ON MY HOLS

My Blog will be silent for a week as I am on my hols. The Forum lives on though! Per ardua ad astra.

MOON CRAWLERS by WOTAN

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WOTAN has sent this great article in:

'The Moon Crawler is one of my favourite designs from the whole SWORD range
and I can't understand why it never made production - for those who have never seen the Annual (shame on you - go straight to ebay!) heres the illustration. The
design seems to be another NASA also ran as something very similar appears in the
early sixtes book Man on The Moon in an illustration by an unamed artist ( picture 1). Then in
the early seventies the vehicle pops up in the failed second series
of Spacex/Golden Astronaut toys (picture 4) which saw very limited release due to the demise
of Tri-ang round about the same time. An almost identical vehicle to that
featured in the annual with slightly different radar and jointed arms ( picture 2). The name
again culled from the NASA databanks; Surveyor 2 after the first successful US
soft landing probe. I recently had the fabulous good fortune to acquire
two Surveyor models and from the two make a 85% complete one using some remnants
from a third model I had as a child.Then, in a move which will no doubt infuriate
Spacex purists and collectors alike, I took the remaining body and
wheels and used them to custom build a Sword Moon Crawler - an on-going project to
make a childhood dream a kind of reality. The picture ( 3 ) of the two vehicles is
slightly photo-shopped as I haven't repainted the wheels, only the old body shell
and the Surveyor itself is still missing one arm.

Nice one Wotan, another wonderful piece! Woodsy

SCOUT 2 CATALOGUE

Darth contacted me with this

'Hey Paul, Don't know if you had this mini catalog? It came with my Scout 2
vehicle. This is the thing that made me think that they never made the Moon Base
but did make the Nuclear Ferry. I figured they wouldn't list the Ferry on this
"second generation" advertising if it didn't exist. Likewise, I think it is
quite telling that they DIDN'T advertise the Moon base any more. Anyway, now
you've proven the Ferry exists so that discussion's finally over.'

Cheers Darth, I agree that this is more evidence that the Moonbase never made it further than the drawings in the Sword Manual. Paul

SKY SHIP 1

With it's ZERO-X blue-style plastic this could so be Project Sword! The fabulous japanese - made SKY SHIP 1 toy from the film Thunderbird 6. Picture located by the mighty WOTAN/ Terry Harle. Drool!

SPACE CITY EXHIBITION BLACKPOOL

In the late 1970's/ early 80's there was an exhibition of Anderson props and vehicles in Blackpool called Space City. Does anyone remember visiting and seeing any Project Sword toys there?

ZERO-X TARGET GAME 1960's

Just found this fabulous ZERO X box art for a 1960's Thunderbirds Target Game. From a brilliant japanese site ,Thunderbirds Museum.

Moon Crawler Box Art

Is the Project Sword Moon Crawler pictured on the bottom left of the unlicensed UFO TANK ( 2nd picture on slideshow) its only appearance on a toy box?

WAITING FOR THE BUS BY WOTAN

Above - US Patent

Above - TV21 Ad


Above - Triang Spacex Mobile HQ

Above - LP version

Above - from Spaceflight book

It seems that just like their terrestrial equivalents, Moon Buses, after you've waited ages for one, turn up in quick succession one after another. While researching the Triang Spacex line, a fellow collector, Paul Vreede unearthed a series of Patent Applications on the US Government Patent website, for several models in the line. These patents were granted to Jack Rosenthal of Century 21 Toys and included the Mobile HQ - a dead ringer for the Sword Moon Bus. The patent is dated November 1970 (I'm not sure when the Sword Version appeared?). The advert for the Project Sword Moonbus appeared in TV21 in 1968 and I have a book called Spaceflight which dates from around 1963 which shows a drawing which is definitely the Spacex Mobile HQ! Add to that a small plastic space bus made by LP around the same time as the SWORD version and we have a regular fleet! So does this suggest that the Sword designers merely plundered available ideas for the shape of the toys, or is there another story ? LP Moon car from Ebay - Rosenthal Patent discovered by Paul Vreede -TV21 Ad and Moonbus pic courtesy of Kim Stevens.

Cape Kennedy Set Loose Rocket on Ebay

The mighty WOTAN has spotted a loose Apollo Rocket from the Cape Kennedy Plasyset on Ebay. Might be just what your'e looking for!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Friction-Apollo-Saturn-rocket-spaceship-toy_W0QQitemZ200265399205QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item200265399205&_trkparms=39%3A166%3A265%3A1240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

DENNIS NICHOLSON GERRY ANDERSON MEMORABILIA GUIDE WORLD FIRST!

Dennis Nicholson, author of the 1990's seminal GERRY ANDERSON MEMORABILIA GUIDE has written to the blog: ' Paul hello, sorry, no additional information about the Moonbase Playset whatsoever. I have attached a few images of ‘knock-off’ Sword toys, you may already have all the details. Plus I have included a ‘WORLD FIRST’... The original idea I had for the cover of the Gerry Anderson Memorabilia Guide. It is Brains reading it, see attached image. But decided against it. The puppet lives in Australia, so was able to photograph it. Also included below is my preface in the book why I started collecting. Cheers, Dennis'



"This publication is the culmination of a "little" project I began back
in 1965, though at the time I really was not aware of what it would lead
to!Gerry Anderson's Fireball XL5 was screening on Australian television and I
was being taken for the ride of my life! Christmas that year (at least for me),
came in September when a school chum showed me a copy of a comic titled TV
Century 21, (Dateline July 3 2065)."Wow! Colour pictures of XL5.. and
Stingray... and Lady Penelope...who's Lady Penelope? Mum 'look! Win a Fireball
Rocket.., entries to arrive no later than Thursday July 8th... Oh no, it's
September!" Australia was so far from Anderson-land that it took three months
for issues of the comic to arrive by ship. Only after constantly pestering our
local newsagent did he finally understand my need for regular supplies. I would
read each issue from cover to cover. Each and every photograph was studied in
the minutest detail as I ardently cut them from the hallowed pages, and later
pasted them into scrapbooks so I could absorb them all at the turn of a page. (I
still have those scrapbooks, all 22 of them).To think that I could own a model
of Fireball XL5, as advertised in TV Century 21, was almost beyond my
comprehension. But when I saw one sitting in Boag's Bicycle and Toy Shop window
the adrenaline rush wouldn't allow my hands to get my pocket money on the
counter fast enough. The grey plastic miniature was mine ...albeit only for a
short time. My exquisite toy ended its useful life entangled in an overhead
power line, never to... cruise along the Milky Way, or land upon the Moon again.
My first keepsake, my first collectable was no more! Then another advertisement
caught my eye.. Lincoln International's remote-control Stingray toy! Stand by
for Action!!!Every collector has their own "how I started" tale, but from my
experience it never seems to be a planned event, it just happens. You are swept
unconsciously into the world of "the chase" where you pursue itemsbecause you
MUST add them to your cardboard-boxed conglomeration. More often than not, once
an item issuccessfully acquired it becomes somewhat of an anti-climax, the real
challenge was tracking it down inthe first place ... ..and now for the next
one!"Let me state that this publication is a Guide to Andersonalia, not an
encyclopedia. Every item listed has, in all attempts, been researched as
thoroughly as possible. Many have come and gone in my own personal collection,
others have been traced to the collections of many a devoted fan worldwide. In
wanting to include illustrations of the vast majority of items listed I have had
to use some images which are extremely low in quality due to their origins. But
I'm hoping you will agree that it is better to see some semblance of picture
than none at all. Also tracking down (and verifying) many of the items
themselves has been, to say the least, an exercise in extreme patience and on
more than one occasion utter frustration. So it is only fair to say that whilst
I have made every possible attempt to make sure all the information within these
pages is correct, some of you may find an error, or an omission. For this I can
only say..."Show me a collector with EVERYTHING, and I will show you a person
with no challenges left!"To all the fans of Gerry Anderson's many works, whoever
you are... wherever you are, this book is dedicated to you...May the search
continue!"

Thanks a lot for the memories and the World First Dennis! Paul

2001 and PROJECT SWORD DISPLAYS

A fascinating clip from the '60's supplied by Darth. Did these displays include the fabled Moonbase Playset I wonder?

NEW BLOG FORUM

I have added a PROJECT SWORD TOYS FORUM to the blog so that longer discussions can carry on about particular things that spark an interest, either from the blog or otherwise.
Woodsy

US SWORD TOYS XMAS CATALOGUE ADVERT

Darth has sent in this fascinating US space toys Ad from an old 60's Xmas catalogue. There's the MARX space series, the 21st Century ( not to be confused with Century 21) long-legged DELTA 55 and the SWORD Space Glider and Moonbus - these will be the Tarheel versions. Excellent! Anymore cool family portraits like this?

IT'S JUST NOT CRICKET! BY WOTAN

My mate WOTAN has written this really wonderful piece with superb pictures on the recent blog thread of CRICKETS:

'Ever since I got my first Cricket P1 from the Spacex series way backin the seventies, i've loved this little space jeep. When I came across the Army version around that time, I was fascinated to see a larger version of one of my favourite toys. This was one of the earliest experiences I had of seeing 'clones' of well known toys appear in different guises and with the advent of ebay some decades later, the flood gates really opened wide. The Hamilton Invaders Mosquito Jeep (see earlier in the blog) could well be the source of all Crickets (theres the insectoid connection as well) but there could also be an actual military vehicle design for some Atomic War machine in the fifties. It seems to have a Forbidden Planet, super streamlined feel to it and the design was obviously so popular it was used later in the Spacex series as the Apollo Tracker (pictured is a scratch built conversion and actual card back - real Tracker to follow).

Army versions of the vehicle abound and I have the small Hong Kong version and two larger (Hamilton scale) trucks made by Codeg and another maker. Closer to the space theme, I found a set of interchangeable vehicles on ebay with a motorised base shaped like a lego brick and several components that clip on to build different vehicles. These included, besides a dayglo red Cricket, a Nuclear Freighter and Tractor T5 again from Spacex, as well as a space tank and something similar to the Captain Scarlet MSV. The MSV parts and one or two bits, including the blue fins for the NF2 were missing, but luckily all the major spacex parts were there!'

PROJECT SWORD PENCIL RUBBERS - NEW DISCOVERY!

This is Amazing! WOTAN's ace Yahoo Japan contact, Terry Harle, has discovered these fabulous TAKEUCHI UFO pencil rubbers - but all the vehicle shapes are PROJECT SWORD! Bug, Scouts, Probes, Glider and so on! WOW! A real discovery and you saw it here first!

STARCRUISER

See sidebar.

CRICKET- LOOKALIKE II: FK ROCKET LAUNCHER MK II AND GREEN SPACE CAR

Picked up the plastic boxed Cricket/ Apollo Tracker lookalike (top 2 pics) last year at Dewsbury car boot sale! More akin to the Hamiltons Invaders I would say, with those huge missiles, but still the same basic design as the Spacex Cricket/ Tracker wouldn't you agree? The bottom pic is of an Armoured Rocker Launcher ( MK I ?) with the same box art, star decal and missiles. Anyone got a decent shot of the Apollo Tracker to post?

Also picked up this similar plastic military green space car with fans in the roof.

BLUE BOX SPACE VEHICLES

It's just gone the Witching hour in Yorkshire and a short blog will help me get sleepy. Here's a another bunch of small SWORDISH toys, the Blue Box Space Vehicles from the 1970's. Like the Echo Car, I love the space-age artwork on the cards!

For another group shot have a peek at those here on the Secret Fun Spot page on 'Fake Star Wars' - click 'next' 8 times!

Is there any crossover into SPACEX or similar?

HAMILTON INVADERS CRICKET

Check out this Spacex Cricket lookalike in the top pic - is it the Spring Loaded Tank or the Mosquito Jeep? - from the US Hamiltons Invaders line. To see it in its home on the super cool Gallery Of Monster Toys go to:

http://thegalleryofmonstertoys.com/60swing/hamiltonvehicles.html

and the rest of the artillery are in the fuzzier lower shot. Wonder what the inspiration was behind these vehicles - The Military?

Secret Fun Spot

Not much space stuff in here but this is such a wonderful website full of old toys and Ads I had to show you:

http://www.secretfunspot.com/

ECHO CAR - get the delight!

Anybody else got any of these little beauties? Got this about 15 years ago at an evening Toy Fair in Normanton ( do they still do evening fairs?). Love the name ECHO CAR and the box graphics are very Project Swordy don't you think? I have the instruction sheet to this if anyone needs a scan. Get the delight!

PS. Vanguard and Mogura - the other two in the series.

GRUMMAN, BENDIX, MOLEM, MOLAB by DARTH

Darth writes 'Hey Paul, That Spacex Grumman LRV was a cool find. Didn't know they'd done that. I'm guessing by the golden astronaut that it is only a couple of inches long, like the other Spacex stuff. The Paya version is more than a foot long! It's to scale with a GI Joe. The link is also interesting although the part about Bendix is a bit misleading. The large Bendix wheels (pictured with Von Braun) are actually that size because that was the Bendix chassis for a full size MOLAB. Bendix used the exact same wheel design but scaled down to just about every size all the way to a bicycle wheel. Each vehicle had a different function. The SLRV was a basic probe to investigate possible landing areas for humans and the wheels would have been quite small but still using the same "coiled spring" design. Bendix also had that same wheel design on "pack mule" rovers which were a little larger. They then scaled them up again and again for one and two seat LSSMs "Local Science Survey Modules" (pictured above). There was also a Bendix version where they would put a modified Lunar Module ascent stage onto a chassis just like the one on that website. It was to have been called the MOLEM. This is the nearest thing I've seen to a toy based on the Bendix wheel. There was also a small Spacex/Golden Astronaut version of this but smaller. Grumman had two different wheel designs, both by a guy called Edward Markow. One is the elastic conoid (seen on the Paya toy) and the other was the "resilient spring" seen on the Grumman Mobile Base Simulator (the thing that looks like a big white bullet on wheels.) Markow's basic resilient spring design ended up being used for the Mars rovers.' Nice one Darth!

THUNDERBIRD 7 AKA BEETLE AKA SNOW TRAIN

Snow Train ( aka Beetle and Thunderbird 7) in Century 21 Books 1967– top picture - like the Sand Flea, this is a paper model in a card/ paper Make a Model Book of 2 vehicles, the other being the Hover Tank. Looks like a Snowcat with a train carriage attached to it, running on caterpillar tracks with a snowplough at the front of the craft. The front cover picture is of an orange – coloured Snow train, although the card model is light brown. The accompanying storyline is called Blood Ties, featuring both the Snow Train and the Hover Tank. The Model book is coded SW1.This is proper Sword – its origin lies in the Annual where its called the Beetle, taking centre stage on a double page spread across pages 4 and 5. The Beetle is the focus of a colour strip up to page 13. On page 11 we see for the first time how the Beetle is transformed into what later became known as Thunderbird 7 through a rolled Heatshield. This gives the craft a worm like appearance, best seen on page 12 of the Annual.

Thunderbird 7 by Imai - kit box art, instructions and leaflet all pictured above – is a plastic model kit of the Heatshielded Beetle. A smallish yellow plastic kit that is remote controlled, although the motor is not supplied. The top of the craft flips open to reveal a rocket launcher. Caterpillar tracks finish off the kit. The box art is of two T7’s , one firing rockets, one driving off, along with Thunderbird 2 pulling away from its open pod on the ground. All this happens on a beach with a wild sea in the background. Thunderbird 7 is clearly a T2 Pod vehicle in this incarnation.True Sword – but it has no Sword emblems at all. It is the only cross- over craft into the main Anderson brand- name of Thunderbirds ( although Zero X obviously spans both Sword and TB’s). See 'Beetle' in the Checklist for the Annual story origin. Dated 1972

Keen-eyed superfan WOTAN has spotted that the missile being fired by TB7 is no less than a Project Sword Booster Rocket!

BANDAI ZERO-X & THUNDERBIRDS TOYS

Just in - check out these fabulous BANDAI 1960's Thunderbirds plastic toys brought to us by WOTAN via Yahoo Japan. The Zero-X and X- Car are just superb!

AEROJET MOON VEHICLE

Here's one that Darth made earlier! The Aerojet Moonmobile with Major Mat Mason style suits and station!

MOON VEHICLE ON EBAY

Check out the astronomical start price on this space model spotted by Darth, who reckons it looks a lot like a Bendix unmanned rover proposed in 1966.

http://cgi.ebay.com/APOLLO-12-DLRV-MOON-VEHICLE-MODEL-KIT-OLD-BANDAI-JAPAN_W0QQitemZ360093962276QQihZ023QQcategoryZ774QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

IMAI UFO DOOM BASE AND STAR BASE KITS INCLUDING MINIATURE BLUE MOON PROSPECTOR

Another ace google of the Imai UFO DOOM BASE (bottom pic) with Prospector and Crawler. FAB! For more great kit boxes like this check out

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http://www.isoshado.org/6/6_merchandise_archivio/mk_imai.htm

Also the Imai UFO STAR BASE , which contains the mini blue moon prospector model - courtesy of Chris King of the Space 1999 Eagle Transporter forum (top 3 pics).

Does the fabled IMAI PROJECT SWORD MOONBASE KIT actually exist? It's mentioned in the bible for Andersonalia, The Gerry Anderson Memorabilia Guide. Some of these UFO kits are more or less Sword moonbases. Could it be one of these with a different title?