Now that the sun is shining on us once again here in the UK I have begun to re-discover my space toy books, which I started with Kitahara's 'Yesterday's Toys' in 1989. Ten years later in 1999 I purchased 'Vintage Toys' by Bunte, Hallam and Mueller and published by Krause. Included in the 1960's section is the above entry for the SWORD Moon Ranger. It's a very interesting read! See what you think.
"Moon Ranger is a low valued toy" ? try telling that to ebay!
ReplyDeleteThe text seems to be speculation written as fact.
ReplyDeleteSean
What a simply awful piece of "research" by Bunte, Hallam and Mueller. Is this typical of the publication?
ReplyDeleteThe writers do seem rather uninformed on the subject. Low valued toy indeed.
ReplyDeleteIt is one of life's mysteries that - certainly within the collecting world - some of those who get book deals, are the least knowledgeable, and often have not contributed to the wider hobby prior to publication,
ReplyDeleteI think here of the recent book on Tonka I read, which was an endless stream of financial quotes and production figures from someone who had clearly inherited a box of old paperwork from the factory and cobbled in together in a book.
Or some of the staff 'reporters' used by Collectors Gazette, who's little page fillers are either full of errors, or tame, without any new or juicy bits, despite your having told them the correct fact's yourself, when they 'pumped' you for information while pretending to be interested in buying something they then walked away from (you know who you are!).
And - as I seem to be shedding a bit of bile here - How about attacking every-bodies hero - Ward. First book; Chatty and interesting, so...'Oh I'll write one on other kit manufacturers', proceeds to miss 90% of all manufacturers, write error-littered thumbnail sketches on the other 10% while filling the first 40 pages (nearly half the book) with more Airfix. Then announces another book on Airfix! How much can you write about the most documented company on the internet?
Mutter....mutter....
'Offeiz'...a kind of gravelly aggregate formed in thousand-year-old land-fills.
The Moon Ranger entry is so interesting as it highlights just how murky SWORD's past is for us poor collectors. In this case the facts are all jumbled up creating a brand new mythology. Top of the list is Project SWORD being a TV series that 'never got picked up', indeed a 'failed program'. I wish! Many of us would willingly sell our homes for a mere glance at cuttings from the floor of such a series. But alas, twas not a TV victim. Next up is Century 21 Toys 'likely a spin-off of Anderson's own production company'. More than likely! Yes, certainly! This would have been easy to find out in 1999. Moving onto the interesting statement 'marketing them for what appears to be two years, beginning in 1967....'. 1967 is quite right as the beginning, as SOLO launched SWORD in the summer of that fine year, but as most of the toys were available as well it's hard to see what the author's meant by 'marketing ..for two years'. Century 21 were marketing and selling them at the same time! Finally it's hard to see why the author's would think the Moon Ranger the most common SWORD toy, an accolade which must surely go to either the Space Glider or the Moon Prospector (although I'm basing this on surviving toys in the collecting market and not sales during 1967-69). Even though the Moon Ranger is one of my favourite SWORD designs it's difficult to agree with them that it was one of the 'major vehicles in the program'. The top tier of SWORD are surely the big guns like the Ferry, the Cape Kennedy Set, Booster Rocket and Apollo Saturn. The last line is like a SWORD epitaph and a rallying cry for obscure toy geeks everywhere! Bring it on!
ReplyDeleteSorry Guy's, I was on a bit of a downer this afternoon! But it does annoy me!
ReplyDelete'Pinge'...a small, pink, rodent eating flower.
No need to apologise, surely? It is annoying. Many, many times, I've seen articles of the kind you mention. And you are probably right about the Ward books. I'll be honest and admit I read little of the text and mostly look at the pictures.
ReplyDeleteI hope the low spirits have passed by the time you read this.