Postcard from the Island: High Down Rocket Testing Base and SWORD HQ

Just like writing my snailmail postcards here in a fine Freshwater pub [apologies for the sunbaked cranium!], here's my second e-postcard from the beautiful Isle of Wight. The two photo-groups both cover what proved to be a really exciting day out, which even had a SWORD connection thrown in.

At the remote southern point of the Island are The Needles, a family of limestone spears of rock jutting out of the sea. Next to this dramatic and lonely spot lies the abandoned High Down Rocket Testing Site, one of only several Cold War rocket facilities that operated in the UK and clear evidence that us Brits did actually take part in the Space Race! Now run by the National Trust, this creaky old site captures perfectly what must have been a strange and secretive existence for the 200 personnel who worked there.

The site was for testing rocket engines and the odd satellite. No rockets flew there. So sensitive it was guarded by Police who lived in cottages above it. From High Down the rockets and selected personnel were transported to Woomera in Australia, were the rockets actually flew. You'll remember Swordies that Woomera features in the SWORD strip as SWORD Earth Base! Me and the Missus had a thoroughly testtastic trip, by VW Camper to the stars! Enjoy the photo's and visit High Down if you can.

Congrats

From reader Andy B.

Cheers Andy!

Beetle Mania

Just when you thought it was safe to put the remote away up pops another radio-controlled SWORDtastic spacecraft. This time it's the Lunar Climber aka Astro Car aka Super Beetle! I love the Probe Force- tipped missiles too! The scans were kindly supplied by reader Rocket Punch from his archive of fantastic Character Age magazines from Japan. Cool!

300

Well Swordies, the blog has just passed the 300,000 hits mark! Me and Wotan just want to say a big spacexcellent thank you for all your swordtastic support over the last three years. It would be nothing without you! Cheers!

As Sparta's 300 proclaimed, Keep on Swordin'!

He Has the Technology

Ever wondered what a remote-controlled Space Glider might look like? Well here's a superb example of a NASA M2F1 I've stumbled across languishing in the ended-auctions graveyard on fleabay USA [seller 2bigbufords]. At over 3 feet long it would have been a snip at a mere $1700! The seller has posted footage of the model on YouTube too. Sadly it's not shown in flight but it would be impressive for sure. With new C21 livery SWORD may have taken to the skies! Just imagine a fleet of radio-controlled Probe Forces taking off and a Nuke Ferry undocking! I wonder how many SWORD toys were actually launched from bedroom windows back in the day, with helpless Golden Astronauts mercillesly taped to them,  quickly consigning the lot to the dustbin forever?

Not being servo-assisted myself, how hard would it be to make a SWORD toy fly?

Derek Meddings' Hover Bus

Derek Meddings may not have designed the SWORD Moon Bus but he did create the brilliant Thunderbirds Hover Bus. The wooden model can be seen top left on the shelf behind Derek in this old print below. Amazingly the wooden model still exists and prior owner Graham F kindly supplied the picture below. You can see the black and white photo in far more detail, together with a fascinating discussion and the Hover Bus over on the superb Eagle Transporter Forum, which includes the origin of the 'PURE' sticker below the driver window.

You can also find out more about this and other surviving Century 21 models at the excellent Gerry Anderson Props, which even includes a vehicle, which appeared as a small sketch of a truck in the SWORD annual - the Superon/ Yellow Fox.

Picture courtesy of Graham F

Brainstorm

Watched an old sci-fi flick today, Brainstorm from 1983, starring Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood. Quite an eerie movie really delving into the shady world of experimental brainwave recording and the inevitable misuse by the baddies, in this case, the Military. It was clearly a reaction to the new technology of Video and it's possibilities as VHS and Betamax battled it out for our disposable mental space and income at the start of the Eighties. The subject of brainwave manipulation isn't original. I can think of The Sorcerers late on Karloff's career in the Sixties for starters with Ian Ogilvy trashing London on his behalf. The central idea of a lethal tape recording also has a long film history, with the ultra-creepy Stone Tape from the 70's [possibley one of the scariest things to ever feature on UK TV], Cronenberg's Videodrome from the same year as Brainstorm and bringing us right up to date we had the Japanese death-tape shocker Ring. I'm sure you can think of more? The advent of Computers had a similarly paranoic effect on society and therefore film too - Tron, Terminator, Lawnmower Man, War Games, Demon Seed, The Forbin Project and latterly The Matrix. Wonder if newer technologies like Mobiles have influenced sci-fi and horror films or literature?

I couldn't help noticing in Brainstorm there appears an US Estate Agent sign for Century 21 real estate. Do they really exist?

PS. Wote informed me that Brainstorm was in fact Natalie Wood's last film. Wikepedia describes the film as being posthumously released as she died whilst on leave from it's production in 1983. One thousand people attended her funeral.

Marx Army

The MARX military vehicles series really do remind me of Century /JR21 toys. We know that the C21 Mobile Bridge carrier is probably the same body as the Marx Tank (above top). I've also noticed a similarity, albeit less clear, between the Marx Amphibious Vehicle  (second from bottom) and the JR21 Missile launcher (bottom). I wonder if there is a JR21 version of the Marx Armoured Personnel Carrier (second from top) out their in the Anderverse? [sorry about the mouse!]

Cool Running

Telsalda Cresta Bobsleigh: Pictures courtesy of Ferryman

Ps. Wotan says - i used to have one of these and was mightily disturbed as a kid as to why the drivers had no legs! the little silver ams used to move back and to and the friction drive was cool - i'd rev it up and send it zooming down the hall!

Bank Holiday Weekend Caption Comp

So Swordies, what's the Sea Glider pilot thinking?

Moon Buggy Dreamin'

If, like me, you dream of owning the wondrous Spacex Moon Buggy [card art below] you will have also noticed it's physical scarcity.

Well here's a little morsel that might just suffice for a while, the Esco Montre Planet watch. Just check out the Moon Buggy illustration in the right hand corner! Luvverly! I think the date says 1968 to the left. A whole $1.09 back then from YDC [?]. It's still going for a song over on Fleabay US.



For bigger pockets how about this vintage Bandai Apollo 12 DLRV moon buggy model kit. I flagged this up in 2008 and it's still around - maybe its the price - $1,200! Go to Go Boy of Japan.

Finally for the more technically-minded Swordies, whilst browsing for moon buggy I came across this old NASA paper about the mechanics of the DLRV [Dual Mode Lunar Roving Vehicle], which may be of some interest.

To Apollo and Beyond

A long while ago I collected a series of space stickers made by Top Sellers. called the Conquest of Space, they covered the very beginnings of flight right through to space travel. Besides some cool photos and illustrations of spaceships and planes, there was a subset of airline insignia stickers. In the end, I got fed up with shelling out 5p for a pack of five stickers every day and getting a handful of swaps and bought in all the stickers i needed direct from the manufacturers. Among them in the futuristic section was an odd painting of a 'Space Towing Vehicle'.

As this rather rubbish photo shows (sorry scanner is broke!) the vehicle itself was a sort of space glider affair and although the craft wasnt clearly visible, I counted it as one of my favourites in the book.
Not so long ago I discovered an awesome website, Altair IV which later developed into 'Beyond Apollo'. This site covered all kinds of projects that never made it into development by the various space agencies and was a wealth of informed detail on all aspects of the space programme. I contacted the owner, Dave Portree with a view to looking over some of the extant Project SWORD toys to see if there was any correlation between real world designs. Almost immediately, Dave came back with the origin of probably the single most exciting vehicle in the SWORD range, the Nuclear Ferry

Consequently, I have been a devotee of Dave site ever since and check in daily for more fabulous insights into the world of what if ? I'd highly recommend it as required reading for anyone interested in space vehicle design. Just recently, I came across that same image of the Space Towing Vehicle under its real name and function, revealing further surprises. Apparently, the vehicle was a design for a dyna-soar like glider vehicle for a manned mission to Mars.

Looking at the craft in full, I was immediately struck by another feeling of familiarity in the shape of the glider and a quick look back at the toy archives revealed that the design was clearly lifted by Marx in the 1963 release of the Operation Moon Base set as shown here in the Sears catalogue advert.

The resemblance is quite clear and the close up below shows further evidence that Marx designers were looking at speculative designs for environment suits as well.

Postcard from the Island: Penelope, Frogmen and Alum Bay

We've just got back from a holiday spent touring the beautiful and sunny Isle of Wight, in the South of England, in an old VW Camper. Much fun was had with a few Spacey adventures thrown in too. This is the first in a series of postcards about them. Our VW Camper, Seaside, was hired from the superb Isle of Wight Campervan Holidays. Thunderbirds fans can even hire a pink van called Penelope modelled by yours truly below! [excuse the lame excuse for a Thunderbirds Parker stance!]

Our own trusty Seaside got us smoothly round the whole island and I can easilly say that, like a box of cornflakes, we'd forgotten how much fun camping is! The retro feel of the VW vans clearly tap into a wave of nostalgia for the 1950's and 60's. In fact just going to the seaside feels nostalgic as it was so much part of our childhood don't you think? One of our first trips was to the Needles Park next to Alum Bay, where you could fill a glass bottle with the different coloured sands from the cliffs in special shops, a nik-nak straight from a Sixties or Seventies mantlepeice!

The Needles Emporium sold nautical toys, which included this fab Ocean Adventure playset for £3.50, which includes cool cheap plastic copies of the Britains 2-man sub, Lone Star 007 - style frogmen and a rather spiffing classic speedboat rather like a T one! Even the header card is surprisingly attractive for a modern rack toy.

A quick browse online revealed this variation of the set with an orange trimmed- boat. There's also a a rather nifty second set that appears to contain a small landing craft and a shark cage! Yikes! - both pictured below.

The Needles Park also held a real and hidden treasure from the British space race, complete with an am actual connection to Project SWORD! More to follow in my next postcard from the Island.

Modern Classics

The original Hot Wheels Redlines series can never be bettered for me, but the recent releases of the Hot Wheels ranges occasionally still hold the odd surprise. What I always loved about the Mattel designs were the radical shapes and unusual elements added tot he cars. Some of the designs were futuristic, which always caught my eye, but others were asymetrical or just downright weird. The models above show this thinking still persists, with the large solar panel, internal fan and completely lop sided design of the Mid-Evil race car.

Perhaps taking a cue from the defunct Hot Birds line, the new ranges sometimes include planes and copters which are always a big draw for me too.

Redline Thunder

A long love love affair began with the small purple car above. From the moment I saw the Mattel Hot Wheels advert on tv showing the fast race cars speeding across the floor and down the orange track (even though the pictures were all black and white) and came across the fabulously flamboyant packets with the beautifully coloured cars in, I was gone. Hooked. Sold. End of.

Frequent trips to the Anchor Stores on Park Road in Dingle, every Saturday morning with my dad to gaze in rapt wonder at the huge window full of Aurora and Revell kits and the huge range of Major Matt Mason toys, punctuated by brightly coloured red and yellow packets of Hot Wheels cars. Hot Wheels were always more expensive than the lesser Matchbox models and it was some time before I managed to pester my dad into shelling out for the Deora. A flat futuristic slab of a car with orange and yellow surfboards on the back, it was poles apart from the dull sedans and boring trucks that Lesney were making at the time.The Deora was designed by Harry Bentley Bradley and was one of the more radical designs featured in the original sixteen models. Recently it was brought back as a more rounded version as Deora 2 and also as the chunkier version Deora above.

 

Following hot on the heels of the Deora and the first range came other amazing designs such as the Lotus Turbine, Shelby Turbine and Indy Eagle above. Among the first cars to come along were the Splittin' Image and the Swingin' Wing - fabulous designs that broke the mold in terms of car design. The white Splittin Image below is a recent reissue.

 Another early Bradley design was the Silhouette, which also made it into real life courtesy of Bill Cushenberry.

This memorable car was also produced by Zylemex as the 'Brute' in a larger scale. I picked up a rather battered version on ebay recently, missing an intake, some fairings and with a spectacular bash in the perspex cockpit! Any advice on how I might repair that would be most welcome!

Finally, two more fixer uppers, the Regal Eagle and Maching Bird, obscured under several layers of hobby paint, beginning to reveal their original spectraflame colours after a good rub down with Brasso (thanks Paul)!

A Star in a Reasonably Priced Car

Picked up this rather nice Lucky Toys friction drive race car. 50p on ebay. Think its missing a wing mirror and a decal off the back, roll bar is snapped and theres some loss of chrome, but its a pretty thing. Anyone able to shed any light on it ?

Almost immediately, the resourceful Anonymous Vreede has identified it as a real life car!

The AVS Shadow Lowline: http://www.supercars.net/cars/1726.html  And i thought the toy was cool!

Out of the Shadows

 

Some small time ago, Paul Vreede suggested that the Spacex Reconnaisance 2 ship might be based on the Blackbird SR-71 and the earlier YF12A spyplanes. Recent declassification of information by the CIA of photographs from Area 51 and the Skunk Works from 1963 show the precursor test vehicle - project OXCART or what would become the Archangel A12. 

OPERATION OXCART - ARCHANGEL A-12

 Sat upside down on a support pillar on a runway at Area 51, the test vehicle was designed to see how radar visible it was. Unfortuantely, soviet spy satellites overflying the area meant that the vehicle had to be frequently hidden in 'hoot and scoot' sheds as the satellites passed over. Due to infrared scanners and the heat of the desert, even after the plane had been moved, the difference in ground temperature would be noticeable from space and A51 technicians went to great lengths to hide the presence of the ultra-secret craft, including cardboard mock ups and heating the tarmac artificially to confuse the heat seeking cameras!

BLACKBIRD RADAR TEST

A great article on National Geographic shows the great lengths that the crews had to go to after an A-12 plane crashed in Wendover, Utah in 1963.

The super streamlined fuselage and silver finish have a much closer look and feel to the later Blackbird, but its unlikely the top secret OXCART programme could have directly influenced the Tri-ang designers, unless they managed to sneak past the security at the Skunkworks!

Excitement Building

System Chase Craft from Blakes 7

Scale modeller Kev Davies wowed me recently with more of his amazing work. Check out these wonderful creations with Kevins own captions!

Shado lunar module made from plastic and filler

Shado Mobile made from the wrong Tiger Joe tank (the small one, I'm now making one from the large one).

Skydiver from UFO, about 3.5 foot long and rather heavy

SPV made from wood and metal

TB1 made from plastic and car body filler,

TB3 photoshopped onto a background

TB4, made from wood and plastic and in need of re-making better