From superblogger WOTAN: One of the most elusive and distinctive models of the SWORD range is the Nuclear Ferry. Presumed to have been never made and lost in the mists of time, a photo of a battered model of the Ferry was spotted on Yahoo Auctions in Japan late last year in the dying hours of the auction and as the listing was a domestic one, the chances of securing this most unique of toys slipped away into the rays of the rising sun. Presumably snapped up by a discerning collector even though it was listed as a 'space rocket' in damaged condition, it did feature a box and control line battery pack. At the time it was found, i was mid way through a pet project of my own - to build my own ferry based on the available information and illustrations that were then known. A few years earlier I had been lucky to find the only extant model of a carded Spacex ferry - and as it had always been my favourite of all SWORD spaceships, I set out to build a large model. Mattel/Matchbox had produced a successful line of rescue toys in 2002 which had an interchangeable action feature and among these was a (roughly) 00/HO scale (about same size as a golden astrounaut) X-33 Lifting Body/Shuttle. This, i felt was ideally suited to form the hardest part of my model, the sleek shuttle at the front. I decided not to make anything too model-like and stick to the clean toy lines. The fuselage of the booster was made from a tennis ball tube and the collar was a gasket from a gas pipe! The only difference i made was adding a long distance comms antenna at the back to balance the rear end (and to give a nod to Discovery in 2001). A few sprays of paint and a little photoshoppery later, i present the Nuclear Ferrys Thor and Ymir arriving in Mars orbit before debarking to land the X 33 crew shuttle at Thetis Base. I also made a less successful spacex scale model which i might show at some point in the future.
Awesome Wotan!
This is so darned awesome - too cool for words! I also love the way you've extended the SWORD storyline. I think we should regard the SWORD toys as the prototypes and experimental vehicles - I mean, the various flights, Probe, Re-Entry, Scout, etc, bear some remblance to each other, but the technology doesn't seem to be "across the range" - NASA-like stuff co-exists with fantasy ships. I think things would settle down after a while, after they found what would work. For example, I'm dreaming, probably idly, of a flying model of the Booster Rocket with the Dyna-Soar nose cone that one model rocket company makes as the lander. I've got the plans for both a flying and non-flying Dyna-Soar model, and an article on a flying Lifting Body (Space Glider) model - anyone wanna see 'em? (I suspect that that's a rhetorical question!)
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grif - thanks for the kind comments. sword stuff is a bit mismatched with nuclear and fusion powered vehicles sitting next to clunkers like the apollo and fifties tech like the dyna soar. i just made a lap of faith and tied a few ideas together for the nuclear shuttle and ferry pics. if man was looking to colonise the rest of the system, then the moon would be an obvious staging post to the inner planets, but the smaller craft would never make it unaided. and yes, it is a bit of a daft question! show us everything!
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