As I had been a particularly good boy last year Santa Sword saw fit to bring me the IMAI BOX ART of Komatsuzaki Shigeru book this Xmas just gone. Choc full of stunning paintings, there are also some fabulous renditions of SWORD vehicles and in particular the SURVEYOR. There is also a Japanese webpage dedicated to the artist (use the google translate button). Despite a whole section in the book on Thunderbirds, it's on the boxart for UFO KITS where SWORD vehicles show up. Is UFO the right setting for SWORD? Why not Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet?
That is a great book! I own it myself. Personally, I think SWORD designs fit in reasonably well with UFO.
ReplyDeleteYes, I guess they could fit in with UFO just as well as with, say, Captain Scarlet or Thunderbirds.
ReplyDeleteCould it simply be that they wanted to "flesh out" the UFO range, and the SWORD-like vehicles were a good, easily licensable range?
I suppose Thunderbirds was largely earthbound whereas SWORD was a space fleet. But Scarlet even mentions an Operation Sword. But was there enough space action for a SWORD fleet to be involved? Maybe UFO was the only option? Space 1999 came too late.
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