LION FIREWORKS TV21 AD FROM JIM

courtesy of Jim Wilson

PROJECT SWORD IN "THE FUTURE NEVER BECOME BOOK" FROM JAPAN

Here's a page of a book I noticed on Ebay, which has pictures of our favourite spacecraft. Looks great!

YOU PASSED IT, YOU PASSED ME THE PARCHMENT!

Yes, as WOTAN reminds us, its SAMHAIN, ALL HALLOWS EVE OR HALLOWEEN. Love it or loathe it, its's hear to stay and getting bigger than Bonfire night. When I was a wee lad my older brothers Steve and Eugene spent the evening donning wolfman masks and scaring the living daylights out of anyone they could find, which usually meant baby brother Woodsy! Much reading of Creepy and Eerie comics went on, as did the telling of scary stories. We may have squeezed in a game of spooky hide and seek (never get in a chest!) before Mum called us all for tea. My Dad usually let off  a couple of roman candles or snowstorms from the firework box for a the following week's Bommy Night. Best of all was watching a scary film on the telly on one of the 3 channels we had - what luxury, 3 channels! There were some excellent runs of films in the late Sixties and Seventies like Midnight Movie and Appointment with Fear. With WOTAN's message in mind, celebrating the departed, here are a few of my favourite old things - that go bump in the telly. If you are of nervous disposition do not watch the clips and certainly not the full thing! You have been warned!

1. Creepy and Eerie Comics - not TV to start with but it's why I love monsters!

2. Dead of Night - classic British spooky film in black and white. Famous final story about a ventriloquist's dummy!

3. A Warning to the Curious - one of the Christmas Ghost Stories - avoid buried crowns!

4. Thriller - the scariest TV series ever - even the theme music gives me the willies!

5. Whistle and I will come to you - another very eerie Christmas ghost story about a buried whisltle.

6. The Stone Tape - arguabley the scariest TV programme ever on British screens - Jane Asher screams.

7. Night of the Demon - based on M.R.Jame's clasic short story Casting the Runes, this black and white film about parchments, Julian Karswell, clouds of demonic smoke in the woods and THE best monster ever on film, is without doubt one of the best two creepy movies made in Britain. Its in the Trees!

8. The Haunting - forget the duff colour remake with Liam Neeson, this black and white ghost story is the real deal. With full-on sound effects that will scare you stiff, it is like Night of the Demon, simply terrifying.

I could go on but I want you to be able to sleep again!

Enjoy! Howwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwl! Woodsmonster

SAMHAIN SATURDAY

Heres to the future and respect to the departed. The marketing boys have made a big thing of Halloween these days, so my pagan soul always likes to rember its celtic roots!

COMANSI: THUNDERBIRDS ARE AMIGOS

I first came across COMANSI of Spain when I started to see bundles of simple plastic one-colour Thunderbirds figures in clear plastic bags with beautiful header cards. Individual vehicles were bagged in the same way. The one I remember seeing the most often at Toy Fairs was TB5. These toys have a long heritage that goes way back to 1966. There was even a Tracy Island.

The TB5 I remember can be seen clearly in the lower right corner of this sealed box of Comansi -style Thunderbirds figures by NOVOLINEA of Spain. There's TB4 at the top too. The title reads "1/2 Kilo of Space" - sounds like dark matter! I spotted this today set on Ebay Spain.

And here's the actual TB4 (x2) and 5 by COMANSI themselves (funny how they are fixated with 4 & 5!), along with Jeff, Brains and co. Beautiful box art entitled UFO I think (Los Ovnis). From the description I believe this is from the 1960's. Also seen today on Ebay Spain.

And finally on Ebay Spain today is the same box art as above set in a stunning frame of TB vehicles. I can't see the name COMANSI but it's clearly their house style. Amazing that its survived like this since 1965. It has lost all its contents though! Anyone else like Comansi? Were they sold outside Spain in the 1960's?

THUNDEBIRD 2 CLONES: SPACE PATROL, RAY-GUARD X-2 AND SPACE WARSHIP 2

Above is another TB2 knockoff called SPACE PATROL by ASC, pictured previously on the blog. I love the box art - those other spacecraft look sort of familiar or?

..and here's one of those images, which you just can't get out of your head and you look everywhere for the toys for years on end but no joy. I first saw this picture way back in the mid-1990's on the cover of Dennis Nicholson's superb but out-of-print book The Gerry Anderson Memorabilia Guide and it's stayed with me principally because I've simply never seen these TB knockoffs anywhere else. I've mentioned the one on the right earlier this week in the THUNDERCOP bloglet - the awesome RAY-GUARD SPACE SHIP X-2, which, as explained by Dennis was operated by a strong torch beam. There's an X-3 as well, which presumably is a TB3 in the same style? The fabulous SPACE WARSHIP boxes shown on the left are by old Thunderbird pro's LINCOLN INTERNATIONAL, who made the famous line of TB kits in the 60's. According to Dennis's book these are Seventies incarnations of TB's 1,2,3 and 4 and have lost any written connection to Thunderbirds, which I find amazing! Did kids not watch repeats of Thunderbirds somewhere in the world back then? Maybe not.

In all my many years of collecting I have never seen any of the above TB knockoffs. Have you?

Top picture: general internet, Bottom picture - The Gerry Anderson Memorabilia Guide - front cover -1994 by Dennis Nicholson.

STAZIONE SPAZIALE: ITALIAN THUNDERBIRDS KNOCKOFF SET

As you know I'm a great fan of Anderson knockoffs, which are often more interesting than the real thing! The other day I mentioned the wonderful THUNDERCOP. Well look at this that's currently on Ebay US - completely new to me and the blog - an Italian TB knockoff carded set called STAZIONE SPAZIALE or Space Station. We have a TB2 with white pod (what's inside?), an even larger TB4 (!) and best of all an unidentified jet, which is very SWORDY/ SPACEXY! I love it. There's 7 of them too! Wonder what the year of manufacture was?

BOOSTER ROCKET EXHAUST AND TB3 HEAT SHIELD: THE SAME?

I've noticed a similarity between the red finned exhaust of the Project sword BOOSTER ROCKET and the grey finned heat shield (?) in the centre of the JR21 THUNDERBIRD 3 as ringed in red above. Did JR21/ Century 21 simply re-use/re-tool this part? If anyone has the TB3 and the Booster Rocket and can send a piccy of them stood together we could see if the two finned features are the same size and shape.

Pictures: Woodsy and unknown Internet.

MOON DOME MYSTERY 2: CHEQUERED BANDING

Those Takeuchi/T in a Circle Moon Domes (top) have thrown up another mystery: just where did that chequered 'Finish Line' -type banding come from? Above you can see it on the nose of PROBE FORCE 1 and simililarly on three small tank missiles. There are many more examples.Can anyone help?

BOX ART MYSTERY: MOON DOMES

Over the last year I have noticed a few toy boxes with a peculiar and recurring image, a white moon dome with red and chequered trims. I first noticed them on the backing card of the awesome TAKEUCHI Project Sword 'UFO' rubbers (or erasers in some quarters!), completely new to me and the blog and kindly donated to the blog cabinet by WOTAN (check out the MEV-2 grabber too!):

During the bloggiversary I noticed these strange lunar domes again on the box of the magnificent T in a Circle Moonbus-relative, the SPACE VEHICLE newly discovered by Ferryman:

To make comparison easier here they are in close-up:

Top - Takeuchi rubbers

Bottom - T in a Circle Space Vehicle

So, as is the way of all Swordheads I got to wondering about the origin of these moon domes. And I think I may just have it. Check out the fabulous painting 'MARS COLONY' by the iconic US NASA Space Artist Robert McCall (copyrighted image so please look on the McCall Studios website). You can see the lettering K-17 clearly as appears on the Takeuchi card and I would say that the T in a Circle box art is almost a straight lift of McCall's dome image complete with astronauts! It's undated but I'm assuming it's the '60's (anyone confirm the date?). So, like his Earth to Moon Shuttle/ Nuclear Ferry painting, Mr. McCall has influenced even more space toy box art. Any more domes anyone?

NOVA ON THE BLACK CORRIDOR FROM DARTH

Last year I found this great old German novel by Lothar Streblow in a Berlin bargain book box - Scramble Bug art to die for. I only mention this, as I have done before on't blog, because....

blog reader and space author Darth has found this cool Michael Moorcock book, BLACK CORRIDOR - check out that SPACEX/ GOLDEN ASTRONAUT NOVA on the cover! Hee hee, faaaantastic! But what have they stuck to it? The good news is you may be lucky and get one on Amazon! So now we have two novels with SWORD/SPACEX covers. But is this the ONLY one which actually uses a real toy?

I would like to thank Darth for sending this picture, which is completely new to me and the blog.

ALIENS AND THE MILKY WAY

PAUL VREEDE writes : "My brother and self went to a train show in Holland last Saturday, where he was much amused to spot a UFO in a cornfield on somebody's layout (see pic). What puzzled him was that there's a milk truck parked right next to it. He didn't ask the layout's owners, but I could explain it to him later: it's a reference to a famous 1980s Dutch advertising campaign for milk entitled "Milk - the white motor". This featured portraits of "atypical milk drinkers" and included a nice variation with a slogan I'd translate as "Gnirk - the white gnotor" still visible at GNERK

TOYS I'VED WALKED PAST: THUNDERCOP

In the early 1990's I re-started my 1970's Preston teenage tradition of going 'up town' on Saturdays, albeit my young family in tow rather than my hairy mates! Back in the early '90's, Wakefield was a treasure trove of discount stores and charity shops (as it is now really 'cept I've stopped going) and not many people seemed to looking for the stuff I was after - vintage toys and cheap sci fi stuff. I remember one particular discount toy shop above a Fish and Chip restaurant. You walked up stairs to be greeted by tons of boxed toys, mostly unlicensed, stacked neatly on shelves and in piles. I bought lots of stuff there but I can't remember what apart from a carded red-eyed werewolf from a monster line called Howlers. What I do remember are the toys I didn't buy and looking back I could kick myself as they have become disproportionately important in my overly-nostalgic world! One toy was a rubbery monster in a large box. I think there were several types. They looked great or at least that's what I think now! Another one, which I remember clearly being on the floor in a neat stack was the unlicensed Thunderbird 2 knockoff THUNDERCOP. There was something aesthetically attractive about the translucent cockpit window and the gold rotation base-plate. There were at least 50 of them and I didn't buy one, not a sausage! Much later I realised that it's see-through cockpit had been seen before on the much older TB2 clone, the 1968 RAY-GUIDED X-2 SPACE SHIP as featured in Dennis Nicholson's Gerry Anderson Memorabilia Guide ( anyone got a pic of the X-2 or its sister ship, the X-3?). Anyone got a Thundercop?

Unit Seventy Four

I've since found a battered example of a Thundercop at a boot sale but it didn't make me feel any better! Has anyone else walked past toys you now wished you'd bought?

PS. Keen-eyed reader Paul Vreede spotted this black version of TCOP on Ebay November 2009 - above.

REGENT TOYS IN COLOUR

Just messing about watching X-Men 3!

Anyone ever go to Regent Toys in London?

UFO Again...

1965-Santa Ana, California. August 3. Taken by highway traffic engineer Rex Heflin, while driving near the Santa Ana freeway. Heflin did not report his sighting, but the photographs were published by the Santa Ana Register on 09-20-65. This turned into a very controversial case with photos confiscated, and disagreements between different Ufologists about the photograph's authenticity. One of the most famous UFO photos ever taken, and more than not accepted as genuine.

I first saw this cool photo in the first Countdown annual and even then I thought it could be real. Just surfing for pics on Google and found this interesting toy patent issued some three years later... now i wonder...

MIDORI BABY BEETLE FROM SEAN

"This is the final baby I've seen - the Beetle. Interesting that they all have Japanese military markings - I suppose Godzilla is a persistent threat. By the way, haven't seen any Hong Kong versions of this one. Sean"

Beautiful! No, I've not seen a Hong Kong toy version. There's a bigger SPIN Z version. I suppose the UK version of Godzilla was GORGO. Anyone remember that film? I imagine we blasted it with lots of Cheiftain tank shells and police bobbies' truncheons to finish him off!

TOY SHOP MEMORIES BY YORKIE

This great comment was posted earlier this week. Like Barry's original bloglet this struck a chord so I've posted it in the main blog here. Woodsy.

"What a great article (Nostalgia Aint What it Used To Be by Barry Ford. Ed.) Sigh, the shops in York that no longer exist. Memory Lane card and toy shop. Go up the rickety old narrow staircase to the toy and model section. Thousands of Airfix kits old and new stacked high (well high to an 8 year old).

Woolworths, discovering the awesome Revell Jacques Cousteau's calypso ship and that Christmas battery powered ski slope with lift that I watched in awe for ages in the window as the little figues were pulled up then slid down.

Christmas at Browns department store (still there but no toy section for years), being frightened to death of the Santa, and Mum getting me the Dinky Ed Straker's car from there afterwards.

Precious was York's proper toy shop with Matchbox, Dinky and Corgi's on the shelf, many of the boxes opened for you to touch. Had absolutely everything, packed to the gills. You had to squeeze by other customers all the time, and that's as a kid. How the parents got down the aisles as well...

Moved school and had to go to a new dentist and discovering Monk Bar Model shop with Japanese Hasegawa and Fujimi kits which were bigger and a bit more expensive than Airfix. Never knew the shop or these manufacturers existed. A proper model shop in York, amazing to an 11 year old. Getting a 1/72nd scale Hasegawa Grant tank as a reward for having a tooth filled. (The shop is still there, mostly diecasts and railways now).

The local newsagents that had racks of bagged Airfix kits on those revolving stands. Remember how the instruction used to tell you what each part was? i.e. glue pitot tube A to forward fuselage B. Bought a new cheap kit or a Matchbox car for 10p (2 shillings) virtually every week. Oh and caps for my cowboy and secret agent toy guns. Do caps even exist today?

Discovering the Aurora Star Trek USS Enterprise and Klingon ship in the village hardware store(!). In those days they sold toys and models everywhere. Also discovered a few Frog kits there.

The annual trip to Leeds on the bus and finding Beatties model and toy shop, big shop in a big city. Always getting lost with Mum trying to find the bus station to go home. Beatties has long since gone.

Holidays - Finding the Project Sword Re-entry Task Force 2 and a Captain Scarlet dart gun at a newsagents just outside the caravan park at Sewerby near Bridlington. Lost most of the darts in the caravan park. Searching seaside shops to no avail throughout the seventies and mid eighties to try to replace the Gerry Anderson toys I stupidly threw away. In the sixties and seventies in Blackpool there was a great toy and model shop on the front on the corner of the Tower building. Discovered Aurora kits there. Still remember getting the Aurora Cutlass jet there, building it in the B&B and deciding that it looked far more futuristic with the wings glued on upside down. I drop into Blackpool about once a year now for an half day too (yes Thunderbooks too ) on my way to Lytham St Annes and noticed that it's just a cafe now.

In those days you didn't know when anything was coming out in the shops, only when you spotted it in the shop or saw that one of your mates had one. The number of times I couldn't afford a toy or kit and it had gone when I went back the next week with enough pocket money. - Presto supermarket, Aurora 2001 Orion, I'll always miss you, though I never had you.

Thanks for the memories. Great times. All the best, Yorkie."

WOLVERINE HAS A BLACKBIRD!

Ebay Link

BLACKBIRDS AND HAWKS

The other day I mentioned the WINGS OF FIRE die- cast miniature military jets collection of trading stickers by PANINI available in German newsagents and Ebay Germany. I got the SR 17 Blackbird packet and the little black beauty is pictured above with its pals and on its own. It's tiny! Sweet!

Group picture: from left to right - Spacex Reconnaisance, red die-cast Blackbird, black die-cast Blackbird, Spacex Hawk, miniature plastic concorde (possible PF1 project?), miniature plastic blue jet (possible Hawk project), white plastic NASA 2004 glider from the Space Voyagers set ( in UK branches of TK Maxx £4.99) and small black plastic jet.

ELSECAR ANDERSON

Elsecar evening Toy Fair, Barnsley, is always fun. Amongst the trains and die-casts there were a few interesting gems for Swordhaeds and Anderfans: a loose JR21 SPC £12 (lots missing), loose JR21 TB3 £30, a boxed JR21 TB1 £250 ( the tray box is HUGE!) and most interesting of all, a boxed LP/JR21 A-70 Robot as posted by Ferryman in late Summer. This one was £75 but the box was covered in ballpoint pen scribbles. I picked up a couple of bits of boxed Sindy furniture for £5 to sell on and a few odds'n'sods for my modelling spares box. Pleaseant. Do any of you go to toy fairs? Do you think Ebay has changed them?

MIDORI BABY ECHO AND MOGURAS BY SEAN

Ask and you shall have.. blog reader Sean has answered the call with these piccies of the MIDORI BABY ECHO CAR AND MOGURAS. That's all 3 pictured on the blog now, the forerunners of the beautiful little kits posted by the WOTANMEISTER.

Excellent Sean. We want more MIDORI! Woodsy

AT THE VANGUARD: MIDORI BABY AND THE A14 TANK

Blog reader Sean saw WOTAN'S last piece on the ECHO CAR and wrote in: "I think these are Hong Kong copies of the Japanese Midori Baby kits. Sean"

Sean, you're right! A bit of googling found this - the MIDORI BABY VANGUARD below. Its so ECHO! Anybody got pics of the other two now WOTAN'S got us on a roll?

and continuing the VANGUARD theme thats developing, blog readers Jon and Amy have sent in this:

"Hi Paul, Just a quick note to send you the scan of the A14 tank art you were after from the Joe 90 8mm film box. Hope it looks okay - our copy is still sealed in plastic but there doesn't seem to be too much glare on the scan. Incidentally, the episode with the A14 is called "Business Holiday" - "Attack and Destroy" is just the name of the 8mm cut down version. Hope you like it and can use it on the Blog. Great stuff on the anniversary finale - we'll e-mail again in the week with a competition entry! All the best, Jon & Amy"

Now that's a beautiful bit of box art! I'd love to know who painted it? Awesome. And to think that these cinefilms were the DVD's of their day! This shot of the A14 makes it clear its Vanguard influenced or am I wrong? Remember that there is brilliant video footage of the A14 posted last week by Philosophic Toad and You Tube footage of the MIDORI vanguard in all its glory. Right, some tea and off to Elsecar Toy Fair. It'll be mostly trains and die-cast but you just never know!Woodsy

SMALL OBJECTS OF DESIRE

In the good old days, before the blog and shortly after the birth of the Web as we now know it, the industrious Mr Woods made the original Project Sword Checklist. This still exists in various formats in forgotten corners of the internet and still remains the definitive guide to all things SWORD. One of the very first things I did after opening my very first internet account, was to go hunting for information on Spacex toys and Project Sword. Pauls checklist was my first stop. Unfortunately, due to technical limitations, the checklist never had any pictures on it and the few models on the list that I wasn't then familiar with remained tantalising and remote.

One such model was the 'Echo Car' which I had never heard of, let alone seen and this tormented me for many years until I came across one on a model site some time ago. Blog readers will be familiar with these models now, but our far eastern correspondant Terry spotted the Echo car and its two sister kits, the Vanguard and Moguras, on a japanese auction site. Whilst not up to the normal deluxe standard of jap kits, they are unusual in that they appear to have been made for a European market with english instructions and a very sixties retro style cover on each colourful box.

WINGS OF FIRE - MINIATURE SPACEX (SORT OF)

I'm taking it easy this week with blogging after the excitement of the bloggiversary over the last 5 weeks. I need to chill. Posts will be light and short like this. Whilst in the Bavarian Alps this summer I bought a small bag of trading card stickers by Panini called WINGS OF DESIRE. Basically they are pictures and miniature die-cast models of military jets, about the size of a stamp. They are on general release in all newsagents in GERMANY and maybe other mainland European countries. I'm unsure about the UK but they are available on Ebay in Germany, which I can help you with if you ask me. Of interest to Sword and Spacex-heads is one of the miniatures: #110 SR-71 BLACKBIRD, a Spacex Reconnaisance 2 lookalike. I'll post a pic when I open my packet.

BLOGGIVERSARY GRAND FINALE: PROJECT SWORD TOYS AT CENTURY 21 STUDIOS - ID COMPETITION - AND THANKYOU FOR EVERYTHING IN YEAR ONE!

So here we are SWORDHEADS! The first year over and a new one beckons - well it actually started on the 16th September but we we're too busy partying! To celebrate the final night of the first bloggiversary we have an excellent SWORD competition! You'll need all your SWORD toy nouse and a bit more to have a chance of winning. The rules are simple: identify ALL the visible toys and/or boxes, SWORD AND THE REST, in this fabulous Century 21 crew shot supplied by Alan Shubrook. The first three full answers sent to me HERE by next Saturday Night, Halloween, Midnight GMT will win a prize. ONE ATTEMPT PER READER SO DON'T BLOW IT! You might have to get your magnifying glass out! You must identify by name ALL the toys and/or boxes shown, not just SWORD.

THE PRIZE: an A4 copy of the above Alan Shubrook photograph of the Century 21 crew (from Alan's book Century 21 FX Unseen Untold) printed on photo paper by Alan, perfectly framable AND SIGNED exclusively for the blog with a message by its taker, Alan! Short of a picture in the C21 toy department making SWORD toys, this photograph is as close as you'll get to PROJECT SWORD in it's home at CENTURY 21 Studios in Slough. Wow! This photo is the same as the one in Alan's book listed above. PROJECT SWORD OR WHAT!

Best of luck SWORDHEADS! Thanks for all your help, support, enthusiasm and general swordiness during Year One of the blog - that's 46,750 hits! Here's looking, like a Dyna Soar pilot peering at the Sun, to a FAB and glorious Year 2! Woodsy

BLOGGIVERSARY FAREWELL: PROJECT MOON ONE YEAR ON BY JON AND AMY

Vitually a year ago to the day I posted the two toy ads below from Philosophic Toad for the amazing successor to PROJECT SWORD, Regent Toys' PROJECT MOON.

Keen blog readers and SWORD enthusiasts Amy (JR21 pistol winner!) and Jon have sent in a brilliant update on PROJECT MOON and it seems the perfect moment to post it as part of the Bloggiversary farewell as we look forward to our second year.

Hi Paul,

Amy's partner Jon here ! Glad you liked our Atomic Astroboat pictures and could use them on the Blog. As promised here's some info on our "Moon Scout" above. I'll write a little background info first to give some history that might be of use to the Blog.

First we have a series of ads that ran in "Joe 90:Top Secret" comic around Spring 1970. These show the last of the S.W.O.R.D. range becoming "Project Moon" then being listed as general releases from Regent Toys. The last one shows the "Moon Scout" with a mention of the "Lunar Climber " at the top, linking it back to "Project Moon".

The example in the photos was purchased on Ebay a few years back with no box and appears to have been repainted, but the remaing decal on top identifies it as M.S.8. (more photos to be posted next week Ed.)

The only maker's mark is a "Made in Hong Kong" on the base along with a tiny (impossible to photo) logo that is hard to make out but might be an "Aladin's Lamp" in a triangle (!?).

There are no astronauts in the cockpit. Instead you can see the mechanism that drives it. This is clearer in the video of it walking as you can see the cogs turning.

So is this S.W.O.R.D. ? We tend to think not, as it's not as sleek as the classic ships and the leg mechanism looks a bit ungainly, but what do others think?

On another recent note, the U59 explosives truck is certainly popular with scratch builders - we picked up a 2 foot one that had apparently been made for a Gerry Anderson exhibition (Possibly at the FAB cafe in Manchester - anyone remember seeing it there ?). The U87 Stronger is much harder to find but we definitley saw a garage kit of one in resin on Ebay many years ago.

Anyway hope all the above is of some use. The Blog is great as always and if things go well we might be able to send in some interesting stuff on the "Lunar Climber" next week. We didn't see the original "Project Moon" post as we only found the Blog around last Easter, so it's a great excuse to get around to reading through all the old posts !

All the best - Jon & Amy

Fabulous stuff you guys. PROJECT MOON is the new SWORD! Thanks for all your support, help and contributions this year. Keep on SWORDIN! Next, the competition!

BLOGGIVERSARY FAREWELL: ALAN SHUBROOK AND THE CENTURY 21 SPECIAL EFFECTS MODEL STUDIO

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your interest in Century 21, glad you enjoyed my book Century 21 FX Unseen Untold( Excellent Ed.!)

I still receive a great deal of interest regarding the many years I spent working on all those great tv shows in the 60's as a special effects model maker, and I often give lectures and slide show presentations around the country on Thunderbirds etc.I often had the manufacturers of the toys looking over my shoulder as I designed and made a craft, boat, car etc.The minute a major vehicle was finished a photograph would go off for re creating in a factory on the other side of the globe! The toys were never completed until after we had finished filming a series and so we were never able to cheat and use them at any time.

The group photo from Captain Scarlet (above) is the one I think you are refering to with the toys in. It was taken as a publicity shot, and appeared as a half page picture in the Daily Express in 1966. I am happy for you to use this picture on your site and have attached a copy for you. The photo was set up by the marketing department to promote the Captain Scarlet series. The lads dressed up were nothing to do with the studio, they were taking the `Captain Scarlet' sales message to shopping malls etc. They probably took the boxes with them to promote product sales of toys etc.

Once a series was made the licensing rights were sold to the highest bidder in the market, and the studio had no further control in what was produced. The company who bought each license would appoint there own team to design the packaging and publicity material. ATV had no control once the license had been sold on. This is still the case today, although large companies like Disney have the ultimate say on toys, comics, books etc., before anything is made or goes to print, and they retain the right to approve the product, so that is does not fall below there image standards.

At Century 21 Mike Trim designed most of the vehicles on Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and UFO, as Derek Meddings, who designed everything on Thunderbirds had moved on to directing more special effects filming.

I do not really see any of the toys that were made these days, unless I visit a toy museum, when all the memories come flooding back to me.

Glad that everything is looking good for your birthday launch. I am happy to add a message to the Captain Scarlet pic for you.

Regards,

Alan Shubrook.

 

Alan was the youngest special effects modelmaker at the Century 21 studios in the 1960's right up to its closure. With Derek Meddings he worked on everything from Thunderbirds to UFO. I would like to thank Alan for his contribution to the blog and despite a difficult time, his enthusiasm to help.

The Captain Scarlet photograph is next up in an exclusive competition to see out the Bloogiversary in style!

BLOGGIVERSARY FAREWELL BARGAIN: JOE 90 U59 LOOKALIKE TANK

The Philosophic Toad has uploaded these fabulous videos of the Joe 90 U59 and A14 Tanks

With the Bloggiversary coming to en end tonight I've saved this little 'thanks for watching' bargain till now. I recenty came across a local shop that stocks this U59 lookalike! It's called the Super Transformer Tank, about 8 inches long, made in China, of hard plastic and is battery-operated (not supplied). It's not a Rolls-Royce high quality toy and the shop low price of £3.99 reflects this. However, I have bought two and am well impressed. It looks a lot like the Joe 90 tank despite having 8 wheels. The mystery action is excellent and the 'transforming' action is quite fantastic - lights flash, sirens wail, the front end comes up to reveal a robot and the rear end opens to reveal a small silver helicopter! It even comes in either beige or green! For fun I have drawn-up a custom PROJECT SWORD SUPER TANK sleeve (bottom 2 pictures), which can be printed off and made-up as a collar that wraps around the box body lengthways. You could even add SWORD decals to the sides of your tank for that authentic look! A pair of scissors and a stick of Pritt and Bobs your uncle! Instructions provided on request. If you would like me to get you one of these tanks at £3.99 plus postage anywhere at cost let me know here. If you would also like the little dome and small silver astronaut (made of Das Pronto) putting on your tank top like I have in the beige one pictured then please add 50p. I can't guarantee availability of these tanks but there were quite a few last week. FAB and thanks for watching. PS. Be aware that the UK Postal Workers are currently striking so the post maybe a tad unpredictable!