STAR FLEET'S NUCLEAR FERRY

In April 1983 the British comic Look-In ran a storyline, in it's Star Fleet strip, involving what SWORD fans would recognise as a Nuclear Ferry, nearly twenty years after appearance as a C21 toy. The strip was illustrated by the brilliant Mike Noble, who is well-known to fans of TV21. The entire Star Fleet Look-In strip is avaialble to view online over at the excellent Star Fleet X Bomber webpage created by superfan DJ Dust. I contacted DJ and asked if I could post the April strips depicting the Nuclear Ferry [called a 'Tanker'] who replied as follows:

 

 

Hi Woodsy

Thanks for the email, and when I say that, I actually really mean it. I find these days that people just take stuff off web sites and pass it off as their own and if you ask them about it, get incredibly defensive and rude!! I've got no problem at all with you borrowing anything you want from F-Zero-One. Help yourself mate... :)

cheers

DJ Dust

Some of you may remember in January this year generous blog readers clubbed together to buy Wotan an original page of Mike Noble artwork from the Star Fleet strip for his 50th Birthday from The Book Palace. Like an episode from the Twilight Zone, Wote blogged about Mike Noble's Star Fleet last Christmas, not knowing he would be the owner of the original art a month later! The Book Palace still have original Star Fleet art for sale should you wish to dream!

So, what do you think of Mike Noble's version of the Nuclear Ferry?

1964/65 New York World's Fair: The Martin Yellow Space Glider

New York Daily News

Press Photo

These two cool pictures of the Martin Glider at the NY Worlds Fair 1964 appear on the fascinating Worlds Fair Community forum.  I asked the forum admin if I could post them, who replied : Hi Woodsy, I'm ok with the two pics that I posted in that topic, as long as you attribute them the same way they are attributed in our topic (New York Daily News and Press Photo). Randy T.

There are more great pics on the WFC forum of this yellow Glider at various stages of its life. Has anyone seen the glider in the flesh?

POSTSCRIPT: here's the similar Tri-ang SpaceX miniature toy version - in blue, centre-stage:

Model Society

This beautiful set of assembled models recently appeared on Noppin in Japan. The bright colours, sleek designs and gloss sheens really caught my eye, like a SWORD fleet would. I recognise the SPV and Trailer Truck from Captain Scarlet but not the others. The translated description mentioned 'Tester'. What's that?

LP BOXED SPACE SETS

Reader and fellow SWORD/ SpaceX collector Chi Chi has kindly sent in this cool scan of the box rear of his latest purchase, an LP space set. You can easilly see all six boxed LP sets in the vien of Apollo Moon Exploring. Has anyone got any more of these neat sets?

ARTO'S THUNDERFLASH II X-40

Hi Woodsy

Here's the X-40 Space Rocket's cousin X-40 "Thunderflash II". While the toys are pretty much similar (apart from the differing wheel hub colour), the boxes are two different variations on a theme. However, the item number and the registration no. on both is again the same.

Arto

Ray's Mystery Capsule

"Hi Woodsy

I've seen your page with the mini space toys etc. and was wondering if you might have any idea what this is or anything about it? it appears to be a space capsule with a man inside laying down. and on the botton it says "Explorer, Hong kong, 1965"

Ray W.

Jupiter Sunshine

I recently read that Jupiter is a smidgeon of energy short of being a star in it's own right. We would have two suns like Tattoine! Besides the sci-fi and artistic potential, what would a dual system actually mean for us on Earth I wonder?

Kevin D's Scratchbiult Star Trek Phaser

Hi Woodsy,

Just noticed in the comments on my Alpha scanner, someone asked if I'd ever done a Star Trek phaser. I have, I told him I'd send you a picture of it, so here it is!

Kevin D

Imai Have To Get A Moonbase

Found this old pic of a Imai Moonbase diorama built-up online. Is that the Moon Crawler out front? Anyone got this kit built up in its entirety?

Kevin D's Moonbase Alpha Scanner Scratchbuild

Hi there Woodsy,

Just finished my latest scratchbuild. This being the scanner used by the personnel of Moonbase Alpha to check out alien worlds and technology. It is made from an old flashgun, a drill handle and lots of other bits! It wouldn't look out of place in the hands of Project Sword and Spacex astronauts either, see the Spacex version.

Take care,

Kevin D

Winging It

Its funny how you can look at something for years and not pick up on certain details. It was Woodstocks earlier bloglet that just attracted my attention, in particular, the 'Sabotage' Ferry illustration by Ron Embleton.

What struck a chord with me was the larger, more aerodynamic wings on the passenger section of the shuttle. The actual toy has neat, sharp wings which rest on cylindrical 'pods' which look like they should fold down. This made me wonder if the actual design of the passenger shuttle was originally intended to have variable geometry wings, for an atmospheric landing.

The original proposal document by Ling- Temco-Vought doesn't offer much clarification, but in the 'Inside Information on Space Travel' book by Lesley Ashwell Wood, theres a speculative illustration of a future space shuttle, which has a similar wing position, but does feature folding wings. It does fuel my imagination for the passenger section of the Ferry making a runway landing at Glenn Field!

Ferry My Heart

A smorgasbord of Ferry art. Which one is your favourite?

Do you of any more?

UFOLYMPICS

Moonbase is gripped by Olympic fever. A truce has been called by all sides of the SWORD Wars. Casuals and Rejects are arriving for the Games and making their way to Lunar Village. Moonbase personnel have thought of everything except for which sports to play on the moon. Any ideas?

Collecta-Stroll

There are junk shops and there are junk shops. Some we love and some we don't. As collectors around the world we'll have our favourite shops or fairs we visit the most. But what do you do around your visit? Go to your favourite cafe or maybe your top record shop? My 'perfect' Saturday route usually takes in a stop at Doncaster Fish Market for a saucer of tastey whelks and cockles with vineger, then a look over the old big box videos at the long established video and dvd market stall before mooching round the final stop, the vintage toy stall in the market overflowing with TV-related toys and games. When can I do it again!

What's your favourite collectables route?

Buggy Billy

The unseasonable warm spell has made me a bit sluggish of late, as summer finally realises its here. The next few weeks are the summer holidays I used to enjoy as a boy, now I can sit back and watch my own two kids kick back and relax. Its hard having to trek off to work everyday when theyre playing, I wish I could too! Still, distractions from the daily grind are available and a couple of last second ebay purchases greeted my arrival home yesterday. The Tonka Tote Beach Buzzer (above) winged its way across from the states and the seller kindly included a cd of all the available Tonka catalogues, scanned and ordered, in the package. Free. Now that is good service. The Totes are small steel chassis and plastic body cars, a little larger than a Matchbox motor. Heavy rubber tyres and nylon bearings on the axles mean they roll well and far.

The Indy race car Screamin Demon is a slick futuristic looking racer, just the way I like em. Uncomplicated, with clean lines. Totes were designed to bring a little speed and pocket sized play to the world of Tonka and each car came with a belt clip to carry the car around on.

Billy Buggy

I suppose Billy Blastoff was meant to be your little brother's Major Matt Mason but I played with them both no problem. I loved Billy B and have fond memories of his various sets. I'm always amazed when something completely leftfield turns up like this spanish Billy Blastoff Beach Buggy by Nacoral. Billy has his flippers on so I assume it's part of the wider Billy Scuba Diver range. I wonder if his backpack powered the buggy? The toy is available online from reader Castro. Anyone collect Billy Blastoff?

The First Ride

A short slideshow using my T Shuttle and C21 Cape Kennedy crawler and gantry. In memory of Dr. Sally Ride.

Sally Ride RIP

I was saddened to hear on this morning's News that Sally Ride, the first woman astronaut in the US, has died at the age of 61. Sally was part of the Challenger Shuttle's second flight in June 1983. She was 32. Godspeed Sally.

ALIEN ATTACK!

Playsets have always been a staple of toy marketing. All your favourites bundled together in a cool box. Swordies like me dream of the re-emergence of the Project SWORD Moonbase playset. In the meantime there are lots of fine space sets to keep us amused. Of particular interest to SpaceXers is this ALIEN ATTACK playset by those Seventies toymeisters HG TOYS, who also gave us the legendary Godzilla Playset and Alien Target Sets.

ALIEN ATTACK is a hotch-potch of Buck Rogers and other stuff packaged up to doubtless cash-in on the success of Star Wars. The SpaceX interest comes in the form of the silver/grey spaceship centre-right in the top picture, which is a simple clone of Tri-ang's SpaceX Pleasure Cruiser pictured on its card below. Looking at the HG box art I see that there's also a gold coloured cruiser too. It shows two cruisers. Were there two of them in a set? I keep looking out on feebay for a loose one as the shipping for a whole set is astronomical from the States to the UK.

The delta design is a popular one for space toys and here's another cruiser-like miniature from Japan. Probably a Glico or Morinaga candy premium.

Pictures: Ebay and Noppin

Force Field

I'm getting ready for a having car boot stall on Wednesday at the local sale in a field. I can't decide whether to take some Manta Force toys to sell like this Fortress in a French box. What do you think?

Cheap Space

Back in the 1990's I used to plunder discount shops for space toys. One set was a carded playset containing small cute white spacemen like 'little people', a spaceship and parts of a space city I think. Long gone I just can't recall the name of the set or find an image. I saw this boxed set on Ebay this week and for a second thought Star Commanders II may have been it but the astronauts aren't cute enough I don't think! Anyone else got any cheap carded space sets from the 1990's?

MINIATURE SWORD SCOUT 1 NEW TO THE BLOG

I've been Noppin again and bagged yet another miniature SWORD toy, this time the beautiful blue Scout 1 pictured above. Sporting the tell-tale solid half-wheels on its base it's a fab new addition to this miniature SWORD fleet, which now stands at 9 known examples [7 different vehicles and 2 colour variations see here and here ]. I still don't know the maker - Glico perhaps? - but I feel sure that the entire SWORD fleet was reproduced in miniature for this range. It's just a matter of time. Oh, and patience!

The Cakes of Earth

Well it's Sunday morning here on Moonbase and I've managed to sleep till 9am! Mrs. Moonbase says I'm like a teenager and the new spot on my chin is evidence that she may just be right! I usually start the day sneezing my head off in the dusty pollen-laden base atmoshpere but yesterday a Booster Rocket full of supplies arrived including some antihistemine tablets, which I've started taking for the first time. They appear to have reduced the amount of sneezing but not the intensity which remains at G-Force levels. It's early days so I'll continue to sneeze like an Olympian! I wonder if hay-fever is common amongst blog readers?

Yesterday we left Moonbase for a short trip to Earth and wandered round the town of Doncaster, which has one of the biggest markets in England. Stocking up on luxuries for any terra-formers like us, we bought strawberries, pea pods and Alien on DVD.

Being in such a large market I noticed several cake decorating stalls and thought I would conduct a small experiment: would they have any space cake toppers like spaceships or spacemen? Might they even stock some old golden astronauts! Alas, I didn't find any of those but I did see some cool small spacecraft amongst the brides, grooms and footballers. On returning to base I checked the Culpitt's website, as to whether they still actually sell the golden astronauts direct online. The answer is no. I wonder if any cake decorators still do? Wiltons in the USA? Yours in your neck of the woods? Online LulusCupcakeBoutique are still flying the flag and selling what I wanted to find in Doncaster. Like other Swordies and SpaceXers I purchased some, all made in China, from Lulu last year.

One final thought about cakes. Did Culpitt's/ Wiltons/ Others ever sell golden astronauts in boxes?

Space Bird 3: Variation 4

Over the Summer I was lucky enough to pick up this Space Bird 3 variation. Space Bird by YT of Japan is a clone of Project SWORD's Probe Force 3 and as far I know this brings the total number of Space Bird variants to four. The other three are featured below. The main two colour types are grey or white. All the other variations are differences in the colour of the cockpit and engine windows and the rear engines themselves. This new combination, pictured above, is green cockpit, red engine woindow and yellow rear engines. There could well be many more colour combinations as yet undiscovered.

There may also be box differences between the grey and white types, but I can't be certain as I don't own a white one. Looking at the pictures here they do apear to have different top box art.