The Marie Celeste of the SWORD fleet has always been the wonderful Nuclear Ferry. Until recently, this was assumed to be a mythical beast, never to have been produced and only gracing the pages of the manual and Tv21. However, a chance encounter on a japanese auction site led to the first ever sighting of the toy, some 18 months ago. Assumed lost again as the auction closed, the SWORD community breathed a sigh of disappointment as the mysterious ferry dropped below the event horizon once more. But like Apollo 11 coming out of the radio shadow of the lunar darkside, the ferry emerged once more during the xmas holidays of 2008 and this time, it was snapped up. In an amazing incidence of sychronicity, or perhaps because the ferry had appeared at auction for the first time and stirred the memory of foreign dealers, a second model popped up on Ebay US, at the same time that the first one was winging its way across the Pacific to England. A beautiful and rare thing, especially since it arrived boxed and with Commanders badge, the ferry must have been one of the last creations of the SWORD designers. Compared to some of the other toys such as the Probe Force series or the scramble bug, the toy is a clumsy and unwieldy beast and must have had limited playability for a child. The remote control gives forward movement and tiny pea bulbs in the transparent red engine are whirled around on a small turntable, to give a fabulous 'reactor' effect. The large passenger section holds a full crew and the makers also saw fit to pose the tiny astronauts in positions where two have actually left their seats and are making a crew transfer into the cargo module. This mirrors Robert McCalls famous painting for which he was originally credited as being the originator of the design, but recently, David Portree - a space archive manager, a planetary map librarian and author of www.beyondapollo.blogspot.com/ and www.robotexplorers.blogspot.com/ - cast an eye over the blog at my behest, to see if he could identify any of the designs shown here. Almost immediately, he identified the Nuclear Ferry as being a concept vehicle proposed by Ling Tenco Vought, an aerospace engineering company, as a lunar transport ship. This bore out C21's claims that it worked out the toy designs based on plans straight from the NASA drawing boards. One other major problem I found with the SWORD ferry was the spring loaded cargo module. The Passenger section slips easily from the steel rods either side of the main hull, but the cargo module was designed to blast off in realistic launching fashion, by the touch of a button. Engaging the spring launched mechanism by pushing the module into place revealed two flaws - the docking collar beneath the cargo module didn't line up with the airlock on the passenger section. Also, because of the age of the age of the mechanism - the latch was prone to releasing itself at will, blasting the cargo pod across the room! Having seen this happen once too often and luckily having been deft enough to catch it without damaging the fragile antennae either side, I decided that my even more fragile heart could no longer bear the strain. As the motor needed a little attention to urge it back to life, I took the drastic step of taking the massive spring launcher out of the body while I had the toy in pieces. Now the cargo module sits correctly in place and I can display the toy safely without having the worry that an unscheduled launch would leave me with a small pile of blue plastic shards near the wall. The ferry has appeared twice in toy form, once by Project SWORD and again, later by Triang Spacex. The unusual shape and distinctive form of the ferry has always obsessed me since childhood and along with the Booster Rocket has been a firm favourite. Before finally being lucky enough to find and own both models of the ferry, I was driven to try and make my own version from old kit parts, a tennis ball container and a Matchbox X-33 shuttle toy! Since the inception of the moonbase blog, we have seen two nuclear ferries emerge, the even rarer Submarine Aircraft Carrier and countless other unusual models - can our luck hold out and reveal the Project Sword Moonbase anytime soon, I wonder....
What a difference a decade makes! The lower picture is from the 1958 SEARS catalogue showing just a few space-related toys including a very cool rocket transporter a la Spacex! But just look at the bumper selection on offer 12 years later in the 1970 JC PENNEYS catalogue! One year earlier Man had landed on the Moon and doesn't it show. There's MARX scouts, rockets and that All-Terrain wedge-shaped climber is just great! Anyone got one? These pages are courtesy of those fabulous guys over at Wishbook, where you can search dozens of American Christmas catalogues! Not much Project SWORD though as far as I can see, although Darth posted a pic of a Tarheel (I assume) Glider and Moonbus last year from Wards catalogue (year?) with the Marx scouts and stilted Delta appearing once again . Nothing in colour though. Boo.
'JETEX DYNA SOAR, WHAT YEAR WAS IT?' (originally in side-bar)
Just imagine, a garden filled with rockets! Well, that's what they've got at the Kennedy Space Centre! Wow! I've just got to go!
I first came across the nifty space toy range Explorers 12 in the early 1990's when I picked up 2 picture books based on the toys, very much like PROJECT SWORD! Sadly, I no longer have them but I remember that they were published by BHS, the great British Home Stores (my old Mum's favourite shop!).So I was chuffed to see the above appear on Ebay the other week. Looking at them now it's like a SWORD/SPACEX hybrid. Great box art too. Anyone got any?
And keen-eyed blog follower John Sisson spotted this brilliant but simple die-cast SPACE SERIES on a US auction site a while back. Would fit well with Spacex vehicles. The far left one is a ROBBY Car copy minus Robby. There maybe a vehicle missing too. Anyone know this set?
In the 1964 US Sears Christmas Catalogue, which was probably available Autumn 1964, the fabulous Sears exclusive 3-Stage Rocket appeared for the very first time. As blog reader Darth pointed out last year in his bloglet, this pre-dated the Century 21 SWORD Apollo rocket by 3 years. Exactly the same, the Sears version was bigger, had smoking engines (cool!) and a huge gantry.
Then in June 1965 an Apollo rocket appeared in this TV21 ZOOM competion advertisement. The toy is clearly the Sears version from the year before as it lacks the chequered neck-band, which adorned the later Century 21 rocket ( previously posted courtesy of Jim Lewis).
Then in 1966 we see the Sears 3-Stage rocket again in their Christmas catalogue. This time it's joined by Moon McDare and friends and the price has risen by a dollar! The amount of space related toys is starting to increase as the Space Race kicks in. I can't find any further Sears catalogues for the 'Space Race' years between 1967-1970, so I can't be certain that the Sears 3 -Stage Rocket continued to be advertised. It will take the UK until 1967 to catch up and launch it's own Saturn rocket toy via Project SWORD. 
Above - The real Saturn V at Cape Kennedy
Golden Astronaut MLP
Spacex MLP courtesy of Mike Burrows.JPG)
Century 21 Project Sword Cape Kennedy Set.JPG)
Century 21 Project Sword Cape Kennedy 
pic courtesy of astronit
