Whilst waiting for my better half in the dentists, poor thing, I read the rest of my ANDERSONIC fanzine. It really is a great read and such amazing value for money. If you haven't got the latest copy then check out their cool website and get one! Amongst its many delights this issue, some of which we've discussed already like X-Planes, is a fabulous interview with Century 21 designer Mike Trim. It's a great interview by Richard Farrell revealing just how it was back then in the Slough model and design shops for the famous Anderson shows. You'll have to get the mag to read the lengthy interview but one thing Mr. Farrell the interviewer and Mr. Trim did mention I will highlight here because it brought back such wonderful memories of a toy I had completely forgotten, Triang's BIG BIG TRAIN. I had one of these back in the Sixties!
ebay
Googling BIG BIG TRAIN I was amazed to find a whole hidden worldwide sub-culture devoted to this toy (sound familiar!). There are fan sites, more fan sites, flickr pages , an official site and The Tri-ang Society, which even has a section on rumours and speculation on the fate of the BIG BIG tools - see "TT Castle" piece (rather like the mysteries surrounding SWORD!). I have never looked for BIG BIG trains on Ebay before and amazingly there are loads! Its a whole new world!
As mentioned in ANDERSONIC by Mike Trim the toy was used by the Century 21 series makers and by the power of YouTube we can actually see it at the start of this brilliant medley by ZiggyShadowDust08 called On The Right Track:
Thanks to those nice ANDERSONIC guys I'm a BIG BIG fan once again. Go and get your copy now and share the joy!
3 comments:
Now, there's a thought - what sort of mass-transit systems might SWORD set up on the moon & planets? I've seen a 1950s "Jetrail Express", basically a rocketship-shape monorail car, toy, but I'm trying to remeber an early 1970s toy; a sort of stubby rocketship that rode in a shallow trough-track, which could be set up to go up walls and all over the room! I think there was a later expansion set with a flying saucer-shaped "Space Freighter"...
Grif
Grif, I reckon it's either Mighty Mike, Gripidee Grividee or Spaceniks, which the mighty WOTAN may even still have.
Funny, if you used a branded toy in a TV series now it would be product placement. Do you think toys like BIG BIG TRAIN were ever credited when used in Sixties kids shows like Captain Scarlet?
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