Revell's Saturn V and Visible V-8 Engine Models
1969 Sears Christmas Wish Book

I bought a 1969 edition of the Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s Christmas Wish Book on eBay. It was the year I turned 11 years old, and was also the year of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Remembering how I eagerly awaited those pages filled with advertisements for model airplanes, boats, guns, Erector sets, and countless other things, I figured it might be nice to look through one again. Here is the 1967 Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog, the 1969 Montgomery Ward Christmas Catalog and the 1969 Sears Christmas Wish Book. Enjoy!

Here on page 512 of the Sears 1969 Christmas Wish Book is a model of the Saturn V rocket that had, on July 11 of the same year, safely delivered American astronauts to the surface of the moon and back home again. There is also a Visible V-8 Engine model. Someone gave me one of those for Christmas, probably into the 1969 timeframe, but I did such a lousy job of assembling it that the pistons and valves wouldn't budge by the time I was finished with it. Little did I know at the time that it would be an accurate replica of 350 cu.in. engine that I had in my 1969 (ironically) Camaro about seven years later - yup, it blew a ring and locked up on me :-(

Use the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator to see what items cost in today's dollars. That $9.99 Erector Set would cost $59.53 in 2010 money.

Here is a YouTube video of a Visible V-8 Engine running at over 5,000 rpm!

Posted November 20, 2010