BLUE BOX, YONE AND MORTOYS FROM FERRYMAN

Hi Paul,

Just had a look on the blog at the Luna Len (not seen one before). It shares a lot of parts with the fab MorToys robot in the attached pic (bottom).I think the MorToys robot is called Robbie (not Robby), as far as I remember.

I've also attached a few of pics of the 'Blue Box style toys featured on the blog. The grey saucer is marked Bluebox (middle pic). The Tank is from what I believe is the original range made by Yone in Japan (top pic). The Japanese versions are clockwork with sparking mechanisms built in.

Ferryman

Great stuff Ferryman. Ta. Woodsy. I've realised that a small wheeled silver rocket I found at a boot sale years and years ago was actually a Bluebox Jet Plane SJ2 as seen on the box above. My rocket didn't have any fins! Its pictured in the left hand corner of the top pic below in this gallery of my first collecting efforts taken in the early 1990's.

KING DOME

It's those domes again! Right hand side. This time on the box of the KO KING FLYING SAUCER. Cool.

PROBE FORCE AIR BATTLE AND ROCKET SETS

Ever since WOTAN kindly donated the POP ROCKETS with the cool PROBE FORCE 2 header cards (middle pic) I have been on the look out for a PF1 or PF3 version if they indeed exist. I haven't found them yet but I have found a picture of an excellent set of cap-bombs called AIR BATTLE (bottom pic). I dunno, the silver concorde-like plane on the header card sort of reminds me of Probe Force 1. You get a better view in the top pic with both header cards side by side. Probably just wishful thinking! Anyone got any more like this?

PS. the punctuation is fascinating. Does 'Air-Battle' really need hyphenating? And 'Pop-Rocket, Missile, Airplane' suggests that each of the three main craft in the pictures is one of these names. But which one is PF2? Pop-Rocket?

MARX MILITARY VEHICLES

The MARX Military vehicles series really do remind me of Century /JR21 toys. We know that the C21 Mobile Bridge carrier is probably the same body as the Marx Tank (above top). I've noticed a similarity, albeit less clear, between the Marx Amphibious Vehicle  (second from bottom) and the JR21 Missile launcher (bottom). I wonder if there is a JR21 version of the Marx Armoured Personnel Carrier (second from top)?

TELSALDA, TELSADA AND T IN A CIRCLE

Fellow space toy enthusiast Terry recently spotted these fab TELSALDA Train Ferry Boat and Aircraft carrier toys (above) and it got me thinking about the relationship of the brand and the T in a Circle logo found on some Hong Kong SWORD toys. Having scoured the net I can find only 2 Telsalda logo's, a white "handwritten" one (top picture) and a more stylised name band in front of a what looks like an golden V (?) (bottom 2 pictures). TELSADA is also a misspelling of the correct name, TELSALDA, and like me, many collectors make this easy error. There is only one reference to a T for Telsalda that I have found and this has been covered before on t'blog but I still reckon it's a red herring. Telsalda is a brand in its own right and not T in a Circle, which is a completely different brand. Views welcomed!

PS. a third TELSALDA logo here!

SPACEX IN MECCANO MAGAZINE 1970

Paul,

This was in Meccano magazine Jan 1970.

Sean

Fab! Thanks for sharing Sean, Woodsy! Fascinatingly it's mostly about the Spacex sets rather than the individual carded toys.

THUNDERBIRDS BOARD GAME 1993 FROM SPECTRUM STEVE

Woodsy, As I said in my comment on the "Space Attack Knock-Off set" I thought that they had been copied from the playing pieces from the Thunderbirds board game (1993 Ed.). Now that I've had a look at the enclosed images I'm not quite as sure but some changes may have occurred during the manufacture so have a look at these images and see what you think! Spectrum Steve, "Spectrum Is Green".

Thanks Steve! What do readers think? Woodsy PS. I just love the Sunprobe image on here - I really do think it resembled PF2. And get a load of the Empire State Mover! Wow! I must watch that episode again - what is it?

THE ART OF SWORD: THE SWORD FLEET ON CANVAS

Here's another view of the SWORD fleet, this time based on non-SWORD artists' impressions of spacecraft as close as I could find to the SWORD toys. This wasn't easy and the missing '?'s remain stubbornly elusive:- two of the Scouts and the Moon Ranger. I've cheated a bit on some of the others as well, having to resort to other toy box art as with the PF3 Space Bird and the Yonezawa Moon Rocket (TF1 lookalike). I've executed artistic licence as well by including a painting of Concorde to represent PF1 and a still of the Thunderbirds Sun Probe instead of PF2 but you get the general idea! I've included 2 paintings of vehicles, which are SWORD but never made it into the C21 range: the Moon Crawler and Beetle (aka Snow Train) both bottom left. Anyone fill in the blanks or do it differently? C'mon Swordheads, shake off those winter blues!

PROJECT SWORD SPACE GLIDER BOX ART AND IT'S ORIGIN

"Flying Bathtub" by Charles H. Hubble - top

Century 21 Space Glider box art - second to top

Dayfran Space Glider box art - second to bottom

Tarheel Space Glider box art - bottom

One of my ongoing fascinations are the origins of the fabulous SWORD toys box art. Much has been said about the NASA beginnings of many of the toys but it is the artistic source of the box paintings I am particularly interested in. The NASA lifting bodies have been previously blogged by Paul Vreede as the origin of the SPACEX NASA GLIDER LIFTING BODY so using this as my guide I spent several hours scouring my old space books and the internet for an artist's interpretation. Only one painting turned up, again and again, the 'FLYING BATHTUB' by Charles H. Hubbell 1966 (top picture). I now believe this to be, if not the source, then a strong influence on the Century 21 artist who gave us the PROJECT SWORD SPACE GLIDER box art in 1967 (pictured second down). This SWORD art went on itself to influence the photographic box art of the TARHEEL version (bottom picture) and was directly 'lifted' ( it is a lifting body after all!) for the artwork on the cheap DAYFRAN knockoff (pictured second from bottom). I have discovered it is possible to easilly obtain copies of Hubbell's painting, often turning up as a print on Ebay and other sales outlets. For readers interested in Hubbell there is more detail here.

COLOURFORMS AND THUNDERBIRDS KNOCKOFF SET: SPACE ATTACK

Well, the weeks work is done and its another sleepy Moonbase Suturday. Blue the dog is curled up on the couch after his morning walkies. This weeks ebayings have been posted at the local Post Office, which is always chocca on a Saturday morning for some reason. The shopping list has been drawnup and left in the expert hands of Mrs. Moonbase, who is currently executing the 'big shop' at Morrissons. Brunch will be served around 12.45: eggs, bacon, toast, coffee. Anyone coming round?

I've just been checking my auctions for this week - Crossfire, Fischer Technik, Akira art etc, which is all ending soon, and whilst browsing I came across this great modernish knockoff set, SPACE ATTACK.

As you know I love knockoffs, the more crazilly mixed-up the better. This sets a corker and mixes together 2 of my favourite Sixties toy lines: Colourforms Outer Space Men and Thunderbirds. Unlike humans and dinosaurs, it is entirely likely that these two toy ranges met many times back in the day as Collosus Rex pounded on Thunderbird 2's pod or Orbitron zapped Thunderbird 5 out of orbit! There's also a Space Shuttle thrown in, giving away the set's 80's origins but there's also a spaceship I don't recognise at all in the top right corner. The box art suggests further hybridisation with Star Wars and possibly Bravestarr? There's a Vaderesque face top left and an Imperial Shuttle right centre. All in all a great set and one I'd love in my Christmas stocking/sock or docking bay! During the summer the Philosophic Toad kindly donated the very same Alpha 7 figure (bottom left with ant antennae)  from a similar set to the Moonbase collection.

PS. I'm seeing TB5's everywhere! Is it the most knocked-off Thunderbird toy ever? There's more very Comansi-like goodies here:

Ebay US. Cool little Eagle Transporter too!

2012

Saw 2012 last night at the cinema. Wow! Captures the current mood of doom and gloom perfectly. Very schmalzy and impersonal in equal measure. Overall I enjoyed it. My friend was bored stiff. Anyone seen it?

PROJECT SWORD BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT: NON - CENTURY 21 FLEET

I've wanted to have a crack at this for a while - a complete SWORD fleet but NONE of them Century 21! It works! A lot of fun too. The 2 '?'s are SCOUTS 2 and 3 - I really can't find any toys or models remotely similar. SCOUT 1 is not a direct copy of the C21 space boat I admit - but it does the job. As there is no known Moonbase toy or a copy I have simply missed it out.

There's a nice little Xmas SWORD freebie if you can name all the toys and models in this non -21 Gallery! A completely different non-21 gallery would deserve a freebie too! Have a go!

Below is the same fleet by Century 21

AKIRA ART

A few years ago I bought a collection of original artists' stop-motion sketches from the iconic film AKIRA released in 1988. An amazing film about the boy Tetsuo and his rival Kenada, the cartoon effects were truly revolutionary and sparked the Anime/Manga craze in the west. The above painting and sketch are part of the tentacled machine scene as it emerges from Tokyo bay. There's something strange about holding original art, something other-worldly. It was someone's work, someone who may now be gone. A privelege no less.You can see the tentacled machine courtesy of You Tube (at the end), but spotting the actual moment in the sketch is nigh on impossible - its just too fast! It's funny, 80's stuff like Akira almost seem as old as the 60's now!

My entire Akira art collection is now available on Ebay.

AHI SUPER ROCKET PLANE MOONSHIP

The latest addition to my collection -

The AHI SUPER ROCKET PLANE or MOONSHIP.

I'm in love!

Farside Lunar Outpost

Its true that the devil will find work for idle hands and as ive been recuperating after minor surgery these last few days, ive been bored rigid. Consequently, having built the Imai Excavator, i started looking around for other stuff to do.

a while back, i bought some shave cream in a tub which had a transparent lid. Seeing this immediately reminded me of the command module from the Sword Moon Base. Since then, ive been looking out for similar odds and sods and the other day, I finally had time to pull the project together.
The idea was to make a Golden Astronaut scale model/toy in the style of the Sword Moonbase. The one big flaw in my plan was the LEM, building one simply would be tricky and I didnt have one of the correct scale to use. as a result, I cheated and dug out a supply rocket I'd made a few months back, from a light fitting. Its not exactly Swordlike, but fits the theme. The other parts, being basically modified cylinders, were easier. The communication module on the Sword base seems to have two conjoined units, one with a square base. I decided that I'd keep the units separately and go for a more Ed Valigursky look to the modules. Finally, as the scale of the model revolved around the ability to see the astronauts in the transparent lid of the shave container, the cargo/garage unit had to be built at a similar size, precluding the inclusion of any ground vehicles from Spacex. Still, its a bit of fun and kept me busy for a few hours!

MEGO (HONG KONG) AND CENTURY 21 TOYS

Mego (Hong Kong) made a whole range of space toys, many having been covered on the blog already. With the discovery of the Century 21 LUNA LEN this week I thought it would be interesting to cover the now two known MEGO/ CENTURY 21 clones ( I am assuming that Mego copied Century 21?)

Below

Top - MEGO Space Tract

Bottom - Century 21 Project Sword Space Glider

Below

Top - MEGO Apollo Space Man

Bottom - Century 21 Luna Len Space Robot

Anyone know of any other MEGO/C21 clones? And are there any other toys with that strange clear globe on the the rear of the Mego Space Tract Glider? And just what is a 'Tract'?

TURBO TANK: MODERN CLIMBER

The Star Wars Clone Wars Turbo Tank

A modern Lunar Climber?

Picture Ebay US

LUNAR CLIMBER ORIGIN DISCOVERED BY BLOG READER ROCKET PUNCH

The story of the LUNAR CLIMBER is a fascinating one. For Swordheads it really begins in this article below from a journal from 1969, Toys International, which clearly states that the CLIMBER is part of PROJECT SWORD.

We know now that the above journal unfortunately got it wrong. A more correct family grouping is PROJECT MOON, which this Century 21 advert from summer 1969 is sort of hinting at (whether they new it or not)

PROJECT MOON makes its official debut in adverts by Regent Toys such as this one from 1969, in which our CLIMBER has found a proper home along with its stablemate, the awesome MOONSHIP.

and below is the CENTURY 21 LUNAR CLIMBER in the flesh from 1969

Like many great space designs the Climber has clones and copies. The ASTRO CAR below (box and model) was a kit by Paramount (date?)

and PAYA of Spain made what is probably the closest relative of the Century 21 version, as its a remote controlled toy: the X-11000 pictured below - date? (courtesy of Darth)

Paya Catalogue (above)

Paya X-11000 Box (above) and toy (below)

But preceding them all is the MIDORI SUPER BEETLE. Blog reader Rocket Punch has pinned down its origin and takes up the story: Greetings Paul, since the data in Character Age Magazine was so brief I had attempted to do some additional research. The kit was originally released in November of 1967 by KSN Midori as the Super Beetle Tank. From what I learned in both the magazine and my research is that this was its initial incarnation. If you look closely you'll notice that the kit has a decal with a rhinoceros beetle. The version I was most familiar with was later (Ed.) the Paramount Astro Car. My personal intrigue with this kit is its overall appearance when completed. Unlike other Midori kits, the completed Super Beetle looks much more like a toy than a model. I've built many Midori kits and they never looked as 'toyetic' as the Super Beetle. I'm not saying this as a criticism; it's just an observation. I'm very curious about releases outside of Japan. Also the release date confirmation on the Super Beetle can be found on page 37 of Character Age. It's 11 down from the top: 1967.

Midori Box above from japansuperfantasticmodel

Midori Super Beetle as it appears in Character Age magazine (2008)

Midori Super Beetle Close-up of Character Age article

 Artwork in Character Age showing Super Beetle and many other crawlers and tanks.