Any conversation about toy cars must include the grandaddies of them all in realtion to Anderson shows. Dinkys early 1968 models of Fab 1 and Thunderbird 2 still look good today. Thunderbird 2s amazing playability - great design, removable pod, retractable legs and mini TB4 wasn't improved by the re-release of the shows support toys back in the early 2000's. Production values were excellent and detail was amazing for the time.
The Dinky range quickly followed up with more wonderfully iconic models from Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 and later in 1971, UFO.
The 1968 catalogue also included the Mini Moke from the Prisoner and the odd striped mini from 'Candy and Andy', another weird Anderson show!
Unfortunately for me it was at this point that the wheel came off it all slightly. Whereas most of the earlier models had been dutiful to the show and produced the toys as they appeared on screen, the Shado Interceptor was made in metallic green for some odd reason. The SHADO 2 Mobile was bang on the money and an excellent model, but a green interceptor ? Poor Ed Straker also had to drive about in a gold finish car too!
Subsequent Anderson shows were picked up and the fabulous Eagle Transporter and Freighter appeared and in 1976, the rare Command Car and Coastguard Launch appeared from a never produced Anderson pilot, 'The Investigator'.
After Anderson ran out of steam, Dinky produced Star Trek models and
then as Star Wars loomed, their own fleet of space vehicles. They also made possibly the dullest model of the shuttle ive ever seen!
Ah, yes. Very fond of the old Dinky's. I agree TB 2 and FAB 1 were fine models, in fact I'd say that no one's produced a better shaped version of FAB 1 than Dinky. Other versions never seem to get the clear windscreen right, they're either too flat like the plastic C21 version or too high like the Matchbox one.
ReplyDeleteThe SPV, a favourite with me was a very cleverly designed toy, although I do wonder why they didn't do the double wheel layout either side.
The Jet Air Car was nice with the wings in, but didn't look right with the wings out, and as the original looked like a big plastic toy, Century 21 toys already had the advantage.
I note there's no mention of 'Gabriel', the Model T Ford, from The Secret Service. Not surprising really, it didn't fire missiles or sprout wings. In fact, like the series, it was a dud!
They should have added it to the UFO set as the full size version appears in the opening episode.
At least the Model T was accurate in shape and colour compared to Straker's car. Although, I never minded the metallic gold colour, prefering it to the mustard version.
Anyway, Holy diecast, Batman, where's the Corgi's!
Seeing those boxes and especially those catalogs again hits me right where I live. I remember them all up to the 1971 edition with the green Interceptor on the cover. As I'm sure I've mentioned in a long ago comment, the toys from Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, and UFO turned up months before the shows themselves appeared on television. I would have no information what the vehicles were about or who used them, which certainly encouraged my story-inventing skills. It's one thing if you know there isn't any other story behind your toys, but to know there is one but you haven't been told it…!
ReplyDelete(And for the same reason, to this day some buried part of me still feels that green is the "right" color for a UFO Interceptor, and the program somehow got it wrong…even though I'd rather have had an accurate one instead.)
However, somehow, inexplicably…how could I have missed ever knowing that Dinky released a Prisoner vehicle? My parents watched the show, but I didn't back then; I must have glanced right past it in the catalog. Even more confusingly, how could they not have released a black Lotus Seven with license plate KAR120C to go with it?
Good question! Why WASN'T there a toy of KAR120C? Seems an odd omission now you mention it. And that's interesting about feeling green to be the right colour for the UFO Interceptors.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I've asked about this, I get told the choice of green was because the manufacturers were convinced boys would find the "proper" white colour unexciting, where as green would thrill them. Is there any truth behind that story? Or is the truth more mundane than that? And why oh why is TB2 later coloured blue? (It is blue in the later releases, isn't it?)
Thanks for putting those catalogues up, Wote. I remember seeing "Tiny's Mini Moke", which I thought was cute. What does the page say it was from? Can't quite read it .... "Enchanted House"? What was that?
I actually have a battered Stripey - which I bought for the figures! They are so nice. My hands are too shaky to take close up photos though, but I'm sure you've all seen the figures anyway. (But I can ask a friend to photograph them if anyone wants to see them.)
But Wote, "Candy and Andy" was never a series. It was a story told in photographs and text in a rather expensive comic/magazine aimed at very young children. Later (for cost reasons? or cos no one wanted to do the photographs?) it went to drawings and text. And Stripey had his own separate stories too - drawn by Jon Davis (who did the Angels strips, if I remember correctly).
Oh, and, best mention (before I get this day started ... lots to do), "The Investigator" pilot was produced. You can probably find it on YouTube (I'm too sleepy to look right now). But you're right - no series for that.
I always forget about Secret Service, never watched it and never paid it any heed,especially having stanley unwin as the star, who i always regarded as a comedian. Prisoner Mini Moke is easily overlooked as its only got the tiny peny farthing on the bonnet. The model itself was hammered, having a giraffe stuck in it and originally being used as the Para Moke with working chute.
ReplyDeleteCorgi will be making an entrance very soon with a special rare model in attendance!
ahh - fabulous! you notice that i deliberately leave gaps and mistakes in my commentary so more informed readers can update it with hard info!
ReplyDeleteA rare Corgi model! I'm intrigued!!! :D
ReplyDeleteGetting us to do the heavy work, eh? Smart move! (laughs)
ReplyDeletePerhaps you thought "Candy and Andy" was a show cos of the advertisements for Sugar Smacks packets with free "Captain Scarlet" badges. You've blogged about them, and so you might have recalled seeing a (real, live) boy eating Sugar Smacks in the"Candy and Andy" kitchen. But the explanation behind that is the sets and props used for the "Candy and Andy" photographs were all full-size! (Which is why taking the photos was such a pain, and perhaps why they were later dropped for illustrations).
Never really 'saw' any Candy and Andy stuff outside of the Dinky catalogue. Have to say that the whole look and feel of the production is subtly creepy and a little odd. Not sure if its the sickly sweetness of the kids or the downright weird anrthopormorphic 'Bearandas' that spook me out more.. eewwwww.
ReplyDelete