Mystery Tank

Browsing my archive of snaps from the 2010 Bristol TV21 con I've come across this model pic. I've realised that I've no idea what this vehicle is from? Very SWORD though! Is it Captain Scarlet? UFO?

All Hands on Deck

Im really taken with the idea of the SWORD Top Trumps idea and am busily working up a set based on the main ships, plus one or two 'expanded universe' ones as they say in Star Wars. Heres the deck so far.

Update: the project has stalled at the moment as im missing clean artwork for some of the ships. If anyone can scan just the front panel of any of the SWORD C21 boxes (just the illustrated ones, not the Tarheel photographic ones) and send the scans to Wotan, i'd be very grateful. Im missing the Probe Force and Task Force series and the Moon Ranger.

Coming to a Cinema Near You...

OK, we've got the posters. Now we just need the film!

But who else would be in it?

Shoot the Moon

As a kid, I always had a moneybox on the go, somewhere to drop the odd sixpence or threepenny bit into. These days cash slips through my fingers before I even knew it was there. One of the biggest drains on my dosh is ebay. However, it can be an absolute delight sometimes to pick up a real bargain. One such item is this wonderful Duramold 'Shoot the Moon' Rocket Bank.

Metal with a gold finish, its an impressive 10 or so inches high, the rocket has a spring loaded mechanism that shoots pennies into the Moon via a slot underneath. It's been through the wars and is missing a small hatch at the back and has lost a lot of plating and would originally have had a circular ring around the moon like this complete silver example below, but for 99p who cares!

Hot Shots

These are photographs of the Sears and Tomy Apollos and the Tarheel Space Glider, which recently appeared in part in the latest edition of Fanderson's FAB, 68. These pictures were especially taken for the occasion by reader Darth's daughter Emily Godwin, a photography student. I'm sure that you'll agree they are really excellent!

Trumped Again

Fired up by Wote's uber-cool Top Trumps mock-ups, these are the real thing are from Waddingtons' Spacecraft Top Trumps from the 1980's [see the full set at the Pointless Museum]. I'm sure that 'Length' and on second thoughts 'Weight' are not particularly exciting and I've no idea what 'In Service By' means? Looking at Wotan's categories I much prefer them! Let's get a full set and see if we can make Toad's online-play idea a reality!

Throw Down Your SWORD

Last year I wrote to the publisher of the TV21 strip re-print books asking the question whether they might consider re-printing the SWORD strips? The answer was essentially no, quoting insurmountable copyright issues as the likely barrier. Undeterred I then asked another popular outlet if they might consider publishing the collected SWORD strips but again it wasn't a successful idea.

So, as it would appear that they are unlikely to be re-printed any time soon, would it be right and proper to consider posting them here as we did with the earlier SOLO strips? Readers' views would be welcomed especially regarding copyright, access to scanned strips [I only have a few!] and any other comments.

PS. The SWORD TV21 strip began on the 6th April!

Top Trumps Redux

Just to illustrate the mechanics of the Top Trumps game for the uninitiated! Heres a mocked up TT card for the Scramble Bug. For those who have never played it, TT is basically a card game based on different score values for each vehicle. Every set of cards has a series of different values on the face, in this case ive gone for the obvious attributes like 'rank', 'speed' and 'firepower'.

Players randomly select a card and call out a specific value - eg: 'Speed' if the callers card has a higher value than his opponents, then the player wins that card. Devilishly simple!

Top Trump: SWORD

Pondering Top Trumps with the Ponderous Frog that is the Philosophic Toad the other day, I thought I'd have a go at some SWORD Trump cards. And eh voila! Above we have the Hover Tank and below Probe Force Three.

Mucho fun to do but two difficult decisions face the SWORD top trump card maker: where to get the vehicle data from and how to value the various features on the cards? Having consulted the Official Manual, which proved to be relatively uninformative and tame, I opted to use the grittier vehicle descriptions contained within the TV21 1969 Annual [which I've put on the card backs]. I then converted these details into features on the cards and gave them values based on statements in the annual like 'most lethal' and 'almost invincible', which as you'd expect, got high marks. Admittedly this was very subjective and you might give them different features and values. A common list of features on each card is obviously helpful though apart from any special powers, which are unique. A study of the SWORD Annual and the comic strips might also reveal valuable descriptions of the different vehicles.

Any ideas/new cards/new designs would be gratefully recieved and posted on the blog.

And a Bath to Sail Her In

In the wake of my blog about Hydro Jets recently, Woodstock flagged up an auction by a seller in Argentina - Monte-Firu. The auction was for a 'Space Laser Powerboat' made by Antex. This gorgeous example of plastic goodness was a little out of my league to obtain, as it was overseas, but I did manage to pinch a few pictures in the meanwhile! While I was drooling over it, it occurred to me that I had seen this beast before and in this country. I had a recollection of spotting a blue and chrome silver version, in slightly  different packaging - the one I saw was in a bubblepack. Unfortunately, it was one of those instances where I spotted it in a shop window and for whatever reason I was unable to buy it. Still, a least I know there must be one around the UK somewhere.. patience is a virtue...

High T : the T in a Circle Air Force

Deploying my ropey photoshopping skills again, I've here pasted together a family portrait of all the T in a Circle [Tai Hing] planes and helicopters that I know of, enough to fill any busy Toytown airport!

At the bottom left I've featured the fantastic Tai Hing Military Chopper, which is completely new to the blog and shown with kind permission from Jordan collector Raed Ammari. More pictures from Raed to follow.

Against the Grain

Here's an unusual group shot. All of these models are made of wood! A regular splinter cell of the SWORD fleet and all available in cyberspace.

Top Trumps

Thinking about James Bond chatting up Lady Penelope I've got to summising whether 007's Aston Martin would out-run and out-gun the good Lady's pink FAB1? This lead me to consider having Top Trumps cards for them both. Sadly I couldn't find a single example online for either vehicle. Are there Top Trumps card sets for 007 and Thunderbirds?

Pulp Gyptian

Continuing a thread from earlier posts on Sci-Fi and Ancient Egypt, reader Andy B has flagged up this cool cover by Ron Turner 1954. The story is by the aptly named Steve Future! I suppose the Sci-Fi/Ancient Egypt amalgum had it's most recent re-incarnation in the movie Stargate, when Kurt Russell could still cut it as a leading man.

Cutting Edge

"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. Now, all those moments will be lost in time, like.. tears. In rain. Time to die."  Any sci fi fan will instantly recognise these few seminal lines of prose and be transported back to that rooftop in the closing moments of Ridley Scotts film. When I first came across Blade Runner it was via a last minute purchase at a Liverpool comic mart. I had a few quid burning a hole in my pocket and hadn't found much to buy apart from that months Micronauts comics, so I treated myself to a small paperback book for an upcoming film - the Blade Runner Sketchbook. I had to admit at the time it didn't exactly look inspiring, no huge spaceships or giant robots and the designs and drawings even included retrofitted pushbikes. However, being a huge fan of Scotts earlier epic, Alien, I thought i'd give it the benefit of the doubt. It was some time before I found myself seated in the cinema finally watching the film and within minutes any doubts I had about the film fled. I have to admit though BR has been a slow burner with me over the years, the many layers of meaning and amount of background detail meant that it really only came into its own after the advent of dvd - this was the first one I bought - and the clarity of picture brought the film to renewed life. Since then, I found the Directors Cut and more recently a five disk boxed set of the Ultimate edition, which finally showed all the parts that had ended on the cutting room floor. The unicorn scene was restored as was Deckards steamy love scene with Rachel and as I had always been a huge fan of her character in the film, seeing a little more of her was very rewarding. However, besides losing the stupid voice over one of the best parts for me was the very end when Roy Batty finally succumbs to his 'accelerated decriptitude' and loses his grip on life. As he releases the dove at the end of the standard version, its seen to fly off into a daytime sky against a backdrop of modern factory buildings - a huge continuity gaff. But in the boxed set, this is replaced by a matte of classic retrofitted buildings in the style that we see all the way through the long dark night of L.A. The only other gripe I had with BR which was never corrected was the re-use of the vdu display graphics on the Spinner control panel - the imagery from the separation sequence of the Nostromo from the refinery in Alien is used prominently, including the outline graphic of the docking collar which seems to be intended to reflect the roof of the police HQ building. The the word 'PURGE' appears quite incongruently on the Spinner screen, this having been recycled from the countdown sequence on the Nostromo after Ripley shuts down the reactor cooling system to blow the ship.

Moaning aside, BR remains a classic and favourite film of mine and it had a profiund influence on me. When I picked up the BR Souvenir mag, I found an ad for ERTL toys in it showing cool diecasts of the four main vehicles. Being a US mag, the toys weren't in the shops here, so I wrote to ERTLs UK offices and they kindly sent me the four models for a reasonable cost. They are about the same size as Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars and quite detailed. There is a Police Spinner, Deckards Spinner, Deckards Ground Car and Rachels Spinner. Until I got the dvd edition, I had no idea where Rachels Spinner featured in the film, but the increased clarity allowed me to spot it flying just ahead of the police spinner after Deckard is on his way to meet Bryant.

Probably my favourite thing about BR was the set dressing. The amount of subtle detail in the sets from the broom on the roof of Bryants office to the photographs set into his lampshade and the objet d'art decorating Deckards piano and littering his apartment, was amazing. One item I found especially cool was the sawfish jaw on the wall near the front door - clearly visible when Rachel hurriedly leaves after Deckard bluntly informs her she is a replicant. It was shortly after the release of the film that I found such a thing myself, albeit quite dilapidated and a little smaller, on a junk stall in Speke market! Needless to say, after gluing a couple of the teeth back in and rounding off the broken end of the 'nose' it spent a good few years proudly displayed on my wall.

Pimp My SWORD: Custom Tarheel Moon Dart

Just watching Quantum of Solace and messing with my laptop - never a good way to get OO status. My latest IT frippery is this customised Tarheel box. Inspired by Scout 1, I had to do something with this plastic boat when I found a piccy of it online last year. I call it the Moon Dart as I was thinking of wet Moons like Io and Titan rather than our own dustball.

Wouldn't it be fantastic to actually be able to create new SWORD toys! Now then, all we need is someone with a toy factory! Remember that this Moon Dart box is a custom special created purely for our enjoyment and in no way represents real toy packaging.

Just thought! - which SWORD vehicle would James Bond have driven?

Fencing Infinity: A SWORD Scale?

A SWORD scale has been discussed before on the blog but no concrete conclusions were reached. I wonder if a group photograph of all the toys would shed any light on the actual scale intended by the writeres and artists of the comic strips in SOLO and TV21? I was interested to see on Wikipedia this fascinating scale comparison of Thunderbirds craft by Nigel Slater seen below. With all the TV episodes to study, even Thunderbirds fans seem to disagree about the size of Thunderbird 3 as you can see below. I personally thought that TB2 was bigger than TB3 but that's simply based on my childhood memories!

Back in February 2010 I blogged this very rudimentary SWORD scale pictured below and there were some fascinating comments from Toad and Grif. My scale was based mostly on gut-feelings that, for instance, the Apollo Saturn V was the biggest vehicle, being bigger than the Zero-X and the Nuclear Ferry perhaps? Thinking about it since I realise that to create a proper SWORD scale you would need a detailed knowledge of  [and access to] the SOLO/ TV21 comic strips and or the Annual [have they even got the same scales?]. Similarly there are some text descriptions of SWORD vehicles as in the 1969 TV21 Annual in the sections called Battle Breakdown, together with those found in the Official Manual, which came with each toy.

One possible starter for ten would be those SWORD vehicles which were based on real NASA designs and craft such as the Moon Prospector, Saturn V, Space Glider [M2F2] and the Dyna-Soar for instance, most of which are well-documented in terms of size. But is this a red herring? Are NASA sizes even relevant in the SWORD strips?

In the end a collage of pictures from SOLO/TV21/SWORD Annual, which clearly show comparisons of vehicles' sizes with clear reference points such as people, will be the only way to nail down a SWORD scale I reckon. Sounds like a project for a the summer using the SOLO strips on this blog maybe? Anyone?



T and the Cruisers

As blogged last week here are a few more snaps of my new T Dolphin Cruiser acquired from Germany. I really love the the box art. The yellow side panels are similar to the blue ones on the T Moon Bus pictured below where the SWORD 'Star Features' have become the Cruiser's 'Additional Features'. Chronologically the Moon Bus, model number 360, came 17 toys before the Cruiser, model number 377.

Fellow T collector Ferryman has observed that he's also spotted another connection: "I had seen evidence of a Telsalda logo on the artwork on the gaskets that I inspected originally. The T branded box you have is actually a Telsalda box with the logos replaced. I have come across a few Telsalda toys over the last few years in Telsalda style boxes with the logos completely removed. it appears that there is a link between Telsalda and T as well."

Anyone got the Telsada box for this Dolphin Cruiser?

...the earth hung overhead like a rotten fruit....

The drawing showed an oblong metal box on four jointed legs. From one end protruded a tiny mushroom-shaped head on a jointed stem and a cluster of arms ending in probes, drills, grapples. "For moon prospecting."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......

"Too many limbs," said Babcock after a moment. "How would you--"

"With the facial nerves. Plenty of them left over. Or here." Another drawing. "A module plugged into the control system of a spaceship. That's where I belong, in space. Sterile environment, low grav, I can go where a man can't go and do what a man can't do. I can be an asset, not a goddamn billion-dollar liability.....

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.

Words: Damon Knight Masks 1968 [Extract from ranprieur site]
Picture: John Schoenherr Moon Crawler 1962 [cover of  Analog]

DISK ASSESSMENT

Through the wonders of the internet, the Lord of Sword himself, Woodmeister has uncovered this cool article about the little UFO gun disks i was writing about earlier!

Check out that gorgeous alien artwork!

And also the gun itself! I want one again!

Space Racer

Seeing this spaceship on the vintage pulp mag cover above reminded me of the X- series Space Racer X-50. I suppose it was a common design in the sci-fi pulp art community of the 1950's. Are there any more examples of it?

Saur Wars

Aurora T.Rex .V. Century 21 Dyna Soar.

What would such a storyline read like?

Scramble Sub

The Japanese G-Bound remote control amphibious car. For when the Scramble Bug is required to cross volcanic seas on a tilting Earth and the angry oceans of new SWORD planets.

Fantastic Elastic

Wote's last cool post reminded me of my old Star Target Pistol, which came free with the groovelicious Fantastic comic. I'll not warble now as I've blogged about it before.

Shoot to Thrill

On an earlier post about the Marx Rocket and Gantry, there were some interesting comments which reminded me of a couple of toys I had as a kid. One memorable one, which Andy B described was a Airplane Catapult Gun. This was a regular favourite of mine and something that usually only got a short shelf life as I always ended up losing the planes! Naturally, I haven't one to show now, but i made a quick sketch from memory:

The gun usually came in a header carded plastic bag and was made of silver grey plastic with two planes that had cardboard wings fitted into a soft plastic body. The handle always had a pair of gas cannisters molded into it and the barrel had various dials and meters along its length. It was always great fun to buy one of these at the seaside and shoot the planes down the beach!

A similar, but simpler toy was the Jesko Gun. Basically a handle shaped like a pistol with an elastic band fitted on it, the gun came with two planes and four saucers to launch around the place. Until recently I still had one of the planes and one of the saucers. The planes were red and yellow with a hollow body and upturned flaps on their delta wings. The surviving saucer as you can see has adjustable flaps and a plane embossed in the centre. These came in orange and lime green.

Finally another favourite of mine was the UFO gun. A plastic pistol shaped like a standard automatic with a vertical cylinder magazine built into it, you could load it up with penny sized plastic discs and blast a succession of little UFOs at your target! Again, this has long gone, but heres a Wotan impression of the saucer!