Top of The Year 2010

HEY SWORDIES! THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT, CONTRIBUTIONS, CAPTIONS, JOKES AND GENERAL SWORDINESS DURING 2010!

You're all invited to the Moonbase New Year Cyber-party!

[if I've missed anyone in the piccy, apologies, I ran out of piccy people!]

So, what's your midnight tipple going to be?

KEEP ON SWORDIN'

WOODSY

SWORD Patrol 2

Always on the lookout for a decent sea-worthy SWORD boat, my friend Leo [monte-firu on Ebay] provided me with these pics of an Argentinian gunboat by Revirplas you can see above [top three pics]. It's got everything: cool sleek styling, yellow deck, two Apollo Moon Exploring-like missiles, an eccentric dome and an concave oblong radar rather like that SCOUT 1 [bottom]. The box art is pretty cool as well with what on first glance appears to be a Dyna Soar in the sky [top pic], but on close inspection it isn't I don't think [in close-up third pic down]. Nonetheless spacey cool!

Silver Thingies

With the Christmas cake mostly eaten and New Year round the corner, I'm enjoying a brief spell of normality and browsing Ebay. Looking at a 2001 Space Glider [top pic] currently on offer, it reminded me of some other space toys. I've searched the blog for them and featured them all together above: Spacex Rescue Craft [middle pic] and a group shot of various spacecraft including Scout 1 [bottom]. I think it was the silver exhausts of the 2001 Glider and the Spacex Rescue Craft [small painted picture], which I found similar but seeing them now they're aren't really!

Pictures: Ebay and Wotan

New Art by Andy B

TF1 by Andy B

Probe Force Tree

Zooming Round the Christmas Tree in Probe Force 3!

inspired by the conifer-like background of the Tarheel Probe Force 3 box art

[flat template courtesy of Canadian reader Graeme Walker]

Gift Tags for Toad and Ed

For EvilEd - a film I've never seen but looks great

For Toad - pond warrior princess

[model: starship modeller 2005]

Mist -O- Matic Merry Christmas Card

One year in the mid- Sixties the Christmas Cards I gave to my Mum and Dad and Sibs were made easy by one of my fave toys that year: Mist-O-Matic, a sort of paint spray tray that created a mist of colour, which covered templates and left shapes on pieces of card. My top Xmas card design was the Santa head above, which I would recognise anywhere. A 'spin-off' of the better known Spiro-Matic, Mist-O-Matic is easilly in my top ten [non-space] toy list. Wotan and I waxed lyrical about this and other paint toys earlier on the blog. What we have still never managed to find is a picture of another Sixties classic paint toy, Paint Witch, which were a sort of witch hat topped thick pens. They were so cool. Anyone got a picture?

Xmas Bank Holiday Tuesday Selection Box

Super Modeller David Sisson's early 1980's cine-8 film full of great model space vehicles - watch all the parts on You Tube

Short YTube promo film of Mike Trim's 2006 art book 'The Future Was Fab', which I was lucky enough to find under the tree this year!

Original Sixties Cinema trailer for Thunderbirds Are Go movie courtesy of YT

Original Japanese Imai Zero X model kit TV ad courtesy of Mickey Bister [YT]

Lemme know if there's any other You Tube clips you think I should post up!

All Wrapped Up

Funny how tastes change. Virtually everything Christmassy that baby boomer babies grew up with in the 1960's is probably classed as 'Kitschy' or even worse, 'cheesey', these days - like plastic Xmas ornaments, Cribs, multi-coloured fairy lights and chocolate or even wooden Yuke Logs. But the things I associate most with my tender years right up into the Seventies were those wonderful rolls of thin colourful Xmas paper with fabulous designs like the ones shown, both found online [more here].

Gifts were lovingly wrapped and taped together with equally colourful rolls of sticky tape emblazoned with holly, Christmas puddings or Santa's! Cheesey? maybe but of it's time and for me important memories. The designs on the paper were often mirrored on beautiful Christmas Cards and gift tags depicting paintings and drawings of Victoriana like Horses and Carraiges, Carol Singers under Gas Lamps, Robins and Fifties motifs of Santa's Sleighs, Holly, Baubles and Snowmen. I remember many cards being glittered and scattering their tiny jewels around the house before being pegged to lines of string with titchy plastic dolly pegs! Now relegated to Kitsch, these things were our childhood, are our memories and at least for me, have been the spirit of all the Christmasses that followed.

I Wish it Could Be Christmas Every Day

Hi Swordies. Hope you had a very happy Christmas. Boxing Day has been and gone and life is insisting on normality again but I'm resisting hard. No-one at Moonbase having to be at work today or tomorrow helps so we're still in our pyjama bottoms and basically lounging around watching Xmas TV, sewing and, well, I'm blogging right now! The last of the festive meats have been scoffed and there's no cranberry sauce left. All we have is a huge assortment of crisps, nuts, chocolates and pickled onions. Party food! We'll survive on them until someone goes for more supplies!

Sat amidst the tinsel and piles of opened prezzies inevitably takes me back to Christmas's past at Moonbase Junior in Ye Olde Lancashire of my youth.

We made snowmen and lanterns at school from toilet rolls and filled them with smarties and dolly mixtures! Is is even legal?

  Mum got Yardley perfume and my two Sisses got Charlie!

My big hairy bruvvers got Soap on a Rope

and Hai Karate After Shave for when they too hairy!

My old Dad got an Old Spice Shaving Mug and Brush and all the adults drank brightly coloured drinks like Cherry B or Warninks Advocaat.

and a couple of toys I got that I've literally just remembered were a plastic toy pneumatic road drill [modern version above] and a battery operated ping pong ball throwing machine, which blasted ping pong balls at you for whacking with a plastic baseball bat! Funny how the grass is always greener even as a Kid though. Even with my Johnny Seven and Secret Sam Spy Case I wanted what only my cousin Andrew had - the Strange Change Machine all the way from the US of A with an american plug. Below's the 1967 TV Ad as well coutesy of YT! God, how I wanted that toy, but it was never to be!

What are your vintage Christmas memories?

X BOXING

Dreaming of Christmas 1967 unwrapping my Century 21 Zero-X and playing with it all day on Boxing Day, I realised that my Folks didn't take any photographs of me and my SWORD toys back then. Drat! Looking round for inspiring Zero-X fan photo's, I found this cool YT clip from Japan of what I assume is the Imai kit [?], which does look rather splendid I must say!

Has anyone else got any Xmas [or otherwise] photo's [or cinefilm!] of themselves with their favourite SWORD SPACEX toys from the 1960's [or even now!] ?

I Saw Three Ships

Nuclear Star

Ferry Christmas!

Hope you're all enjoying your Boxing Day wherever you are in this big World

from an original 1960's drawing first seen at the wonderful Dreams of Space blog.

MERRY CHRISTMAS SWORDIES!

Hope you weren't on Santa's Naughty List!

Supercar Super Collection Sold!

The Mike Mercury Collection of Supercar items went up for sale on the 21st December at Bonhams. Did anyone join in the auction? What great Christmas prezzies they'll make! I hope the online Museum keeps going though!

Christmas Lunar C

One toy remains stubbornly elusive to this blog - the awesome Lunar Climber. Eagle-eyed reader Paul Vreede recently spotted this distant cousin of the toy, the Climbing Space Vehicle, in a Gambles catalogue for sale on Ebay [Borzoibooklady] above. Below is the full page, which also featured a Robot and a Circus Train, both I reckon were Tarheel.

And this Christmas someone maybe very happy. The Paya Lunar Climber, below, for sale at Guy Antiques has been sold! I've been oggling it for years but it was too dear for me. Drat! Maybe a reader has a surprise prezzie waiting under the Crimbo tree!

Another cool stocking filler would be this Japanese DVD featuring old plastic toys and kits, including the Imai Astro Car aka Lunar Climber no less. No idea what the DVD is called but it was for sale on Ebay earlier in the year.

Which brings me full circle to the Lunar Climber by Century 21. This is one of only two colour pictures of this toy that I hjave ever seen, both from the same Ebay auction about 5 years ago. I had a pop at it but didn't win. I'll never forget WOTAN saying to me afterwards "You should've put the ton on it Woodsy!",  ton being common parlance for a hundred of your best pounds sterling! I shall climb into bed tonight and dream of it sat under the tinselled tree, brightly wrapped with a tag written out to me! I wonder who actually won it? Someone reading this perchance as they nibble a warm mince Xmas pie? Your Good Health and here's hoping for some close-up pics in 2011!

Jim's 12 Days of Christmas - Final Chapter: TV21

Bringing the 12 days of 'ZERO X-Mas' to a close are the four front covers from TV Century 21 which included the photo-strip adaptation of the movie THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO. Kids across the country were well and truly shown what excitement lay ahead of them if they went to see the film when it enjoyed a general release during the early part of 1967.

Zero X was quickly established as a mainstay of the 'TV21' stable and many feel the characters, vehicle and general concept had the legs to sustain a TV series of its own as a more modern version of FIREBALL XL5. The Century 21 team however had moved on already to more realistic looking puppets, even more futuristic, sleek vehicles with a darker tone too in CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE MYSTERONS. Ironic then that the opening sequence of the first episode of the show shines the spotlight once again on the magnificent ZERO-X!

Jim Lewis. Merry Zero Xmas!

A Xmas Message through Space and Time

Produced and created by Frank May and Pete Dibronetto

Best Wishes for 2011

Stocking Fillers

Space Patrol [German Version], WOTAN Capital of Mars [Shaqui's Space Patrol site], Saturnalia, Australian Thunderbirds Toys, Fireball XL5 Merchandise, Madelman Blog Show, Kalends, Dating Thunderbirds, Cone Rover [Prospector], S.T.A.R Force, Cover Browser [Pulp], Druidic Yule, Track Santa

Dicken's Green Father Christmas

Christmas Lifts

Model Lifting Bodies created by Toby Bird.

Thanks Toby for sharing.

Bah Humbug!

Better late than never, might i take this opportunity to wish everyone a very special year ahead and a great christmas. Best regards, Wotan

Airfix Interceptor Flies Again

Airfix have announced their 2011 kit releases today. The Angel Interceptor from Captain Scarlet makes a return. Think it was last available about 1983? I must have made at least half a dozen of them as a kid.

http://www.airfix.com/2011/under the Space 1:72 scale section
Yorkie.
[from the SWORD Yahoo Group]

Sled 1 Prepped and on the Launch Pad

Father Christmas, Papa Noel, Santa Claus, St, Nickolas, Kris Kringle, Kerstman, Joulupukki. Any more?

PS. In Europe, Father Christmas/Santa Claus is often said to reside in the mountains of Korvatunturi in Lapland, Finland. Anyone been?

More Xmas Mail

Steve at Vintage Thunderbird Toys

Rocket Punch in the US of A

Thanks Guys!

More Buffday Mail

Thanks Andy!

See you on Altair IV!

HALF A CENTURY 21!

Todays the day - the blogfather, Paul Woodstock Woods is fifty today! Half a century old and still carrying on like a teenager, the irrepressible Lord of Sword is 50.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank him sincerely for all his generosity, help, sympathy and encouragement over the years and for the opportunity to plaster my vision of the space toy world all over the blog for the last few years!

Ever since I virtually bumped into Paul sometime in the early 1990's as I took my first tentative steps onto the internet, he has been a constant and positive influence. Spacex and Sword was the second thing I looked for on the web (i imagine you can easily guess what the first thing was) and I stumbled upon Pauls magnum opus, the Collectors Checklist. This is still going here and was the gateway to discovering not just a mine of information about my favourite toy series, but a network of like minded individuals like Paul Vreede, Terry Harle and the Philosophic Toad whom I have been in touch with ever since.

Its been a real pleasure working with you and more recently spending real time in your company Mr Woods and i'd like to wish you a very happy birthday and good luck and best wishes for 2011.

Heres to the next fifty!

Best Regards, Bill (Wotan!)

ATHENA: The Other Probe Force One

One of the highlights of 2010 was stumbling across The Randy Rayder record during the Summer [remember that fiery orb we call the Sun?]. I love the fact that the Sixties record company simply lifted the SWORD Probe Force One from the Century 21 boxart and slapped it on the record sleeve and renaming it ATHENA featured it in the accompanying comic book! Crazy SWORD piracy! Well here's the comic book. I haven't found the complete strip so it doesn't really make sense. I think there was a seperate strip for each side of the record but I might be wrong. I'll just have to put it on my 2011 Christmas List! Unless someone out there has one?

Yule Love This Question

I particularly love this artist's impression of a type of Booster Rocket.

Christmas Quiz: But what's it off Swordies?

Christmas Crackers

A Christmas cheeseboard of tasty morsels in my art archive.

Yummy.

Help!

Two years ago I set up a Yahoo group/ Forum for SWORD toy fans. It's had a little activity but I've neglected it to be honest as the blog takes up my spare time. I wondered if any blog reader might like to revive and administer the SWORD Yahoo group/forum and bring it back to life?

ELF CENTRE: The Elf Toys Tracy Island

Just over two years ago I posted pics from the collection of my oldest SWORD/Spacex contact and super-collector Will Osbourne. The pics were colour photocopies so the online quality isn't great. However, the content is - the uber-rare ELF TOYS Tracy Island toy set, both in prototype and finished forms.

Above: ELF Toys Tracy Island prototype with Dinky die- casts

Above: ELF Toys Tracy Island - actual toy with JR21 vehicles

I still don't know very much about this amazing set but blog contributors Jim and Steve sent me the following info earlier this year: "They were made and issued to toy shops in order for them to display their JR21 toys in the 1960's. The one pictured above, although it has all the buildings, appears to have an incorrect base -there should be a painted road - to display FAB 1 and some water to display TB4" [Steve, Vintage Thunderbirds Toys].  

"They appear to be official toy shop miniatures of the various launch bays that JR21 toys fitted in. Likely to have been given to shops, which bought the toys in large volumes for displays and stuff. No one is sure but they look good and a few have popped up over the last 30 years. Not commercially available but still,it seems of JR21 origin" [Jim Lewis]

Does anybody know any more about this fabulous set or even better have any more pictures?

Postscript: Reader Graeme from Canada has heeded the call for more pictures "please find attached some images of the JR Rosenthal display base I've collected over the years from Ebay". Gobsmacking!

Pictures: Ebay

Amazing Graeme! What a fab collection! Wonder if they're all ELF Toys or are they something else? Gives me hope that there is a SWORD Moon Base out there somewhere!