COMIC ONLY MACHINERY: BEETLE

Unlike DIVER 1 this vehicle made it - the Beetle gets 2 cracks at its own toys - the Century 21 'Snow Train' Cut-Out model Book and the Imai Thunderbird 7 R/C kit - but it's worth having a closer look as it appears in several guises and can be confusing.

6

Here it is as brilliantly illustrated on page 12 of the 1969 SWORD Annual in its 'heat shield' mode, a caterpillar-like mole-ship, which can 'fly' through rock, lava and magma. If you've seen the modern film The Core then its the same idea only much earlier! This is the format captured in the Imai Thunderbird 7 kit, although this model can also open up to launch a small Booster Rocket (can't do this in the Annual strip, not sure if this is based on the TV21/ SOLO comic strip?). I think that Imai simply made up the name Thunderbird 7. There's no such thing in the show or?

6

It's 'Snow Train' guise, without the curved heat -shields, looks more like a Polar CAT with tracked carraiges and is the star vehicle of one of the 1969 Century 21 Cut-Out Model Books. Wonder if anyone has actually ever taken the plunge, thrown caution to the wind and made up the card model (and ruining their book in the process!) ?