HOVER REMOTE CONTROL PROBE FORCE 3 GALLERY

Don of starbase@starbase.plus.com has sent this fabulous and comprehensive gallery of the HOVER REMOTE CONTROL PROBE FORCE 3. Virtually identical to the Century 21 PF3, except it has that fantastic remote control, which places it in the illustrious company of the R/C big three - the Cape Kennedy set, Zero X and the Nuclear Ferry! A beautiful toy and box, into which a lot of thought has gone by Hover. From these excellent shots its clear that Hover didn't put a makers' mark on the toy itself, but the NASA spearhead decals are distinctive and can be seen on other unmarked toys like the orange Space Glider.

Nice one Don!

Woodsy

SPACEX SOYUZ 6 AND 7 AND APOLLO LEM

These fabulous adverts from 1970 were supplied by the Philosophic Toad and have appeared in the early days of the blog. But I love them so here they are again! The lower two toys are like Hens Teeth - or even rarer! Do they even exist? I'm still amazed that a russian spacecraft would be covered in this largely NASA-styled range - the amazing Soyuz 6 and 7. Do any toys in any toy-line exist of these anywhere? The Space Station I find really hard to picture at this angle. Are there any other images of this - the real concept design perhaps - or would it be possible to 3D rotate the image in the picture? And what is that fabulous glider in the distance? Cruiser 1 at a funny angle?

Anyone venture a full list of all 37 'fabulous items' as stated above?

BROHM AND T FLYING SAUCERS

And here they are! 1960's plastic battery-operated Flying Saucers a la JR21 style by BROHM of West Germany 'NASA WELTRAUM ERKUNDER' and a poster of their space range 1969 (both top) and the 'NEW FLYING SAUCER' by T in T Box (bottom). Are there anymore of these?

JR21 TARHEEL NEW FLYING SAUCER

And here it is, the JR21 New Flying Saucer! Just as I thought - it's the same as the Polyplast one. This also proves that JR21 used the same basic base design on the Prospector and the Flying Saucer with a few slight changes. There's also BROHM and NASA versions. It's incestuous! These JR21 pics are courtesy of Chris King on the brilliant Space 1999 Eagle Transporter Forum, where Chris observes:

This is the JR21 `New Flying Saucer` which I picked up for a song off Ebay recently. Its remarkably similar in design and box art to the JR21 TB5, but much smaller, approx 6" diameter. Interestingly, the bottom of the saucer clearly has the Tarheel `T` moulded on it. I`m guessing this is
from 1966, so we have an indication of the two companies `mould
swapping` way back.

MOON PROSPECTOR AND POLYPLAST FLYING SAUCER

Noticed recently that the grey base of the SWORD Moon Prospector ( Tarheel version - top pic - my own collection) is very similar to the red base of the Polyplast Flying Saucer (4 pics courtesy of Ebay). Polyplast was a Greek company so is it a straight rip-off of SWORD? Come to think of it the Saucer reminds me of the JR21 Flying Saucer, which appeared all over the world. To be continued.....

NUOVA AMERICA NEEDLE PROBE

NUOVA AMERICA PENCILS: I love this great little box currently on Ebay UK - there's a few of them at a nice price. The thin jet remings me of the Spacex Needle Probe.

PROJECT SWORD SPINNING TOP FROM GERMANY

Here's a new one, a vintage SWORD/THUNDERBIRDS - style spinning top! I love it. Of West German origin, it's 19 cm wide and 23 cm high. The silver rocket is clearly meant to be Thunderbird 2 and even more amazing are the images of the Moon Prospector and the Scramble Bug in the background! Don't know what the thing is in the middle with LBZ on it? But how cool is this toy!

PS. Paul Vreede has since explained LBZ:

Hi Paul,dunno what that thing on the spinning top might be, but probably
somebody's idea of an unmanned moon landing probe or just possibly a
LEM-like thing. LBZ stands for Lorenz Bolz Zirndorf, well-known tin- toy
manufacturers located in Zirndorf a couple miles west of Nuremberg (where
most of the historic German toy producers have been established since the
early days).Best--Paul

PS2. Another manufacturer of West German space-related spinning tops is BALLEIS.

MAJOR MATT MOVIE

Newsflash from Darth: Tom Hanks is doing a Major Matt Mason movie. Written by Graham Yost who worked with him on From the Earth to the Moon.

Just think - new Major Matt Toys in the shops! Wow! 1968 here we come again! Woodsy

SWORD DREAM FACTORY - ANT BY WOTAN(T)

Another design begging to be realised as a SWORD toy was the ANT vehicle from the Sword Annual. Clearly based on the Grumman Molab project for a long range lunar rover, this could have been a great addition to the fleet of lunar vehicles repurposed to travel the scarred Earth after the big one of 3031. Or as seen in the mocked up photo of the toy, your back garden! The basis of this design is obviously the Grumman Molab, the photograph shown here was used as the basis of a colourful illustration for the comic story series 'Wee Willie Winkie' by John Worsley / Robert Hodgson in Look and Learn in the sixties. I 'borrowed' the artwork for the box illustration from www.lookandlearn.com/characters/index.php?c=weewilliewinkie - a fabulous resource with a searchable archive of illustrations. The 'toy' photo is taken from an old photo I had to hand of a model I made some years ago using a Kinder egg container, some Capsela parts and various household odds and ends. Its actually about 10 inches long, but sadly not motorised!

WOTAN, I want one, I want one! Woodsy

TARHEEL SCOUTS ANYONE?

Darth's fabulous TARHEEL Project Sword collection, which was blogged last September, got me thinking. Did a TARHEEL-branded SCOUT 1,2 and 3 come out too? I suppose it's also worth contemplating the existence of a TARHEEL Booster Rocket, Nuclear Ferry and Zero-X! Dream on I reckon!

KELLOGS SPACE STATION AND APOLLO CAPSULES

Lovely set of 1960's TB, Captain Scarlet and space cereal freebies currently on Ebay as part of a bigger group of JR21 toys. The blue space station and the 2 apollo capsules have been on the blog before and are part of the Kellogs range, which included a MOLAB.

BANDAI - THE BEST LOOKING SPACE TOYS EVER MADE

I have found most of these toys on the wonderful Alphadrome Database. The Radiation Tester is from Vintage Space Toys. If you haven't had a look then do it now. Unfortunately the smaller pictures don't enlarge and I can't find anymore anywhere. Nevertheless, my thesis is simple. This SWORD- like series by Bandai are easilly the best looking space toys ever made. They ooze with a minimal futuristic style that is simply beautiful. The boxes' tasteful split graphic of a wonderful painting and a starkly simple nameplate is so pleasing to look at its untrue. I'd love to post bigger pictures. I think they were SEARS exclusives. There is also a much smaller set of one-colour die-cast lookalikes by Marx Line Mar.

THUNDERBIRD 6 PROTOTYPES

Mentioned earlier on the blog, I couldn't resist posting this fabulous set of pics from Philosophic Toad / WOTAN. They show all 3 prototype Thunderbird 6's made by Brains in the film of the same name. The sleek silver one makes me think of an Angel Interceptor. The middle one is very Matt Mason. As I've talked about before, the bottom red one is a deadringer for the Tarheel NOVA III toy rocket. They all got trashed in the film. Wonder of any more of them were made and survived? We know what Thunderbird 7 is - no such drama - the Project Sword Beetle or Snow Train. But did it ever actually appear in Thunderbirds?

Tester

SWORD DREAM SHOP - ATV 2

As my email crash continues unabated I can't post the next items waiting in the blog queue. So here's another boxart doodle. This is the ATV 2 in the Project Sword Annual with the cool toy, a customised Spacex Tractor T5, courtesy of WOTAN (posted earlier on the blog).

SWORD DREAM FACTORY - SEA SWORD

My email is currently down so any posts I have in the 'waiting room' from fellow bloggers are stuck there for now. Technology! To keep things moving here's another of my ameteurish DIY mock-ups, this time the SEA SWORD from the Project Sword Annual. My poorest effort yet, I simply couldn't find a toy like it anywhere. All I could come up with was this hungarian spacecraft. Someone please find a better looking Sea Sword. There's another pic - bottom one -from the Annual to help you.

SWORD DREAM FACTORY - MOON BASE BOX ART II

Like two secret teams working on thier sinister plans, by cosmic coincidence WOTAN and I both created moonbase masterpieces at the same time! New box art no less for the fabled Project Sword Moon Base! WOTAN's was posted earlier today in all it's splendid glory and clearly created by someone who knows what they're doing! Mine on the other hand, shown here for your viewing pleasure, is what in the artworld I think is called impressionist (or a mess)!Still the intention was true!

I have opted for a larger box that would house the entire playset. The picture is a blend of the rear cover art from the Project Sword Annual and a fabulous image off the net of a lunar module. It sort of works. The Scramble Bug and Moon Prospector actually appear in the only known Century 21 artwork for the proposed toy, the picture in the Project Sword Manual (bottom picture above).

Clearly the biggest problem in creating box art for this set is not knowing the scale of the thing. Did Century 21 intend to include pre-existing toys like the Bug and Prospector? That would have made the LEM's huge and the box ginormous! WOTAN's idea of several boxes could get round this at such a scale. Perhaps they intended to use SPACEX - sized toys? We can see what this looks like with the SPACEX's own Moonbase ( courtesy of Mike Burrows) which is too small for Project Sword standards.

My own view is that Century 21 wanted a scale somewhere half-way between the two, but this would have required re-sizing the Bug and Prospector and creating the LEV, LEMs, housing unit, lunar surface and the unwieldly-looking dashbaord from scratch. It all sounds very expensive and as sales of the range inevitably dipped towards the end of the Sixties, as Moon fever waxed and waned, I imagine a complex design like the Moon Base was just too costly. But one intriguing question remains, did they make a prototype?

Well, there are some intriguing rumours! More on this.

SWORD DREAM SHOP III - WOTAN'S MOON BASE - THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE!

WOTAN's Dream Factory shows us the way:

Seeing a good bandwagon, i jumped on! Sword Moonbase Module - heres an
imaginary toy from the 'What if ?' Sword Factory. Supposing the Moon Base was
sold separately as individual modules, four in the set like the Probe Force,
Task Force or Scout series. As the Moonbase model was clearly based on existing
NASA designs, i've used the Nasa concept for the Lunar Tug as the basis of the
box art. Its not too close to the 'actual' toy as the box art so often promised
much and delivered something else with Hong Kong toys, but near enough to be
recognisable. For the toy, I've used the Spacex LEM as the basis and
photoshopped-in various odds and sods from other pictures! A little fun for
an otherwise dull Friday afternoon!

I'm standing on the shoulders of Giants! A fable comes to life before our very eyes! Woodster