Any of you who know me know that I wear glasses and over the past few
years I have found that my sight is steadily going and as such I have
had to put aside one of my favorite hobbies – that of model making.
Models were getting to be a task and not a source of enjoyment so I
took to purchasing die-cast models or kits that required little or no
construction – and behold all was good. Unfortunately this ended when
the small American `specialty' model company `Moebius' announced that
it would be producing 1/25th scale detailed but affordable kits based
on Lost In Space's Space Pod and Chariot. Right, I thought, I have
heard this before – both the Chariot and the Space Pod had been
produced by LUNAR Models in the 80's but these were expensive and hard
to get especially down here in Australia. I had bought a LUNAR Models
Jupiter Two in the early `90's and was disappointed to say the least –
the plastic was very thin and the clear parts were similar in style to
the plastic you find on Action Figure kits – you know the type of
plastic that keeps the action figure on the `card' – and there was no
internal pieces. I found out later that the idea was that YOU had to
buy each piece individually i.e. the hull, then the upper deck and
then the lower deck and finally a decent after market Fusion core. So
I glued the kit together and waited for a better or easier Jupiter Two
kit to arrive. That kit arrived in the form of Polar Lights "Jupiter
two' which was an all round easier and complete kit but still I had
trouble making the kit as it's scale was both small and indistinct –
some sources claimed it was in 1/48th scale while others claimed it to
be in 1/60th while I found it to be a combination almost of both –
more confusion arose when it was found that the exterior of the kit
was `compatible' with the Johnny Lightning Kits of the Pod and Chariot
– a scale I found was closest to 1/72nd scale. I was happy with my
kit and again once complete I put it aside and waited for other LIS
based kits to appear. I made (and sold) several B-9 Robots as well as
Doctor Smith and a similar scale model of Judy – movie kits were also
made – those being the Robot and Jupiter Two.

And then something that all LIS fans know well happened – NOTHING.

As fate would have it I was going through `CultTVman's' Site when I
found the news about Moebius and its products. The below paragraph is
taken from `Moebius's' Myspace site -

"Moebius Models was founded in 2006 with hopes of keeping styrene
figural, sci-fi, fantasy and horror model kits available to their
forgotten audience. Moebius's founders felt the need for a new company
to fill the gigantic void left by the lack of new Polar Lights kits
when the company was bought out by RC2. It was as if the earth
crumbled for plastic builders and collectors. Hopefully we will revive
the spirits of kit builders everywhere! The first kit from Moebius
Models is a new issue of Dr. Jekyll as Mr. Hyde. For many modelers,
this is the missing link in their collection, the last of the classic
Aurora monsters to be reissued. New projects are in the works,
subject to licensing agreements. Please visit the Moebius Models
website at www.moebiusmodels.com for more news on these projects as
they are announced."

I visited the site as well as Moebius Internet site and saw the stuff
that they were putting out and was amazed although still a bit
skeptical – long time fans of LIS know well the feelings of excitement
followed by despair when LIS based products are announced then never
see the light of day but Moebius came through. We ordered eight kits
in total – four Space pods and Four Chariots from the states and
waited and waited – they were preordered so the wait was not
un-expected – when they arrived I was amazed and stunned. The Space
Pods came first which I was kind of happy with – the Chariot worries
me as there is a lot of clear parts in it. Anyone who has bought
models will know that often the kit comes in a box that is
UN-NECESSARILY large well the Moebius people present the kit in a
reasonable sized box – something that cuts down postage from the
states – and unlike the LUNAR Models kits the box is professionally
done with a color painting of the Pod on the front and over all the
presentation is excellent.

Opening the box I found that the pleasant surprises continued. The
parts are housed in clear plastic and on first inspection appeared to
be clean of flash and marks – the clear plastic parts are in their own
bag along with the decals. All model instructions state that the
builder should test fit the parts first and this I did – again another
pleasant surprise as the fit on the kit is about 98% meaning that
there is very little puttying to be done. Sanding is minimal too and
without going into it too much the kit is very easy to construct
except for one small nagging thing – the instructions! This was the
first Moebius kit that I have ever built so I do not know if their
instructions are typical for each kit but I found the instructions for
the Pod annoying and would probably be confusing to the novice
builder. After much thought I went to CultTVman's site and downloaded
the pic's there of the Pod Prototype and found that by studying them
and occasionally consulting the Pod instructions I was able to put the
kit together.

Over all this is a great kit and despite the instructions one that is
easily constructed and enjoyed – well done Moebius! Painting the
Space Pod was deceptively easy – the bulk of the model was painted in
Aluminium straight from the can – I used a spray can from my local
Hardware store – there were two available and I asked the handyman
there what was the difference and his explaination was pretty much on
the mark. He said that the more expensive can would last longer and
give a better off over all finish and while he was right I found a
problem with any silver or aluminium paint in that it did not like
finger prints and was soon `dusty' in appearance. This was rectified
by spraying the finished model with `Topcoat' semi-gloss – this
stopped the smudging and actually lightened up the Aluminium - the
effect was pleasing. I had problems with the clear parts in that
after masking them off they seemed to remain sticky from the tape so I
cut some replacement parts from thin clear plastic (a CD Case of all
things) and stuck them on – this is where there is one difference from
the `real' model in that the `glass' pane is on the outside and not on
the inside of the kit. The interior of the kit is well detailed but
my first attempt was not so crash hot so I searched the net for
interior pics of the Space pod and printed them out onto thin photo -
paper and again the result was pleasing. My second attempt saw me
taking a little more time and patience and getting a great result only
to be disappointed as a few weeks after finishing the kit I found an
online source for Space Pod interior decals – live and learn. I later
found out why the `glass' sections were frosting up in that I applied
a small piece of paper on the glass before masking it – when spraying
something in the painted soaked through and frosted the plastic –
again live and learn because I discovered this fact after starting my
next kit – the Chariot!