Astronauts (1961)

Toys in Space #5
A beautiful punch-out book from the height of the space race.

Astronauts: Exciting, accurate punch-outs ready to assemble: Including Redstone Rocket, Ground Control Center, Launching the Atlas, and Recovery of the Astronaut. (1961) What more do you need to re-enact your own space program?

I like the astronauts and ground crew very much. The astronauts all seem to express personality and you get to choose who goes up first and who works Ground Control.

My favorite of this set is my "desk jockey action figure". He and the people like him were the heroes of those early days. While the astronaut was just "spam in a can" they had to monitoring second by second this risky ballistic flight (well technically they did make orbit).

Notice the "view wheel" so you could simulate what it was like to look at the capsule control panel (window) while you were up in space.