SpaceX pulled off its first spacewalk in the early hours of Thursday morning, Sept. 12. The marquee event of the private Polaris Dawn mission went smoothly, with two of the crew members stepping outside of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, “Resilience.” It’s the first time civilians, rather than government astronauts, have performed a spacewalk.
The toy dinosaur that made the SpaceX flight is sold out everywhere
Well, we have some bad news, folks. Dinosaurs are officially extinct for the second time around. Well, the toy dinosaur that was used as a zero-gravity indicator by SpaceX during the launch last weekend is officially extinct.
We barely knew the toy apatosaurus that hitched a ride on the SpaceX rocket, as it went extinct more quickly than the Brontosaurus did. OK, so we don’t really mean extinct, per se, but that pink-and-blue toy dino is sold out across the country right now, thanks to its instant popularity post-launch.
The dino, which retailed for about $5, has been wiped off every website and shelf by fans who fell for the tiny dino during the launch, causing it to go extinct at retailers, no meteor required.
What is the obsession with this toy dino?
If you’re asking that question, you clearly did not watch the SpaceX launch of the Crew Dragon rocket last Saturday. The historic launch sent two astronauts — veteran NASA fliers Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — into space, along with a little toy dinosaur between the two astronauts.
The sparkly dino known as “Tremor” — part of the TY Flippables toy collection — acted as a sequin-covered “zero-gravity indicator,” and floated into the air once the rocket exited Earth’s gravitational pull. The toy dino was an instant hit with viewers, who snapped it up off of the TY website and from other online and retail sources shortly after the launch.
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The official SpaceX dinosaur has been sold out since shortly after the launch, leading TY to mark Tremor as being “in space” on its website to indicate that it’s not available. The retailers that once carried the toy: Walmart, Joann Fabric & Crafts, and Michael’s, among others — have been wiped clean, too.
Well, I REALLY want that dinosaur. What should I do now?
If you have to get your hands on the dinosaur, knockoffs of the toy are available on sites like Amazon, but the markup on those sites is pretty high — between $20 and $25 dollars in a lot of cases.
One of the Amazon knockoff versions, aptly named “SpaceX Sequin Dragon Plush Toy,” is available. But it’ll cost you about $20 or so, which is about four times the price of the TY dino toy. There’s also the MICOMAKA Flippable Sequin Dinosaur — SpaceX, but that knockoff dino toy will run you nearly $40 on Amazon, several times what the original cost.
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