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

Wednesday, 3 February 2010

PROBE FORCE 1 BOX ART: THE SEARCH BEGINS!

Wote's post today of Paul's (Vreede) truly amazing discovery of the SST/PF1 connection is inspirational! Well done Paul! As you know I'm trying to tie-down the original box art sources for the C21 SWORD toys and this is a massive leap forward as to where to look for the PF1's. I've had a quick look to see who else produced SST in plastic. No other toys as yet but there are kits.
c/o wings900.com
Here's the LINDBERG SST (above) from the early 1970's. Amazingly the original artwork survives here and the site author is also searching for the artists's name!
c/o Gasoline Alley
And above is the MONOGRAM version again from the early 1970's.

The above shows how artists handled the engine plumes but our C21 and Maruman PF1's are earlier. Certainly the C21 PF1 we can date as 1967. I thought it would help if both boxes were shown together. I've flipped the PF1 box and SST artists impression so that they at more or less the same angle as the Maruman kit. I would say that the PF1/Maruman boxes have the basically the same artwork with some differences. The clincher for me is the inclusion of the brown cratered moon in both. So my feeling is that Maruman copied Century 21. But who did Century 21 copy? Paul's (Vreede) SST discovery offers a number of artists impressions including the one below - it's not the basis I don't think but there is an artists name on it (bottom unflipped picture). Can anyone make it out? Follow Paul's links to Dark Roasted Blend/Flickr to this and more in their source.
c/o Dark Roasted Blend

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