Why is this a problem? Because this set, or one of it's many, many other configurations, appears to be utter and total crap. This is a problem because I don't want to spend $50 on utter total crap.
However, we can find essentially no other toys that are currently manufactured that meet the following requirements:
- Are not total crap
- Have several astronaut figures
- include a space shuttle with booster rockets
- Have some (anachronistic but cool) Apollo era goodness thrown in, like a Saturn V and a lunar lander
- Include an American flag, something Caleb really wants.
I think he wants to have boosters and also be able to re-enact Apollo 11. (He's _really_ into Apollo 11. Did I mention that for about 2-3 months he was Armstrong, I was Aldrin and Melissa was Collins? Like he referred to us as those names for 2 or 3 months? It was pretty fun. But I digress.)
Anyway, after an evening of online searching, we can basically only find crap like the above linked toy, or a nice space set or two from the 80s made by tonka which are only available on E-bay. Why doesn't anybody make non-crap space toys?
Oh yeah, there's a Lego Space Set for educators which is cool, but no boosters, and probably 3 times what we want to pay...
/sigh Really world? No reasonably priced, non-dime store realistic space toys? I sense a niche. But not one that I'm willing to fill.
P.S. We already have this set but note the lack of boosters (and other astronauts... Matchbox, please sell the astronauts separately!!!). Not authentic enough to fool Caleb... He knows it needs boosters.