The S.W.O.R.D in Project S.W.O.R.D stands for Space World Organisation for Research and Development.
Despite the red SWORD arrow emblem appearing, the explanation of the acronym didn't make it onto the American SWORD series by Tarheel oddly enough.
Tarheel merged/ morphed/ moved aside for Empire Toys. How do I know? I wrote to Tarheel in 1997 and got a reply from Empire! [now called General Foam and Plastics]
Empire Toys made big wheeled trikes, go karts and bikes. They also made the SPACE WORLD Ray Gun!
Coincidence! Probably but its a nice one for us SWORDies. There can't be many toys with Space World written on the card or box.
That robot young Chuck Bodgers is blasting could be one of the Tarheel Astroids toys. Love the space jet in the background too. What do you think readers?
His spacesuit has echoes of both a Moonbase Alpha suit and an X wing pilot's. What year was that toy made?
ReplyDeleteYou could be right Kev. Plaid Stallions has it down as a Star Wars knockoff. http://plaidstallions.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/space-world-ray-gun.html
ReplyDeleteDated 1979. Ten years after any C21 or Tarheel SWORD toys.
An exceptionally in-depth answer you got from Empire Woodsy. A date, a word, and a tick - must've handled thousands of them in a day! Today we are still all too used to this, as a computer-generated email does the t(r)ick, manifold.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! I know Arto! Empire must have been flooded with SWORD enquiries that day!
ReplyDelete