The Ride of Your Life

"Hi Paul, 

I thought I’d send in these photos - I think they’ll speak for themselves! They were taken in summer 2005 at a small funfair in a Greek village on the Halkidiki peninsula (probably Pefkochori or one village up or down from there !). Needless to say I spent sleepless nights trying to work out a way to get it back home with me, but no avail ! Hope you like the photos - maybe it’s still out there ! (incidentally, the blue robot thing in front of the Moon Crawler and behind the rather cool but unidentified - at least to me - scout/tank/thing is actually the robot from the japanese anime “Grendizer”, which was better known as “Goldorak” in Europe - hugely popular in France in the ‘70’s !).

All the best,
John Swan"

Wonderful John! What a fabulous ride! Did you have to have a go I wonder? Hee hee. It's amazing that these designs made it into funfair ride manufacturers. Wonder where they saw them in the first place? Anyone got anymore great funfair ride photies?

Incidentally I reckon the space tank is our old friend the Lunar Patroller YX-1 in the 21st Century series by Yonezawa. Waddaya reckon? Woodsy

Credit: Mark Bergin Toys

Sword Summer Art Competition

Holy Sword! Tomorrow [Sunday] I will be announcing the final competition of the Sword Summer [which lingers another few days] and you won't want to miss this one! You'll need your'e creative hats on this time and the prize is exceptionally Swordtastic! Watch this space!

Hatchett Man - We Have a Winner!

This complete and timely entry was sent in in response to the toy ID competition last week. It was entered by reader John Croot, who is rapidly becoming the competition king! Well done John! That's one super SWORD eye you've got there! A Probe Force 2 'Pop Rocket' toy will be winging its way to you next week!

Hi Paul - What an amazing photo !

I'll have a quick try at the compo - Starting on the shelf from left to right I can see a Space Glider, a Moonbus, a Moon Prospector, an Apollo Saturn rocket, a Booster rocket, another Apollo Saturn, another Booster and what could be another Prospector (it's also possible that the dark oblong between the Moonbus and the 1st Prospector on the left could be the main body of Zero X - bit of a stretch but I thought I'd mention it !). The young lad is holding what is almost certainly Probe Force 1 (but where's the box ?), the young girl has yet another Apollo Saturn, and the hostess appers to be holding what could either be Probe Force 2, but is more probably one more Apollo Saturn.

Having said that,it might just be a generic ray gun (even a Century 21 Captain Scarlet Dart Gun or water pistol - but probably not the Cap Gun !).In case I can get a bonus for the boxes - in front of the boy from top to bottom - Booster Rocket (Maybe?) Space Glider (must be from the shape), Booster Rocket again (?), Apollo Saturn (very clear), and from the table - top to bottom -Moon Bus (very clear), Apollo Saturn (clear), possibly another Moonbus (I'd say Scramble Bug but they don't seem to have the toy )and then to the right of the pile at the bottom is probably another Booster Rocket (judging by the shape and size ). There might be something to the left of the bottom box on the table pile, but I think that's just a part of the table (or possibly even a Sword Manuel from one of the boxes !).

Odd that there's such a small selection of the range (keep trying to match each one up to the box they have) but that was probably the way publicity was done back in the day !It's a great photo that backs up the Sword/2001 Space Odessey link from the annual, and like you I did a double take when I saw the hatchet logo ! It would be wonderful to see it at a higher quality - I wonder if the original negative is in the files of a newspaper or magazine office somewhere like "Time Out" or "London Standard" as it's possible Hatchetts sent out copies for publicity.Anyway - hope my entry looks good - the art on those prizes is really great ! Hope I'm in with a chance!

All the best and keep up the good work - John Croot

Summer X-tra: It's Ideal

As you know I'm a sucker for possible origins of space toys and box art. Waiting for our Friday curry delivery I browsed past auctions on Liveauctioneers. Well guess what! Take a gander at the JR21 X-60 Space Rocket on Launching Truck [top picture] we know and love and compare it with what is it's first appearance on the blog, the yellow Ideal Space Fighter Transport XP-19 (made of molded plastic) [very bottom of picture]. What do you think?

Bottom picture - both Ideal toys [top one unknown to me] - Liveauctioneers

Summer Supplement: Prospecting the Moon: a Popular History of the Term 'Moon Prospector'

Like the term 'Moon Bus', 'Moon Prospector' has always fascinated me. It has a great ring to it and a hint of a lunar goldrush! So where did it come from? It's probable that it's very first appearance lies buried somewhere in NASA files when the US Army and JPL first designed a Prospector around 1958 as mentioned on this JPL Timeline. Having skimmed through the more scientific literature accessable to Moonbase - Rob Godwin's excellent Lunar Scrapbook, Swift's Space Flight Book [thanks WOTAN] etc - I can't find any reference to the 'exact' term where both words are together. Being a bit of a romantic I would like to think that it was actually the artistic community who first gave us 'Moon Prospector'. Possibley the most famous use of the term and the first one I saw online over 10 years ago is the 'Moon Prospector' short story appearing in Analog in April 1966 [below].

Written by William B. Ellern with wonderful cover art by renowned space artist Frank Kelly Freas, Ellern, fascinatingly had worked previously for JPL! Ellern is discussed in abundance online such as DDB's page, which includes a comment from Ellern himself in 2001. But it's the link the story has to E.E.Doc Smith's Lensman books that creates the most interest. Doc Smith gave Ellern permission to base Moon Prospector in the Lensman world in 1965, which you can see in writing on Ethan Fleischer's wonderful Lensman site, which sets out the publishing history of Ellern's short story [I love that it later became 'Moon Inspector' in 1975!]. I have never read any Lensman and I wonder if it sits well with the SWORD world? And are there any Lensman toys?

In July 1968 another short story, 'Masks,' appeared in Playboy. By sci-fi author Damon Knight, it describes an experimental being's plight.

There are some amazing passages including what could be a description of a Century 21 box artist! :

"He sat down at the drafting table, clipped a sheet of paper to it and with a pencil began to sketch a rendering of the moon-prospector design. When he had blocked in the prospector itself, he began to draw the background of craters. His pencil moved more slowly and stopped; he put it down with a click."

You can read 'Masks' in it's entirety on mystic Ran Prier's site. It's short so doesn't take long but be warned, there is a particularly grim description of killing a dog [never popular with me]. Overall I found it haunting and love the very final line, which could be straight out of SWORD!

 

But before all of these creative talents came another 'Moon Prospector'. Burt Schonberg [1933-1977] was an artist and mystic living and working in California during the 50's, 60's and 70's. His unique style of mosaical painting is infused with cosmic themes. In 1965 using 'casein on masonite' and 'commissioned by a private California Corp' Shonberg painted the startling and beautiful 'Moon Prospector' [below], as it appears on the site 'The Art of Burt Schonberg' in the 'paintings' section. I particularly love his 'Napkin Art' and the 1950's Jazz ambience of the 'Frankenstein Cafe' in the 'Photographs' section - well worth a look and a great homage to the late mystical artist, very much a man of my own heart!

BurtShonberg.Com

This then, Shonberg's painting, I believe to be the first 'popular' usage of the term 'Moon Prospector', albeit for a limited audience in 1965.It's likely that Ellern's 1966 story in Analog will have first brought it to the attention of a mass readership and, like Arther C.Clarke's 'Moonbus' in 'A Fall of Moondust', a sci-fi based one at that and one in which a young Century 21 toy designer/artist found himself seeding the idea for a our very own plastic Moon Prospector a year later in 1967 perhaps?

To finish my own 'prospecting' of this rich cyber vein, I give the last word to Damon Knight and the haunting  written image at the very end of his 1968 'Masks':

"The prospector was climbing a crater slope with its handling members retracted and its head tilted up. Behind it the distant ringwall and the horizon, the black sky, the pin-point stars. And he was there, and it was not far enough, not yet, for the Earth hung overhead like a rotten fruit, blue with mold, crawling, wrinkling, purulent and alive."

Damon Knight 1922-2002

All The Birds of the Air

SCORCH AND WOMBAT

SCORCH GLOBAL ATTACK BOMBER LOADS UP

BLUEBIRD ZERO HOUR AIR FLEET

During the toy boom of the eighties, when action figures and playsets had really captured the imagination of kids everywhere, english toy company Bluebird rolled out a line of oo/ho soldiers and craft called Zero Hour. As far as I recall, this was a basic goody v baddy scenario with the Zero Hour troops fighting an international terrorist ring known as B.A.D Brigade. Bluebird were previously known for the Manta Force toys, another large ship chock full of smaller vehicles like the Tbird pod series. Mostly, Zero Hour was standard military fare, tanks, jeeps, boats and planes. The BAD Brigade stuff was converted civil vehicles such as buses, planes and boats. Mostly unremarkable and not really sci-fi in style, Zero Hour did however include some nicely styled aircraft. Among these were various delta winged jets, a small Snipe fighter with HIMAT  wings and a larger bomber with piggyback fighter.Most impressive and possibly rarest of all was the massive Scorch Global Attack Bomber. This was a big 50cm toy, with opening hatches, firing missiles and a large interior bay. Originally it came with a tank, two parasite fighters and a score of troops. Im a big fan of Zero Hour and have just managed to add this beast to my collection and am in the process of trying to restore it. What struck me almost immediately was its similarity to the giant carrier aircraft from Thunderbirds, the Wombat. The shot above comes from Keith McNeills amazing model site. I wonder if the designers of Bluebird drew on the models of Thunderbirds for their inspiration ? Bluebird was swallowed up by toy giant Mattel shortly after the release of Zero Hour, which was marketed stateside as Count Zero. Incidentally, the Zero Hour Air Fleet is led by an interloper - the little red and silver plane is actually a vintage pencil sharpener!

Pop Rocket Mystery Deepens

Some six months ago, I came across a bagged toy that I had as a kid, the little plastic Pop Rockets that Commander Woods offered recently as a prize. In themselves, they are a great little reminder of those far off summer days in the sixties when space and rockets adorned everything. Sweetshops were overloaded with cheap toys and novelties with bubble gum inside. It was rare to find something like this still in the packet and with the card header still intact. What really drew my attention was the colourful drawing of the Probe Force 2, garishly printed on the card along with two other spaceships, loosely representing the toys in the bag.

Apart from a large rocket dominating the card, somewhat based on the Titan with a little Polaris missile thrown in for good measure, theres another ship blasting away in the background. To all intents, this is just another spaceship, but seeing it jarred a memory. Round about 1970, when I was bought a different cheap Hong Kong toy every week by my fabulous parents, I got a cool friction drive rocket in lieu of that weeks comics. This was a large toy, maybe 12" long - definitley on a par with Probe Force 2. Wheels were very similar, with embossed spokes and the body was plastic. Ive created a rough impression of how it looked - the back end was very XL5 ish and the front was a long white cylinder with clear cockpit and pilot. The red nose had a plastic 'needle' in it, supported by an elastic band behind it, so that it would retract on hitting and obstacle. The side wings had SB 3 or SB 2 stencilled on and the box was colourfully decorated with the name 'SpaceBird'. Since that day up to seeing the card header, Ive never seen another. The picture on the card was clearly based on this toy as its exactly as I remember the toy. Does this ring any bells with anyone ? I cant recall a brand - although it was not any of the usual 'Anderson' makers.

3031 MAY ARRIVE EARLY..

Part of the main premise of Project Sword as featured in the annual is that a massive global killer asteroid collides with Earth in the year 3031. Unfortunately for us, life may actually imitate art. A report published in the Icarus Journal suggests that:

The total impact probability of asteroid RQ36′ can be estimated in 0.00092 – approximately one-in-a-thousand chance , but what is most surprising is that over half of this chance corresponds to the year 2182.  The Virtual Impactors (VIs) have been searched which are are sets of statistical uncertainty leading to collisions with the Earth on different dates of the XXII century. Two VIs appear in 2182 with more than half the chance of impact. Asteroid RQ36′ is part of the Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHA), which have the possibility of hitting the Earth due to the closeness of their orbits, and they may cause damages. This PHA was discovered in 1999 and has around 560 meters in diameter.

So don't buy and LP's...

DARK STAR BROUGHT TO LIGHT

After Woodsys post on the film Dark Star and the following picture of the Telsada Rocket ship, I was struck by the resemblance between the ships - both very 'boatlike' and minimal. Ron Cobb, one of the best illustrators and conceptual designers in the world, initially sketched the basis of the ship on a napkin during lunch with O'Bannon. Ron Cobb has had a hand in the design and production of many of the great sci-fi films and is also a prolific cartoonist. What I like about Cobb is his attention to real world, bolt-on detail. The few scrrenshots available of the DS dont give much away and the somewhat amateurish nature of production on the film doesnt hel to show the ship in any good light. Stargazer Models did briefly produce the Dark Star as a resin kit, but this is now sadly unavailable. It does however show the drive and rear portions of the ship a little more clearly. Its obviously missing the observation dome off the top where one of the crew watches the passage of a radiant meteor swarm.

Summer of Sword Space Discovery: Telsalda Rocket Firing Space Car

Every now and then whilst browsing old toy sites online I stumble across something completely new to me that sends a shiver up the mainframe! This is one of them. What sadly appears to be a dead site [are we all destined for the cyber graveyard?] Killjoy does have some great toys and amongst them is the amazing Rocket Firing Space Vehicle by Telsalda. Amazing! It reminds me of so many other toys: SWORD Space Glider and Scout 3, the JR21 Stingray Aircraft Carrier and the Spacex Nuclear Freighter. There's no information about its size but it looks as though it would sit well with SWORD. In fact it could be Taskforce 4! Has anybody got this fabulous Telsalda toy?

It also reminds me of the rare MMF Space Boat posted last year [space boat box and white boat pictured below].

Pictures: Killjoy and Vectis

PS. the Rocket Firing Space Car box art also reminds me of the simple lines and red/white colour scheme of the JR21 XL9 below

Credit: Ferryman

Dark Star

This week I plan to watch a film I've just never seen, John Carpenter's Dark Star. I've been aware of it for years and had it in my video collection for ages. I'm currently reading the film tie-in novel Aliens by Alan Dean Foster and it's put me in the mood for some classic sci fi. Anyone seen Dark Star?

[Disaster = Dark Star?]

TWO T'S PLEASE

I recently saw a variation of the normal Tarheel logo on an American Moon Prospector box. The logo most of us are familiar with will be the T with the Globe. The variation is the more unusual T with two children behind it [what I call T with Kids]. I've placed both logo panels together for easy comparison below. You can see that the 'with kids' version [left] has dropped all reference to Project SWORD, which we see clearly in the T Globe panel. Is it fair to assume that this 'with Kids' box  is a later version, which lingered on after interest in SWORD waned in the US?

 

and here's the two different boxes in full

Anybody else got any other T with Kids Tarheel SWORD toys?

Probing Around

Posting those Pop Rockets again got me thinking. I reckon the Century 21 box art images of Probes 1 and 2 are the only ones that have ever been lifted and used on NON-Sword/Anderson items - as you can see below [the 'lifters' removed the SWORD livery at least]. Just Probe Force 3 missing on something somewhere. Or?

Above: Randy Rayder record by See Disc with it's 'FM ATHENA' rocket lifted from the PF1 box beneath.

Below: Unbranded 'Pop Rocket's with a straight lift of the PF2 image from the box below.

What are those other rockets and missiles on the pop rocket header card? Anyone know?

Summer of SWORD Hatchett's ID Competition

OK, here's one of the final Summer of SWORD competitions. And this one has a prize too! So you can't afford to miss it! Early on in the blog's life bloggers Toad and Darth at the time sent in info like the magazine clipping below about an obscure SWORD toy display at Hatchett's Night Club in London during the 1960's. It was all part of a joint promotion with the Kubrick 2001 movie running at the time.

 

Here's the picture a bit bigger.

So, the competiton: the first reader to email me [here] with a list of all the toys in the above picture [and locations in the picture please] will recieve one of the rare Pop Rockets shown below with it's cool PROBE FORCE 2 header card! Phwoarrr! Don't send in answers via comments please guys as this just make's it easier/ less fun for everyone else! Get to it Swordheads! Closing date this Saturday 31st July at noon!

[colours may vary]

Summer of Sword Nostalgia Trip Comp

This was my favourite Board Game when I was a nipper.

What was it?

What was Yours?

Your Toast

Since re-watching V for Vendetta the other week I have been ruminating over exactly what said Mr. V cooked in his frying pan and which [or 'sand which!'] recieved the the exclaimation 'Mmmm delicious' from his partner in crime. Having just googled this it would appear that I am not alone and the film sparked a world-wide interest in his small fried repast. On viewing the movie I thought it was a piece of toast covered in syrup or marmalade with a peach inserted into it, all warmed up in a frying pan [I should invent it!]. I don't know, it sort of looked very sweet. But sadly I was way of the mark. It's actually buttered bread with a hole cut out into which an egg is poured and the whole thing is slowly fried on both sides [V flips his like a pancake meister!]. What I mistook to be syrup/marmalade was in fact butter and/or fried egg yolk. It appears to have a variety of names around the globe: Egg in a Basket, Toad in the Hole [not in the UK, where this requires batter and sausages!] and Yoast. Variations appear where no hole is cut and the egg is simply laid [not literally of course, which would require great aim!] on the toast [Bullseye?]. My own family favourite when I was a wee anklebiter was Egg Bread [Lancastrians didn't go in for fancy titles!], where white bread was dipped in whisked eggs and fried and any leftover mixture being heartily poured over! In posher circles this is French Toast or in Germany Arme Ritter [Poor Knight]. What's your egg bread favourite?

Summer Sundae Caption Comp

What's this Bug Pilot saying to himself?

Mars Stars

Space is on the summer grapevine this month. I recieved an email saying that Mars will appear as big as the Moon on August 27th. Sounding like a scene from 'When Worlds Collide' I naturally checked it out. Alas it turns out to be an inflated story on an annual loop with a tiny grain of truth at its core. Mars does fly close to us every 2 years but not that close and not this year. Or?

I also picked up the 'the largest body in the Universe' had been found! I can't find any current intel on this online. It depends what 'body' means? As far as I'm aware the biggest 'body' in space is Antares? Or?

 

Gerry Anderson's Eternity

This clip looks superb. I love the 5 mile long freighters. The score is haunting. Anyone know what happened to Eternity?

I canna Give Yer Any More Power C'ptain

I'm currently watching Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country on the box and enjoying it so far. It's billed as the last outing of the original crew of the Enterprise. It's sort of coming back to me just how important Star Trek was to me and my mates back in the late 60's and 70's. The aliens were brilliant and the title music unforgettable. Certain episodes just stayed with me: The Trouble with Tribbles, Amok Time, the one where Kirk fights the Gorn and the one with Apollo at his Temple. All classic. the cartoon series that followed was far too wooden in style but it kept the faith and I enjoyed it as well. There's Life down there Jim!

Cape Kennedy Countdown Caper

A while ago I posted a link to a US Saturn V toy on Ebay. I didn't think much more about it until the thought popped into my head - what if that toy was the basis of the Century 21 Cape Kennedy Set? The US toy [possibley a model kit] was by 'Countdown Inc.' and allegedley from 1966, placing it a good year before the 1967 release of the Century 21 toy. We've seen before here that Century 21 most likely used the Sears Apollo rocket design/moulding for their own SWORD Apollo [blogged 2008], so is it concievable that they did the same here. From what I've read Countdown Inc were set up specifically to sell models and toys at Cape Kennedy in 1966, so might someone in the Century 21 toy camp have been there and returned with the kit? Who knows but I sorta like the sound of it. Anyways here are the two toys side by side - Countdown Inc on the left and Century 21 the right [not to scale]. Further comparisons of size and baseplate detailing may shed further light on this. Their is clearly a crane missing from the top of the Countdown gantry. Wonder what the box was like?

Above, Rockets comparison: C21 left, Countdown right [not to scale].

Below is the baseplate detail on the Countdown Inc toy:

And another example of Countdown Inc merchandise with a box. Was this plain box style the one that the Countdown Gantry and Apollo came in too? Anyone got one boxed?

Countdown Inc didn't just do space toys. Here's on of their 1969 space plaques [Ebay US]. Their story is fascinating and covered in various places on the web. They appear often to be the cause of much debate on modellers fora and you can still trade with them today albeit in a different name of Award Shoppe!

COVER UP

This has got to be the most unintentionally hilarious story title ever! And just what is happening on the cover!

We've Got Your Number

I was recently sorting through some old Spacex toys and I noticed that, for example, the P3 Helicopter, had a model number on it. But only a few of my loose toys do. Any of you Spacexers know what the score is with these?

Summer of Sword Final Week

The Summer of Sword is nearly over! One more week to go including:
1. Final Installment of Story One of Project SWORD in SOLO
2. Special Features on the Moon Crawler, Moon Prospector and more
3. Grand Finale SWORD art competition to be judged by Century 21 Modelmaker Alan Shubrook! You won't want to miss it!

Probing the Sound Barrier

I love this clip off You Tube showing the development of the Supersonic plane, the SST, which we've talked about before as the likely inspiration for Probe Force 1. The grainy animation style reminds me of those cool 1960's Saturday morning cartoons like Spider-Man and the Arabian Knights!

Colour out of Space

Following my earlier query about the strange plastic Spaceman on the blog, the ever resourceful Maverick has pointed out that the little guy was made by Res Plastics of Italy, a company which also distributes its own toy products as well as supplying the neat little toys inside those sickly chocolate eggs. Not content with showing just the origin of the original astronaut, Mav has provided a whole legion of similar figures. Unfortunately, Kinder egg toys rarely come with any kind of a name or description unless its the ridiculous cartoon character series they seem to favour of late, so the spaceman must remain unamed for now! However, he does keep some very colourful company.

The Summer of SWORD continues: SOLO Issue 23 22nd July 1967

courtesy of the Toad

Black Hole Sun

Lost in Forever

Cruising in a Moonship I leave the liquid Earth.

A Dolphin breaches to catch a glimpse of it's tail.

It dives as I squint against the glass. Gone.

I set a course for Titan.

It's summer. I've finished work. Time for Poetry! Contributions welcomed!

KINDER BARADA NIKTO

The great thing about this blog is that it occasionally throws up a curve ball with an unknown toy appearing that needs identification. A good case in point is this little plastic chap, who has been flagged up to me by blog reader Adi. He's as much in the dark as I am about his history, but tells me that the figure is just under 3 inches tall and has articulated limbs. His helmet is clearly removable, as is his 'mace'. My initial response was that he may have appeared in a Ferrero Kinder Egg, as I have had similar figures before, but they tend to be made by Giodi. This little chap has a mark on his foot of the letter 'RP' enclosed in a circle.

Anyone got any clues ?

Inception

Based on excellent clips of crumbling cities and a pounding soundtrack I went to see 'Inception' last night. Clever idea, stealing secrets in dreams, but the execution was tedious. The film was padded out with countless pointless shoot-em up scenes and a frustrating and mystifying love-interest. The characters were hollow and by the end, which came far too late, I'd forgotten why they were there and didn't care anymore. Over-hyped and dissapointing.

Summer Special: It's Astounding Science Fiction!

Just occassionally I dig into stuff which I get genuinely excited about. This is one of those times. I first came across Astounding Science Fiction [aka Anolog] magazine way back in the early days of the UK web when browsing for 'Moon Prospector'! WOTAN is similarly a fan and blogged previously about it. My interest in the magazine was re-kindled this summer of SWORD when I recently acquired a copy of the magazine, which was clearly a 'British' edition [more on my own copy in a later blog]. This got me thinking. Was there a 'British' cover of the US 1966 Lensman 'Moon Prospector' edition [below]?

Sadly not, as I discovered, as there were only a limited run of these 'British' covers from the 1930's to the early 1960's. I began to look into them and so begins a tale. I already knew about the 'Moon Crawler' cover from similar 'googlings' with WOTAN way back, but I what didn't know is that this one of the US editions re-printed in the UK with a 'British' cover. Both can be seen below [US right, 1962; British left, 1963]. As we've discussed before, this image was most likely an influence on the SWORD Moon Crawler art in the 1969 Annual [below] and the fact that a British version would have been available to Century 21 artists make's this even more plausible [did the Crawler appear in TV21?].

In 1963 another beautiful 'SWORDesque' cover appeared on a US edition, that of a Dyna Soar [below] but for some reason this did not re-appear with a British cover in what was to become the final year of these British editions. You can read the cover story "The Trouble with Tel Star" by John Berryman online!

 

But possibley the best SWORD -ish connection came much earlier in the 'British' run when the magazine was still called Astounding Science Fiction. The year was 1945 with a startling cover story called 'Killdozer', which bears a remarkable resemblance to the SWORD Moon Ranger box art! The British edition appears below [left] next to the earlier 1944 US original with the 1967 box for comparison.

I was fascinated to read on a wonderful site called 'Jaunting the Aether' that like SWORD box artists, the artists who painted the British edition covers are also unknown unlike the US cover artists, who were all well-known painters. For example, the 'Moon Prospector' was by Frank Kelly Freas, the 'Moon Crawler' by John Schoenherr and 'Killdozer' by William Timmins. I contacted the author of the 'Jaunting the Aether' site, Dave Wood, to find out more. Sadly I recieved the following response:

"Paul, thanks for your kind words...! Sadly, Dave died a few years ago, and I maintain the Astounding page in his memory. I don't think anyone would object if you used some of the images, but please credit them to Dave, mention their origin, and include a link to the Jaunting page.Best regards, Bill Burns".

As such I dedicate this article to Dave Wood, whose inquisitive mind and creativity made it possible. A kindred spirit on a great quest for sure, someone I would have like to have known. The 'Moon Crawler' and 'Killdozer' US/British pairings shown above are both from Dave's site. Check it out for many many more!

 

The US artists are well-documented on the net and this is probably the best site, ASF Covers. To conclude, is it possible that the British versions of ASF/ Analog, like Look and Learn, were known to the Century 21 box artists {whose identity is still a mystery]? I give the final word to the late Dave Wood who faced the same conundrum, when reseaching British ASF "..neither I, nor any of my "helpers" have been able to get even a sniff of who the British copyists were."