Apollo Splashdown!

 Our Man in Japan strikes again with another wonderful find on the far side of the world, Captain Harlet sent me a mystery parcel to the Wotan Archives which revealed a fantastic Imai model/toy. Still sealed inside a plastic 'bubble' pack in a cardboard window box, the kit is described in english as an Apollo 1 Space Boat. Partly constructed already, the modeller is expected to fit together the loose brass batter terminals and thread the wires for the small electric motor through the central pilots globe to the battery pack. Fiddly in the extreme and designed for the smaller far eastern hand, it was with some difficulty that I managed to wire up the tiny motor with my clumsy fingers!

 Once assembled, the gorgeous torpedo shaped craft is about 8 inches long and features a weighted pilot section inside the globe. The action of the motor spins the entire fuselage around the pilot who remains upright as it moves through the water. At least thats the theory as I havent been brave enough to pop it in the bath yet!

 The plastic body is heavy and of analmost vinyl-like plastic, making it more of a part assembled toy that a model. I wish my japanese was up to scratch as it would be intersting to see if the toy is of the same series as the Apollo Space tractor kit I featured on the blog some months ago. The box art also features a red variation of the sub too.

But most of all i'd like to sincerely thank Terry once more for this fabulous surprise!

TV21 SWORD TEXT STORY: SCAPEGOAT

Well Swordies, here's the next SWORD text story from TV21 hot off Toadster's press: SCAPEGOAT. This two-pager appeared on the 17th August 1968 - alas page 15 is missing, which we don't have access to [anyone help?]. With a story by Angus Allen, it features a brilliant black and white drawing of Zero-X by Mike Noble and according to the cool GACCH site, this was his only foray into illustrating SWORD. To read it you may need to zoom in. Enjoy and thank the ever-givin' Toad!

Same time next week!

Cream and Cream Again

I didn't end up posting all of Mike B's cool Ice Cream ads last month so here goes again. This is all of 'em, from Mike's Boys Own comics. Nice. Cool!

Watch This Space!

Just one more day to go for another cool SWORD story, from back in 1968, courtesy of the Toadster.

Maverick Satellite

Hi Paul
Thought these might fit in well with your current 50's look stuff? Nothing to tell....found it in a charity shop the other day, seems to be a 'Heritage Shop' item and is no more than 'Battleships' with card counters and the odd rule tweak, just liked the artwork on the pieces!
Cheers
Maverick

Ram On

MARQUARDT

SUPERSONIC CONCEPT RAMJET AIRCRAFT

1955

Project TESCO

Kevin D's brilliant re-imaginings of the SWORD Manual pictures posted yesterday were just so cool. There've been a number of different projects by readers over the years to capture the spirit of SWORD by modern means. These have included Mike's Christmas e-cards, Graeme's Tarheel PF3 Specification Sheet, Wote's technical sheets, colour Moon Base and most recently Wote's fantastic Top Trump cards.

For my own part I had a dabble at a small sized TESCO softback photo book back in 2007 [even before the blog!] Small in scale, just 14 pages and the covers, it was nevertheless a bit fiddley, especially adding text to the photo's, but it was a lot of fun, especially when two copies landed on the mat hot off the press. I have one, Wote has the other. Amazingly I signed into my old account this morning, five years later, and all my database of photo's was still there! Representing my collection at the time and not particularly imaginative photo-wise, you can have a gander here should you wish. The actual template for my 'book' has gone, which is a shame [I could have ordered another one!], but here are a few snaps of pages out of my own copy.

PS. I've just noticed my old website address on the back of this book: http://projectsword.com.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk but I think it's been deleted by Orange. Does anyine know how to retrieve expired websites?

I'm in Love With a Starship Trooper

Reader Grif spotted the above cool paperback cover. Very Nuke Ferry!

Below is supership, like a huge PF3, on another Heinlein cover.

Kevin D's Nu S.W.O.R.D Manual

 Hi Paul,

I have dug out some photoshopped images from an aborted project. I'd thought about doing an updated version of the SWORD catalogue that came with the toys, using fancy graphics and photos of the toys instead of line drawings. Sadly, I didn't get very far with it and don't have the time nowadays (as I'm usually building models!). These pictures are all I managed to produce. Feel free to use them if you want. Maybe someone could run with the idea?

Take care,

Kevin D.

I Want a Moon Bus For Christmas Mum!

Thanks to Toad and her mighty scanner we bring you this cool advert for SWORD toys, which appeared in issue 201 of TV21, 23rd November 1968 complimenting the text SWORD story ALIBI [posted yesterday]. Just in time for the Big Day, I can hear those young Swordies now, waving the ad under their Mum and Dad's noses screaming 'I know what I want for Christmas! A Moon Bus, A Moon Bus'.

The old UK price range is quite amazing really, from 3 Shillings 11 pence to 59 Shillings 11 pence. At today's UK prices that would have been about 18p to around £3. At today's values that would be around £2 to £30 but in reality they'd cost a lot more than that in today's toy shops.

Are modern toys unreasonably expensive nowadays compared to 1968? I have a feeling that the Christmas presents bill has gone up over the years as kids expect more and more expensive stuff! Would you agree?

Desk Job

Project W.O.O.D!

super cool wooden Zero X.

Which SWORD/SPACEX craft would you have made?

TV21 SWORD TEXT STORY: ALIBI

Issue 201 TV21

ALIBI

STOP PRESS! After posting the cover of TV21 #201 the other day, the Toadster got in touch and as a result, amazingly, we'll now get to see the SWORD text stories from TV21.

ALIBI is one of a series of original TV21 SWORD Text stories from 1968/69 to be posted over the festive season courtesy of the Resourceful Toad and her wonderful collection [thank you so much for scanning them!]

The pen and the sword are mightier together! Enjoy!

[for further background on this TV21 story refer to the GACCH site]

American Glider

Caught this on You Tube recently, a handsome looking boxed Space Glider by Tarheel as part of a US Ebay listing. Having kept on eye on auction sites and toy fairs over the years I'd hazard a guess that the Space Glider was and is the most commonplace of the Tarheel SWORD range, which as we'd expect, are mostly sourced in the US. Still, good condition examples of the Glider and box like this still command attention when they come up for sale.

Strong as an OX

Imai, 1967

SWORDVEMBER 1968

In the Summer of 2010, with the help of the ever-resourceful Toad, I managed to post each weekly SWORD comic strip as it had appeared in the summer of 1967. It was great fun to do so I've often thought of repeating the exercise with the TV21 SWORD strips. Largely because I do not have access to many TV21 comics, this has sadly remained on the back-burner in a remote and abandoned Moon Base shed!

Despite this huge technical problem I thought it would be fun nevertheless to at least post the covers of the relevant TV21's, which contained SWORD strips. Alas, I have only just remembered I wanted to do this so in a light-hearted attempt to start the SWORD rolling I'll begin today!

On the 23rd November 1968 Christmas was just round the corner, I was nearly 8 years old with a head stuffed with space and dinosaurs and a new edition TV21/ TV Tornado was in the UK's shops. It was issue 201 and featured Captain Scarlet's SPACESHIP MYSTERY on the cover [pictured above courtesy of Amazon]. The SWORD strip was a text story called ALIBI with a single black and white drawing of Probe Force 3 by Ron Embleton [refer to the excellent GACCH website for more]. The Embleton PF3 drawing is the same one that appeared a year later in the 1969 TV21 Annual, which I do have in the Moon Base bookcase and appears in full below.

Cruuuunch!

Snow Train Wrecked!

from SWORD Make a Model book.

The Bright Stuff

We've been spoilt for choice on fleabay of late what with Tarheel Space Gliders, a Knockoff Tarheel Moon Ranger, Moon Prospectors, LP astronauts to mention a few. Two boxed US Multiple Toymakers Golden Astronaut Sets caught my eye too. Above we have the Moon Exploration Set with its beautiful lunar backing card, which looks like a canvas painting! I've got the UK Spacex Moon Base but none of the US sets. Anyone got this or any variations of it?

 

Secondly we have a lovely boxed Interplanetary Patrol set with a cool Nuclear Pulse at its centre. This time the backing card pictures Earth. Interestingly the set appears to come with a Japanese instruction sheet. Has anyone got a sheet like this? Where these put for the Japanese market do you think?

Explorador Planetario San Isidro

A veritable smorgasbord of brazilian goodies are on view at the San Isidro Museum in Brazil

including our old friend that cheeky CHIBI prospector and GORGO's SPC.