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.
Great stuff! Have you noticed how much the "space freighter" in the first Fireball XL5 story looks like a SWORD Nuclear Freighter?
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