This second clue was rather curious but the Mid-Autumn, Moon, or Moon-cake Festival is celebrated in China and across Asia. This year it will be at the end of the month, on September 29th. The date varies, because the moon must be at its fullest on that night.
Now in early China, as in most civilizations, the sun and the moon were regarded as gods. They believed the moon to be a lady, a goddess, called Chang`e - and their current space programme is called after her.
So here we have a very swift record of the moon landing, which would have enthralled most children of the time. Now what our younger viewers may not realise is that not all of these images were in the papers, and those that were would have been printed in black and white. This set, therefore, was possibly the first colour pictures of the event that most adults saw, and second hand, through the courtesy, or maybe just eagerness to share, of their children.
Now there is quite a lengthy description of this set in our original British Trade Index part three (RB.31, published in 1986). That reads :
Man On The Moon. 89 x 63. Unnd, (74).
Two sections, issued 1969.
1. First section. Scene on back with picture of two astronauts. 1-19 - and then there is a list of titles
2. Second section. Sectional picture on back with picture of spaceship. 20-74 - with another list
Now this seems a curious way of describing the numbering - or at least it does to me. Surely it would have been better to end the first part with "nineteen cards" and the second with however many that is. My brain does not have the ability to do that sort of thing but it can say help, please!
In our updated British Trade Index this set is also there, because it was issued before the cut off date of that volume, which is 1970. However it is a very small description, and it reads : "MAN ON THE MOON. 1969. 89 x 63. Unnd (74). Two sections. See HA-27."
There is an omission here though, because this set was not just issued by A. & B.C. Gum in the United Kingdom - there was also an American version by by Topps, and a Canadian version by by O-Pee-Chee (which is our Card of the Day for July 12th 2024). Those bold links take you to the illustrated checklists of each one of those versions, courtesy of the Trading Card Database - but nowhere do they link the sets together.
All these sets were issued in the same year too.
By the way you can see a full checklist of the A & B.C. Gum version at Trading Card Database/A & B.C. Gum-MOM