posted 10-07-2009 11:50 AM               

It has some unique features, one being that the eagle seems to be carrying the olive branch in only one talon.

I would be grateful if collectSPACE members could have a look and, with memories jogged, post any further information such as who made it and how many were issued.

posted 05-27-2011 12:27 PM               

I was the loosing bidder for both these Cadbury promotional patches.

posted 05-28-2011 02:52 AM               

I don't know why some patches have black backings and the others white but they do all seem to belong to the same set.

All are partially embroidered on some kind of thin material (not twill) and have cut edges. I get the impression they were made as cheaply as possible, which makes sense for give-aways.

I never really looked at these before as I assumed they were fairly modern. Also I didn't have the Apollo 11 patch (I inserted that image in the set above) so I didn't really make the Cadbury's connection until now.

posted 05-28-2011 04:53 AM               

I can certainly remember the offer from my youth (I was 12 in 1969) but I was always more interested in the real things which were, sadly, almost unobtainable in the UK back then. NASA, at that time, only seemed to send over mission profiles and the odd litho to eager wannabe astronauts from the UK and trying to get an International Money Order to purchase goods from the US was too much trouble for a youngster (how I longed for a pair of genuine X Ray Specs).

With these, as I recollect, you collected wrappers from Cadburys Dairy Milk and sent them in to redeem against a patch. Almost as much fun as being a Sky Ray Moon Fleet Captain, a Walls Ice Cream promo from 1966.

posted 05-28-2011 06:06 AM               

I had to wait until summer 1975 before I found a U.K. source for the AB Emblem full size Apollo mission patches. That was from 'Space Frontiers Ltd.' in Havant Hampshire, near Portsmouth.

I managed to buy all except the Apollo 1 patch. All were the original bare backed versions.

Now the 'real coup' (as I see it now), was they sent me an AB Emblem Apollo 15 'Crew' patch, with the silver 'XV' & the initials above 'WO' of Worden, for only about £2.25 + p&p. I never knew this fact until I bought another as part of a NASA presentation with a 'Flown to the Moon' U.S. Flag last year, (2010). So I've now got two of the Apollo 15 silver 'XV Crew' patches.

posted 06-09-2011 06:35 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by spaceman:
I do remember space decals from Super Mousse (A sort of Milky Way copy).

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posted 07-27-2011 04:42 PM               

Following robert_I's message, I too dug out a copy of Fairley's autobiography and, lo and behold, he was the man behind Space Spin-off Ltd. As he writes in his book:

Shortly before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon, Look-in (a UK comic of the time) was approached by a company called Space Spin-off Ltd to run a special offer in the junior TV Times of a replica of the Apollo 11 mission badge. Each Apollo crew designed its own mission badge, which the astronauts wore on the chests of their space suits and coveralls. The Apollo 11 badge was predominantly gold and blue and depicted an eagle landing on the Moon, with a small blue and white Earth in the distance. The replicas which Space Spin-off Ltd were offering were beautifully embroidered in up to nine different colours, with some 11,000 stitches in each badge. They had cost 50p each to manufacture; the company was offering them at 60p. Alan Fennell (Editor of Look-in) snapped up the idea, an article accompanied the badge offer and some 50,000 were sold.