Sci-Fi

I came across this whilst looking for something else, the way you do.

I made it for our son in the likeness of a contraption that they had on a science fiction series on TV that was broadcast between 1978 and 1981.

All you have to do is tell me the name of the series and what the contraption was called?!

It was well used as you can see from its state but I'm not going to throw it away as it may come into its own again (that is a clue)!