To commemorate how much I enjoyed writing the New Origins of SWORD post this time last year, here's a few more thoughts on toy origins. This brings together various ideas we've discussed before on the blog over the last 6 years concerning the little jets found in the Project SWORD and SpaceX toy ranges.
First up is the silver jet connected to the front of the SWORD Booster Rocket. A possible inspiration is this deltoid spaceship on the cover of Men, Martians and Machines by Eric Frank Russell. Obviosly there are countless delta wind designs from the Sixties but this one struck me as similar.
Next: the small jet illustrated on the SpaceX Photonic Propulsion Space Station advertised in the UK in 1970, pictured below top left. A close-up reveals that it's very similar to the small silver plane sat on top of the SpaceX MLP rocket. However, the illustrated jet may actually be a picture of one of the small jets which came with the Photonic toy. One for the future.
One possible inspiration for the MLP rocket jet may have been the Captain Scarlet plane pictured on the cover of the September 2069 [1969] TV21 comic. However as with all the possibilities I suggest this is pure speculation on my part.
In 2009 Bill and I both wrote about the other small jets in the SpaceX fleet, of which there are several. In SWORD there is really only the Booster Rocket jet as we've already discussed. Its SpaceX counterpart is quite different in both shape and colour as you can see from Bill's picture below.
The picture below goes further and shows the silver plane from Sword Booster Rocket, the 'pink' Spacex Booster jet and tiny Spacex Nuclear Ferry rocket plane from Bill's collection.
The remaining mini jet from the SpaceX range is the silver plane found in the blister of the large Nuclear Pulse. Drawing all the Spacex miniature jets together, the list looks like this [You could also include the silver rotors from the Pulse in this list but I haven't and my information on the Photonic Space Station mini jets is not detailed enough to include here].
2 - Booster Rocket carded
3 - Booster Rocket loose
4 - MLP Rocket loose
5 - Nuclear Pulse loose
Interesting thoughts woodsy. The silver booster space plane was always a firm favourite of mine and the MLP rocket is very reminiscent of the Thunderbirds Sun Probe.
ReplyDeleteThe illustrator on the book cover, is Richard Powers.