EMPIRE OF TARBORO PRE-PRODUCTION TOY AND TAG 1970

EMPIRE OF TARBORO was the successor to TARHEEL. I wrote to Empire in the mid-1990's but they were unable to send me anything about their history, which I've since attempted to compile on this blog. So it was with great interest that I found this pre-production EMPIRE toy listed on Ebay US, which has the original factory tag:

13" long, resin with plastic wheels Made by Empure, Tarboro, NC- with "Not a Production Sample" tag. Marked copyright Carolina Enterprises 1970 on the underside.

And here's the toy WORM once in production in 1973 with its box!

If only a pre-production TARHEEL SWORD toy or some paperwork would turn up! Now that would be a very enlightening!

MINI MOON CLIMBER REDUX

Earlier this week, I posted a comment about Moon Climbers and suggested that one I had came in an unmarked box. I fished it out of the garage today and looked again - it actually features a logo of sorts - two letter A's side by side. Does this rign any bells with anyone ? The little vehicle, some four inches long, has a lovely box with a good clear photo on one side of a diorama showing the climber next to a model LEM. There seems to have been two vehicles in this range, the other blue one looking like a standard moon climber without the long range antenna.

GOLDEN ASTRONAUT AND 2001 SPACE ODYSSEY

I've come across PROJECT SWORD being described as 2001 Space Odyssey toys before but never SPACEX/ GOLDEN ASTRONAUT until recently when I saw the following on Ebay US:

"Vintage Space Ships - 2001 A Space Odyssey (pictured below):

Set of 3 Space Ships produced around the late 60's or early 70's, resembling designs from the movie "2001 A Space Odyssey". This is the "Golden Astronaut" series. Copyright Multiple Toymakers, Div. of Miner Inds., NYC, made in Hong Kong. Includes Mobile Moon Headquarters, Needle Probe, and Supply Force Mercury. Each carded space ship also includes a chrome space man."

BTW note the NOVA ROCKET on a NEEDLE PROBE card! Does this happen a lot?

T3 GALLERY: ALL THE KNOWN TASKFORCE 3 ROCKETS

Century 21 red above

Tarheel white above

SL white above

Unknown gold side above

Unknown gold top above

Pictured above are all the T3's I'm aware of starting with the C21 red, then the Tarheel white and its white SL clone. Finally there's the mysterious gold TF3 of unknown make, which hails from Australia courtesy of Dennis Nicholson/Kelly Lannan. It has the green exhausts seen on the red Tarheel T1 below

and is metalliced in a similar way to the Tarheel blue T1 below

The "Taskforce" decal is also identical to the Tarheel and SL versions, as is the racing stripe. Alas we don't have the cockpit dome to make a comparison.

Pictures courtesy of the Astronit Collection, WOTAN, Dennis Nicholson/ Kelly Lannan, Woodsy.

CENTURY 21 CREW NAMED BY JIM LEWIS

Jim Lewis has written to the blog: "No sure if you know but many of Century 21s biggest names feature in the shot:

25-Des Saunders-Director on many puppet shows

18-Keith Wilson-Designer

9  -Alan Perry-Director and cameraman on many shows

10-Ken Turner- set builder and director on all later Anderson show

11-John Read-Century 21 Director

13-Mary Turner-Senior Puppeteer

15-David Lane-Anderson ‘Golden Boy’

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  On balcony lady in centre with arm of other arm-Christine Glanville-Puppet Supervisor
  
  
  
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  Bearded guy directly above John Read-Shaun Whitacker-Cook-Senior Miniature effects technician
  
  
  
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  Direct above Alan Perry but a little to left as you view it is Alan Shubrook-Model maker
  
  
  
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  Fourth lady on balcony in from right is Wanda (Webb) Brown-Senior puppeteer
  
  
  
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  Dead centre older guy in grey suit Reg Hill-Century 21 Director and designer on early shows.
  

 Excellent Jim! Thanks! (picture courtesy of Alan Shubrook)

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

Its been too long since I paraded my little rubber namesake across the blog - Prepare for Wotanisation! The little figure I use as my avatar has been with me for over forty years now and the top photo shows him with his other Moon Men friends. With the exception of the lower right figure, they were all bought in Woolworths store in the late sixties. One of my earliest posts brought Wotan to light and since then, my collection of this particular figure has expanded. With the help of cereal and toy collector 'Astronit', I have been able to find other incarnations of this distinctive character, including other rubber versions, keyrings and a very special clear version too.

Another line of figures which were a pivotal part of my childhood were the R and L Crater Critters. These were given away in packs of Kelloggs Sugar Smacks around 1970 and I only ever managed to get three of them at the time as I hated the cereal with a passion and would never eat it! However, I was recently able to buy a full set of reproduction figures in a more garish plastic, which were created using the original R & L molds, by a small company in Mexico. King Crater, the purple tripod leader is original (even without his rare crown) and another personal favourite! Im hoping Astronit might spot this article and if you do, please drop me a line!

SWORD-Y-KINS CARDED FLEET

Here's my SWORDYKINS fleet so far: some SWORD, some SPACEX. The fleet carded set came out OK but I ran out of printer ink!

TARHEEL PROBE FORCE 3 MODEL NUMBER

Continuing my search for missing TARHEEL model numbers Blog reader Graeme has kindly answered the call and shared the following about his Tarheel PROBE FORCE 3 pictured below: -

"I've examined the toy closely, and the only raised printing on the fuselage says 'MADE IN HONG KONG', located underneath and in line with the trailing edge of the central wings. No number or manufacturer logo anywhere on the toy.

I tried removing the 2 screws to get a view at the inside of the plastic (sometimes, manufacturer part numbers are inscribed on the inside of the molds), but no luck there: The red nosecone and blue engine parts are factory glued in place with typical 1960's overkill mentality, rendering the toy fully capable of outlasting the pyramids or television repeats of 'Friends'.

The box lists 'Tarheel Industries Inc., Tarboro, N.C.' & "MADE IN BRITISH CROWN COLONY OF HONG KONG' with a product number of 'No.5920'."

Excellent stuff. Thanks Graeme. Another piece of the jigsaw in place. Paul

TARHEEL TASKFORCE ROCKETS UPDATE: MODEL NUMBERS

I'm trying to update the TARHEEL CHECKLIST I compiled during the bloggiversary. These brilliant pictures below are from the ASTRONIT Collection and show all 3 TARHEEL TASKFORCE Rockets. I asked Astronit about model numbers on the toys There are NO numbers or markings whatsoever on the Red, White, or Yellow Task Force ships that I have "The only marking on each of the ships is "Made in Hong Kong" molded right into the plastic". What noticeable immediately are the colour differences with the UK Century 21 versions, which are all red and a darker red than the Tarheel TF1 shown below. There is also a beautiful metallic blue version of the Tarheel TF1 shown below courtesy of WOTAN/ASTRONIT.

Interestingly the relatively unknown SL version of the Taskforce 1 (bottom picture) is a clone of the Tarheel version. The only difference on the models are the cockpit dome colours. SL have opted for the blue cockpit of the Tarheel TF2 instead of the clear dome. I cannot comment on the packaging as I have only ever seen the SL box and not the Tarheel card/box.

The packaging of Tarheel Taskforce 1 and 3 remain stubbornly elusive. If anyone has got them carded or boxed please let me have some pics for the blog and the Tarheel Checklist - they may have model numbvers on like the card for TF2. Thanks!

50,000 HITS

We've just had over 50,000 hits in slighly over a year! Yipee! I want to to thank everyone who supports and reads the blog. Without you it would be nothing. Keep on reading and bloggin' and above all keep on Swordin'!