THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF GERRY ANDERSON 1929 - 2012, CREATOR OF THUNDERBIRDS & CENTURY 21 TOYS.

Tuesday, 3 November 2009

TASK FORCE 2 ORIGIN


WOTAN's peek under the box lid of TASKFORCE origins got me thinking about TASK FORCE 2 (Tarheel version pictured above) and its classic rocket shape. Where did this shape come from? The cigar shaped rocket is iconic in popular culture and particulary in Hollywood as seen in the picture below of the 1950's film DESTINATION MOON. But the Task Force 2 is a cigar with the end cut off, so where is that shape from?

I looked at other black and white space movies of the 50's such as Rocket Ship X-M (below) but no luck

and When Worlds Collide,which offered more in terms of a sleek rocket - model set pictured below-  but it's still to cigar-like

A look at real rocketry suggests close links with the dart-like V2 missile - pictured below - and its successors

but by far the closest resemblence to Task Force 2 is offered back in the world of toys with the fabulously streamlined tinplate MOON ROCKET by Yonezawa from 1956 (below). Curiously it's lettering is XM-12 like the film Rocket Ship XM!


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