What Alien Mind Was Influencing Them?

Take one Moon Base. Add one Ed 'SWORDFather' Valigursky cover [uncredited] and what do you get?

Moon Base by E.C.Tubb.

It's true! Woodsy and Wotan are alien slaves!

No really, from 1964, the plot runs thus:

"The cold war continues on the moon with the bases of each country carefully watching each other. Felix Larsen is sent to England's base to investigate reports of an attempted sabotage. What he finds is incredible. People falling a thousand feet with only minor bruising and someone with the inclination and means for suicide who is unable to commit the act. All inclinations point towards ABIC, the bases manufactured computer brain who is responsible for these events...but how and why is it doing it?" [Neil Morey]

Pedigree's JOE 90 Doll by Most Special Agent J.I.M.

Back in the Summer of 1970 I was taken to Jersey for a holiday. I still look upon it as perhaps the most lavish holiday I ever went on as a child. I had my own bed and we stayed in hotel. We went on a ship to get there too. Glamour indeed! Shame the weather didn't meet family expectations. How would a parent keep her kid happy for a few weeks in a hotel lounge (which is where we mostly spent our days!) My Mum took me to town and let me loose in a toy shop. This is a strong memory for me as I really didn't care how horrid the weather was because my Mum bought me this little fella! I also got the Century 21 Crack Shot set and a JOE 90 Colouring book too.

Yes during the Summer of 1970 I was quite the JOE 90 fan. I had grown up on the earlier shows and although I don't look upon JOE 90 as I do UFO, CAPTAIN SCARLET or THUNDERBIRDS it is still a favourite and the accompanying toys too and as a 6 year old was pretty obsessed by the show. As an ACTION MAN nut I grabbed this figure very quickly as he was kind of the right size when I used ACTION MAN as Sam Loover in table top or floor bound adventures. The figure is completely wired rather like MAJOR MATT MASON. He broke after a while and I lost the glasses. The badge remained however along with the sturdy but not TV authentic PVC suit. The style is of course very close to the design he often wore in the show but why use PVC? The long eyelashes and real hair too go toward this figure looking more like a girls toy than a boys but I loved him all the same back in 1970. This boxed example came into my collection about twenty years back and I cherish him and certainly won't lose the glasses this time which are near perfect replicas of the ones he wore in the show.

This figure gets a bad rap though from most collectors and for those interested you only need type in GERRY ANDERSON BIG BREAKFAST into a search YOU TUBE to see Gerry Anderson himself completely ripping into one of these figures when they showcased his programmes and related merchandise a decade ago. Perhaps not the quality of the CAPTAIN SCARLET doll or even the Fairylite THUNDERBIRD dolls it is still very collectible and a great example of classic merchandise from the period when Gerry ruled the airwaves, and toy shops, as far as most little boys were concerned.

Jim Lewis

TV21 Moonbase

Paul

In the same issue of TV Century 21, #41, that the Gem STINGRAY competition appeared in was this superb image. They had a whole series of real life NASA sort of stuff and thought this looked very close to the SPACEX set

Jim Lewis

Thunder Visions

Bad Bots

Me and Missus Moonbase are both full of cold at the mo and shambling round the house like zombies! Doused with a cocktail of paracetomols, vitamen c and vicks, I'm cramming for a rather important day tomorrow, whilst looking over the laptop with one sticky eye on the telly. Tim Burton's homage to Topps 1950's uber-grisly MARS ATTACKS! cards is on and the aliens are tak tak takking like mad. I love the scene when the master alien robot chases Grandma and Richie's van, whilst they play Slim Whitman's When I'm Calling You over the loudspeaker. Burton's robot is largely true to the original [above]. The Topps robot sort of reminded me of another big bad bot, the 'walking bomb' in the TV21 SWORD strip [below] from Issue 174 [GACCH]. I'm reading Asimov's Biccentennial Man at the mo and I can't help wondering where the 3 Laws went wrong with so many bad robots!

Picture courtesy of GACCH, where you can

Read about SWORD in TV21.

Firestorm

Gerry Anderson co-created this Anime series. As far as I can see it's never been shown in the UK. There's some cool 'mecha' with one looking very like the SPV. The Firestorm storyline sounds a bit like Project SWORD's fight with the casuals and the Rejects, but most Anderson plots pit a super force against super baddies don't they. Anyone seen the series?

The Devil Girl From Mars

This 1950's slice of British Sci-Fi was edited by one Gerry Anderson. There's a barmaid, a flower-pot armed robot, a UFO and a sexy devil girl! What more could a 1950's kid have asked for!

Lunar Module Darth 1

Hey Paul,

Here ya go - this is my LM that I made a few years ago! It is 1/12th scale so it also works for Major Matt Mason. The action figures you see here are the Bandai figures of Pete Conrad and Alan Bean that came out about ten years ago. As you can see I indulged myself and made an MMM package for it! The LM itself is made of styrene, brass, modeling clay, mylar, car body filler and acrylic and various appendages are made from plumbing supplies, electrical supplies, two flower pots and a yo-yo!

It stands about two feet high and 30 inches wide at the base. It has a full model aircraft lighting rig in it that makes the docking strobe flash and the navigation lights work. The two stages separate. It needs work now as it is about 11 years old and getting dusty.

Hope you like it.

Cheers

Darth

Hoover Up

Like the T Moon Bus, the notion of an earlier version of the SWORD Space Glider, a 'Northrop' version, is an exciting prospect! I got my, albeit incomplete, Glider fleet out last night and had a look for any of the tell-tale signs: 'Northrop', 'NASA' and '803'.

The version which ticks at least two of the three is the Hoover Space Glider, pictured below [courtesy of Arto]. It carries NASA livery, although different to that in the SWORD Manual or Project MOON ad. More interesting is the use of the number 803 as it's model number, appearing both on the box and the base of the toy. Coincidence? Northrop would clinch it. If you have the Tarheel, Durham or Mego versions have a look! In the meantime the search continues!

Using model numbers related to an actual vehicle or a film isn't restricted to 803. It can be seen in that other Space Glider, the remote-controlled NASA 2001 version. This carries the model number 2001 on the box.

The NORTHROP SWORD Space Glider

From top to bottom:

Trade article, TV21 ad, Manual, box,

Project Moon ad

Recently I was lucky enough to get hold of an original Joe 90 & TV21 comic containing a Project Moon ad. I've posted the ad previously courtesy of the Philosophis Toad but it's only when I studied the original that I noticed something new. The Space Glider pictured doesn't have the normal SWORD livery. In fact it doesn't say SWORD at all but NASA on the wings and most interest of all, NORTHROP along the sides [ringed in red and highlighted by me]. It also uses the number 803 we've seen before in the Official Manual illustration.

I've mapped out the illustrations I know of above, in chronological order, with the earliest at the top. Strangely there are more pictures with 803 than not, beginning and ending with them. Advertising also began with NASA and NORTHROP in the trade press in 1967 and ended with them as well as part of the de-SWORDed PROJECT MOON 1969.

This raises the fascinating question of whether a pre-SWORD Glider existed with the 803, NASA and NORTHTROP markings? I've most of the Glider variants but have never seen anything remotely like it -but is one out there? Is it only a matter of time?

Tanks for Everything

Back in the day - that being about '69 - in between stuffing my fat 8 year old face with Orbit lollies, Zooms and Skyrays, frequent trips to the corner shop were always punctuated with a peep over the counter to see what goodies sat waiting to be impulsively bought with the weekly shop. Jars of penny sweets and counter-top boxes of goodies were rolled out on a regular basis and each week when I snuck in to spend my threepenny bit, there was always something new and fascinating to buy.

Gum cards, sweet cigarettes, rubber jigglers and on one memorable occasion I discovered some tiny plastic tanks with a slice of tasty bubblegum inside. As far as I recall, there were two different turret types and three colours, a reddish pink, metallic green and steel blue. I bought dozens of them and hooked them together with their integral tow hooks. The top of the tank popped off, making a neat little treaded unit, not dissimilar to a Matt Mason Uni-Tred, so they fitted nicely in with the Spacex 00/HO spacemen too!

I gave up hope of ever seeing these tanks again, until I was cruising Mavericks cool blog: http://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/  and spotted one! Alongside it were other fabulous mini tanks from the sixties too. Maverick kindly donated these fabulous little pieces of nostalgia to the Wotan Archive and filled another niche in the collection!

Super Models

I know a lot of Dinky and Corgi cars were used in Anderson shows but did those crafty Slough boys and girls use plastic vehicles as well, bought down the local toy shop? Come to think of it did they use any of their own plastic toys from Century 21 on the TV programmes?

Ed's Mantis

Mantis

1970 Hot Wheels Redline 

For Ed!

Box Tops

All box pictures blogged previously

Century 21 Submarine Aircraft Carrier and Fairylite Fireball XL5 Rear Fins: Are They The Same?

Seeing the Stingray Submarine Aircraft Carrier again reminded me of a hunch I had a while back. Are the rear fins of the rare Century 21 Submarine Aircraft Carrier toy the same as those on the even rarer Fairylite Fireball XL5 toy?  I've blogged it before but it needed better pictures, which you see above. I guess these prove one and for all they're not the same toy part. BTW do rear fins like this have a technical NASA-esque name?

Pictures blogged previously: Aircraft Carrier - MrThunder, XL5 - Jim Lewis

NUCLEAR FERRY AND SUBMARINE AIRCRAFT CARRIER TV21 ART BY WOTAN

Following on from Grif's comment in the last post about the large rocket in the first TV21 Fireball Xl5 strip, I though it would be timely to re-post this bloglet by WOTAN first posted in April 2009 [text in italics added today by Woodsy].

From WOTAN: Going through early TV21s, I spotted an early appearance of the Nuclear Ferry in Fireball XL5 (top), almost certainly based on Bob McCalls artwork, details of which are inserted at either corner in small boxes for comparison. What are those two antennae at the top? telecommunications?

Also in the very first issue (bottom), Ron Embleton gives us the beautifully sleek Submarine Aircraft Carrier [made into a super cool toy by JR21].

You can read an in-depth look at this first XL5 strip on the definitive guide to Anderson comics, GACCH, by Shaqui Le Vesconte and Kim Stevens [our very own Philosophic Toad]

Got Wheels

Like many Sixties anklebiters I spent hours with mates and on my Jack perfecting my Corgi Rockets tracks. No chair or bookcase in the family home was safe from bright orange tracks being clamped to them to form the high starting line of the Preston Grand Prix! But it was those American 'usurpers', muscling their way in with their exposed engines and sleek lines, that went to the top of the automotive tree. Yes, I'm talking about Mattel's HotWheels. I just loved everything about them - the red lined wheels, the bubble cards and the cool thin metal badge!

One of my all-time fave HotWheels was the Beatnik Bandit [pictured on the badge above]. Straight out of Big Daddy Ed Roth's mental garage, Beatnik had the looks and the speed. Thrills were guaranteed when pitted against the Rockets Todd Sweeney! It also looked like the Spacex Cricket too!

So I was amazed when I saw a plastic version of the Beatnik car by none other than Durham, they of the One-Off Green SWORD Space Glider and neighbours of Tarheel in North Carolina. Bootiful!

Ebay US

Monkeying Around

I always thought that the SPC and the Monkeemobile were similar. Could they have been swapped in the two TV programmes without much trouble?

Agent 21 Mystery 7: JR21 Fireball XL5?

21 here. Saturday's usually a low key affair at the Moon Bureau. Luckilly the Big Boss likes to take Lady Penelope out to some swish Venutian joint in his Drab 1 [Parket get's the night off]. Just when I thought I'd get forty winks he chucked a folder on my desk. " Full report by O Eight Hundred 21!". Dratoids and craters, more work! Said folder was marked 'Level X' and 'Read It and Weep'. The only contents were one poor Xerox and a Boss post-it saying 'XL5 - JR21?'. I sent an urgent alert to all active field agents so I could get back to my well-earned snooze!

Agent Steve of Vintage Thunderbird Toys reported back in double time:

Rosenthal were only the uk licencees for these. They were made by a Italian firm, Quercetti of Torino. Steve Out.

Agent Jim Lewis added:

as I understand it in th early days of JR21 Toys they often issued foreign made toys and sold them as their own or contracted outside parties to produce on their behalf and that I think is the case here. Bob Bailey and Chris King both confirm there are no markings on either the box or toy other than "Quercetti Made In Italy". No reference to JR21 or Rosenthal at all. These reference was only made in the ads in TV21. Jim Out.

Agent Steve handily [for me] tracked down a colour Rosenthal TV21 ad online, as it appeared in TV21 no.1 page 8, on Andersonalia Guru Dennis Nicholson's wonderful TV21 Ads site [with a different address for J. Rosenthal toys! - very slippery that Jack! -  just how many did they have?]

When I hand my promotion-guaranteeing report back to BB, the icing on the cake is this fab resume of TV21 Issue 1 by ace blogger Lew Stringer on his Blimey blog. Done. My snoozing chair beckons! 21 out.

Agent Jim and his Dinky SPV

Supposedly one of the biggest selling die-cast toys of the 1960s, along with the Corgi Batmobile and James Bond Aston Martin, the Dinky SPV was a mainstay of my childhood play times particularly when I was in 'Anderson' mode. Although susceptible to paint loss like all of the toys made in this style the overall construction is sturdy and solid and as with the entire line from Dinky replicates almost exactly what kids were seeing on-screen. Dinky were known for applying the most bizarre livery to their toys but pretty much nailed the Meddings-designed SPV on the nose. !

Joe Fowlman who was a leading toy designer incorporated many ingenious gadgets into this toy largely without the use of obvious and ugly buttons. Clever suspension tricked off the front launching missile and the 'shark fin' on top was depressed to open the door and allow the drop down seat to lower a tiny Scarlet to the ground exactly as he would have done on telly. Again I am fortunate to own an un-played with version of this toy and this is how a kid would have received one in 1968. A favourite of mine as a kid and as a middle-aged kid too!

Jim Lewis.

Moon Cave Ferry

Couldn't resist!

Check out the original Sea of Tranquility moon craters here.

The stuff of dreams.

Quote Quiz

Who said this Swordheads?

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die."

Autumn Sweep Up: A Checklists Update

[Ebay 2010]

I have spent some time updating most of the brand checklists like T in a Circle, Tarheel, Hoover etc. All can be found on the menu in the right hand side-bar. Ommissions/ corrections/ variations ALWAYS welcome.

There's some new finds like the T in a Circle [Tai Hing! Can't get used to it!] Beatles Guitar, new views of the T in a Circle Amphibious Car paperwork and box-sides [pictured above] and the Tarheel Supersonic Plane. Have a gander!

The next big job is to clean up the JR21/Century 21 Checklist, add photographs and incorporate the X-series list to it. Not much then!

Agent 21 Mystery 6: Elegance Charm and Deadly Danger

Agent 21 here. Special Agent Steve over at Vintage Thunderbird Toys has sent me an urgent telegram, which I've eaten before reading! I've kept the picture as you can see and what I remember of the text is that he's discovered something about Lady Penelope and Parker and said its "A bit like that Rhubarb & Custard Probe Force 3, a bolt from the blue!". That's it. All agents can read the full file on the 21 intranet - hurry, it will self-destruct at midnight: PENELOPE AND PARKER TOP SECRET FYEO. 21 out!

Sword in SOLO Comic Issues 19 & 20 June July 1967: Better Quality Images





With hefty thanks to the Philosophic Toad

for his generosity in scanning SOLO for us all to enjoy.

Loft Property

Space Lines - well, what can I say! A 3D plastic multi-level game of naughts and crosses might just describe it's wonderment. I loved it circa 1969. The last word in futuristic play. Simple and spaced-up all in one move. Well maybe two! Three people could play at once! I had two bigger brothers so I never tasted the sweet pleasure of winning!

Later on, on my own,  I would savour the unique solitary experience that were Detecto Puzzles! Here's one I found in my attic - Murder Mountain from 1974. Read the story and solve the mystery by doing the puzzle. Work and play all in one box. Moral fibre. Puts hairs on your chest!

Classic Lion Annual Covers from Andy B

Reader Andy B has sent in these fab 1950's Lion Annual Covers. I think you'll agree they are simply cool. There's shades of TB3, Scalecraft's Aerocar and a Star Wars AT-AT in here way before their time!

Cheers Andy!