I sometimes wish I'd got my second wind for Gerry Anderson in my Twenties and not my Thirties. I might have made it to Space City in Blackpool, UK between in the late 1970's. I've no idea if there were any SWORD toys there but it must have been so cool back then when the Anderson studio was still filming. Darn it!
Sticker: Star Trader
I could have gone to the first Fanderson convention in Leeds in 1981, which Scoop managed to get to. Shucks!
I could have subscribed to SIG, Action 21 and Century 21 magazines at the time they were published. Boo hoo!
And I really should have gone to the 1994 Gerry Anderson Exhibition in Blackpool, where there was loads of SWORD toys like the Zero-X shown here at the event. This is a still from a 10 minute video film of the event on You Tube.
Did anyone reading the blog get into Gerry Anderson or Sci Fi/ space toys and models in the 1970's? Where did you go? What did you subscribe too? What do you remember? I'd love to hear from you?
Though I have memories of my Sword and Anderson toys of the late 60s, I think Space 1999 in the mid 70s and the repeats on ITV of Thunderbirds and UFO around the same time are what really got my Anderson collecting started. You could still get all the Dinky Anderson toys then too.
ReplyDeleteI went to Space City several times. It was at two separate sites - the first at the Pleasure Beach was the best in my opinion. The Space 1999 Catacombs website has photos of all the exhibitions.
You could even buy the rare 1999 Stun Gun there.
The exhibition was all open plan, just a few items behind glass and I remember taking loads of polaroid photos and touching some of the models. I was amazed to find they were mostly wood with plastic parts. I believe several of the exhibits were actually stolen.
Still got my SIGs and its successor -Century 21. You can still get old copies from Startrader in Blackpool - run by David Nightingale who published SIG and Action 21. Pre-internet it was a heck of a wait for each issue - the only Anderson information you could get and had to wait between 3 and 6 months each issue! Happy days though.
I never really lost my interest in Anderson stuff, so I made regular pilgrimages to Blackpool in the 70's. I remember seeing myself on the screen of the working commlock which was connected to a video camera.
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