Space Age Pressies

I've said before how surprise pressies are often the most memorable (and the most enduring) for me. Well my significant other gave me a completely unexpected New Year's present! Unwrapping a tiny package wrapped in bright paper left me puzzled ... until it was explained to me that it was an iPod Nano.

Is it just me, or does it sometimes (just sometimes) seem like aspects of real life knock the socks off imaginary worlds? The Tracy brothers didn't have anything like this, and I'm pretty sure Captain Kirk didn't either. Sometimes amongst all the mundanities of modern life something comes along that deserves a "Wow!"

It's things like this which remind me how clever our species is. A good thought to begin a new year.

Hoping 2012 is a wonderful year for all of us, and a year of dreams coming true. (raises a glass to you all).

Farewell 2011

Well New Years Eve is upon us and another year can only be seen in the rear view mirror. Hope you enjoyed great merriment and yulery over the Holidays. I personally ate far too many Mince Pies, which will be one of my New Years resolutions - to not eat all the pies!

Hope you all have an enjoyable New Year whatever your'e doing. With glorious visions of Higs Bosons and Nu Earths spinning round my head I'll hopefully see you on Moonbase in 2012. Stand by for Blast-Off, the Shuttle's making pick-ups near you........

 

Today in 2008

On this this day back in 2008 the blog looked like this http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-crackers-sword-rubbers.html

From the Archive: 2008

The first Christmas Post on the blog, way back in 2008, was http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-post.html

STAND BY FOR CHRISTMAS

Having at last managed to fathom the new labyrinthine image-uploading process Blogger has , maddeningly involving picasa and google+, here are the delayed Christmas Adverts Mike B sent me before Xmas! Hopefully you will now be able to click the image to see a bigger version - fingers crossed!

Hello Woodsy,

Seeing as I’m going through a bit of a Thunderbirds kick I thought I’d dig out a few adapted Xmas ads for the Thunderbird JR21 toys which might cheer you up as well as put us all in a nostalgic mood for the upcoming festivities.

First up was Thunderbird 2 from TV21 issue 95 (November 12th 2066). I always assumed this was the most popular of the Thunderbird toys. I certainly liked it, although I never owned one.

Second was Fab 1 from TV21 issue 96 (November 19th 2066). I always liked Fab 1. A great shape and a very nice toy. My brother and I both got the radio controlled version that Christmas. great to race. Very good, Ma’ lady!

Third up was Thunderbird 3 from TV21 issue 97 (November 26th 2066). Lovely little toy, very nice detailing. Not used that much in the series but I’m sure it was popular. My brother got one of these that Christmas – I don’t think he was a big Thunderbirds fan so it did end up in my toy box!

Finally, Thunderbird 1 which appeared in TV21 issue 98 (December 3rd 2066). I got the friction drive version for Christmas. Looking back I don’t remember thinking how bad it was, those awful wheels, the soft plastic nose cone and the’ look at them and they fall off’ tail fins. still, I liked it at the time.

Now you’d think for the next issue they’d do a Christmas Thunderbird 5 ad which had appeared earlier in the year, or a Thunderbird 4 which never had an ad totally devoted to it. It didn’t happen.

Issue 99 re-ran the Thunderbird 2 ad (December 10th 2066), followed by Issue 100 which reprinted the Fab 1 ad (December 17th 2066).

By issue 101 ( December 24th 2066) Christmas was upon us and to publicise the new film TV21 started the photo strip adaptation of Thunderbirds are Go! . The next JR21 ad to appear was in issue 105 which altered the wording on a Thunderbirds are Go! film poster . This had the 1967 revised price list to tempt those with some spare Christmas money left.

Seasons greetings

Mike B

Christmas Crackers

Well we waited for it all year and Christmas is nearly over already! OK it carries on till Twelfth Night but the main event has unwrapped itself for another twelve months. Still I hope everyone enjoyed themselves yesterday and tucked into some delicious left-overs today for a second round of Christmas Dinner! Yum! But does it really taste better than the first time round?

The biuld-up to Xmas is always special and Moonbase was no exception. A few things I recall from late December include [top L to R], vintage Xmas Cards found in Oxfam, my two fave Cards this year - one Birthday [from our Daughter] and one Xmas [from our Toad] and a battery-operated Santa I picked up in Headingley for £2! He rings that bell like a madman!

The big day itself was it's usual mix of magic and mirth with the decorated tree at it's centre. Having thought I was on the Naughty List I was pleasantly surprised to find that Santa SWORD had actually visited us all the way here at Moonbase [I did leave some oxygen tanks out for the Reindeer!]. A couple of prezzies from my friend Ferryman even came wrapped in his own C21 style paper! [above]. Along with scarves, socks, incense sticks and choccies, here's a snap of the tree with my SWORDy/ Sci Fi gifts nestled beneath. I know the piccy is fuzzy but I kinda like what it did to the lights!

...and a close-up reveals: three lovely TV21's from our Daughter, Sci-Fi Art book by Steve Holland from my Missus, two horror books from my Missus, two VHS/ Grindhouse books from my Missus and a Hoover XL9 and Golden Astronaut Lift Loader from Ferryman. Arto also sent me two wonderful pieces of vintage space ephemera [not photographed]. Thanks guys!

Pictures of your prezzies/ tree/ wreath/ decs/ food of whatever type would be welcomed!

Whatever you do [and what do you do?] have a great Boxing Day.

Boxing Day Special: Hot Wheels Thunderbirds by Mike B

Hi Woodsy, I’m going through a bit of a Thunderbirds thing at the moment having recently bought some of those little 1/200 scale Bandai Hotwheels rescue vehicles. They really are very nice little ‘toys’. Even the boxes are well thought out. Yeah, I’ve got all three sets containing both the Fire Truck and the Transmitter Truck which appears to have inspired the Spacex Tractor.

Happy Christmas,

Mike B.

Boxing Day Special: Moonship Box

Just in case you're checking in online in between the Boxing Day cold cuts and turkey sandwiches, here's a box you'd wish you'd had in your stocking! Rarer than Hens Molars I give you the Century 21 Moonship box. You might have seen it before in the very top piccy from the blog but the owner, ZZRobot, kindly got in touch and eh voila, pictures of the box from every angle! How cool is that!

As well as the blue and white version of the toy ZZ has, here's the red and white one from the Moonbase fleet. Happy Shipmas!

It Took An Age to Get One There But At Last They Are...

Such a Big Job Needs a Big Team:

Site Gaffer: WOTAN

Crane Operator: Toad

Bar Manager: Woodsy

Chef: Paul V

Dyna Soar Pilot: Mike B

Task Force One Mechanic: Andy B

Scout 2 Engineer: Kevin D

Task Force Three Inspector: RAB

Radar Tower Controller: Grif

Earthlink: Evil Ed

Merchandising: Darth

Cloudbase Link: Spectrum Steve

Santa Claus : Maverick

Christmas Party Goers: Everyone Else

and

Switching the Lights On -

Who would you vote for?

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Darth Xmas

From reader Darth.

Festive Film Clips

Just watching Jonathan Ross's 100 Greatest Toys on Christmas Eve TV. Just got up to the board game RISK followed by Subbuteo. I wonder if they'll show Matchbox's Tracy Island from Xmas 1993. The must-have toy that Yuletide, like Turbo Man in the Arnie film Jingle Bells, it sold out yonks before the Big Day. Anyway, I found this clip of the next best thing at the time, the Blue Peter DIY Tracy Island, put together by the delightful Anthea Turner. Toilet Rolls were never so cool!

Like any good old Cinema presentation, here's a rather cool second feature, a You Tube clip about an original puppet from Captain Scarlet, which graces some lucky person's collection. What a Crissie Prezzie that would be! Drool!

Andy B's Selection

Dear Woodsy,

Catching up with the excellent Blog. Some attachments for you. I Particularly like the more ornate Russian card, which uses traditional folk art designs. TB2 is from a selection box.

Happy Xmas,

Andy B.

Planet of the Santas

The Santas are coming!

[you didn't think that one could really do it all did you!]

Its like something from a Dr.Who Christmas Special!

There's a sort of SWORD link too - these are blow moulds pictured in the old Empire factory I think, previously Tarheel Industries of Tarboro.

Christmas Cruising

Well the big day is almost here and its been a rollercoaster of highs and lows to get here. A New Year beckons and more treats in store, but before all that and on this momentous Eve, i'd just like to spend a moment to celebrate the small things, the gestures and the work that although seemingly simple, mean a lot. My bit on the blog represents a culmination of several years collaboration between a number of good friends, most of whom with the exception of Woodstock, ive never had the pleasure to meet in person, but have shared more with over the last ten years or so than wth anyone else.

One such great friend and confidante is our very own Philosophic Toad. Working tirelessly away behind the scenes, she has been responsible for uncovering some utter gems of ephemera which have changed  my perception of collecting toys, radically. Shes been a blog regular with her witty and insightful comments and a valuable source of support to me personally when thing got tough.

Never one to blow her own trumpet or draw attention to her successes and amazing research skills, Id just like to take the opportunity to show another wonderful facet to her already stuffed pocket full of skills, that of needlecraft! This Xmas myself and a few other friends received a wonderful hand crafted xmas card. Not just a nice thing in itself, but a cross-stitch depiction of her own favourite Spacex ship, the Pleasure Cruiser! If that wasnt enough, she kindly sent me the rare 2005 and Beyond violet version too! As an artist myself, I can appreciate the skill involved in transferring the detail and tone from a blog photo into such fine needwork, all the more imppressive when you consider each piece is only a couple of inches square! So i though such beautiful handiwork should not go uncelebrated, so here are my card and Woodstocks to show you all her amazingly detailed and precise work!

xxx Bill

By the Light of a Star

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE

FROM MOON BASE CENTRAL,

PEACE ON EARTH AND GOOD WILL TO ALL MANKIND.

Who Dares Party's

From Andy B.

Mini Adventure

Here's another pic of the Imai Mini Series Sub. This one's on Yahoo Japan. I love the translated item description: "The old ones.......Also Available for rubber power."! 

WE'VE GOT WOOD!

"WHAT ? NO SWORD MOONBASE ? !!"

Yes folks its the Woodstocks Birthday today - 51 years young! Join with me and wish him the very best of days!

Kevin D's WASPS

Hi there Paul,

I know you have featured a WASP Spearhead jet before (and excellent it was too), but I thought you might like to see my attempt at it along with its stablemate the WASP Arrowhead fighter. Both of these are made by converting model kits (The B 58 Hustler and the F5 Freedom Fighter). Hope you like them.

Kevin

My Top Five Crissy Prezzies

Christmas is a time for reflection. Like a prism it beams the fairy lights of Childhood into view. For 15 years I enjoyed truly wonderful family Chistmassses during the 1960's and early 1970's. My parents were very loving and kind and treated all their children to a great festive season full of tradition, feasting and presents. I can see now my Mum wrapping countless gifts for Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, nephews, Cousins and freinds. All got beautiful paper finsihed with christmas sticky tape and glittered labels. These gifts were delivered by my Mum and Dad during Advent as they motored round Lancashire like breathless chickens.

As for me, well I was the youngest of five and inevitably this status confered on me special priveleges at Christmas. Principally this meant more prezzies than any of my sibs! These gifts were the stuff of my childhood and are now the bright tinsel of memory. I often muse if I were to assemble every present I ever recieved would my parents magically appear to complete the scene! I'm staring at a twinkling Xmas tree so you must forgive me for becoming nostalgic.

Like my pals, I got the must-haves of the time: Rock 'em Sock 'Em Robots, Raleigh Chopper, Moulton Mini, Johnny Seven OMA, Action Man, HotWheels, Superfast, Airfix Flight Deck, Fossil Hunting Kit, Thomas Salter Adventure Set and so on and on and on until our last family Xmas in 1976 when we lost Mum far too soon and Christmas changed forever.

Like many readers of this blog, I loved all my toys and remember nearly all of them. Some were especially cherished at the time and taken into my primary school on presents day, where we 'showed off' our gifts in early January. My top five toys are pictured above. Friends all. We are now re-united.

What would your top five prezzies be?



Post Dated

Well 2011 is nearly over and we've had another fabulous year on Planet SWORD. Blog readers have done us proud with utterly fab contributions. Co-blogger Wote has also excelled with some truly great posts.

As it's about the top of the year it's apt to reflect on our favourite posts. My own, one of Wote's, was his look at the 007 Moon Buggy. The Ken Adams concept, looking like the Spacex MEV, was a revelation!

for fun, the most popular over the last 3 years are listed in the left hand side-bar about half way down [created as part of the blogger stats package].

What has been your favourite this year or over the last few?

Good Models

Here's our friend the Scramble Bug in miniature die-cast form from Imai's Good Model series. It also included the yellow Submarine 707, which I understand may have been a TV show. Both are on Ebay USA [ mach-5-racing]. I've got the Bug but does anyone collect the whole range?

Christmas 2069 Style!

Well here we are on the slippery slide towards Xmas! Its raining, a dull and generally an ordinary day in Liverpool and its hard to imagine that this is that magic, wonderful period from my childhood, when I was counting down the 'sleeps' before the big fella came down the chimney with a sack of toys for me and my sisters. Gone forever is that incipient sense of wonder as I opened my eyes to find a stuffed stocking on the end of my bed and a carpet covered with gifts and annuals and selection boxes under the tree. That sudden rush of excitement when I tore open the wrapping paper to see the black starry background of a Spacex card or the familiar red and blue of a SWORD toy box is sadly missing these days as socks and tins of deodorant and sensible jumpers really don't elicit the same kind of response.

Or so i thought… I got home last night from a seriously tedious day at work to find an expertly wrapped package waiting for me from my very good friend and Wotan Archive benefactor Terry. After releasing the box from its wrapping, I found a small parcel inside wrapped in xmas paper. Never having had a lot of patience or a deal of common sense, I tore open the xmas paper too - rather than wait another three days - and lo and behold, I was instantly transported back to 1969 and was a small excited child once more. That fabulously magical feeling that had long since been missing for many an xmas grabbed me and lifted me out of my pre-xmas humbug and flew me round the room with excitement! My 14 year old daughter looked at me like i'd lost the plot as I pulled back the paper to reveal…. Zero X!

So in short, thank you for a very Terry Christmas!