remember hearing his name in the movie October Sky.

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    1. I plan on getting the set catalogued...at least partially at the moment....so others can hopefully fill in the holes. Von Braun is an icon in the Space Industry.

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