A SEVENTIES PARTY

I saw this photo on the Time-Machine Seventies Facebook page and felt I just had to share. I was so reminded of those sophisticated seventies parties with Glam Rock playing in the background ,platform shoes, tank tops and flares!

Can you still get Weekend Chocolates? They were always popular at my Gran's around Christmas time for some reason.

 Remember Hi-Karate after shave with Valerie Leon seducing some nerdy bloke on the ad. I bought gallons of it, that and Denim - I didn't like to work too hard!

As for the Jackpot Bitter cans, these days, I don't  have a six-pack, more a Party Seven!

KEV'S APOLLO MODELS

Hi,

Having dug out my Apollo13 stuff, thought I'd take some pictures of some of my Apollo stuff. The Revell kit of the LEM, the Dragon diecasts of the Apollo CSM and the LEM (small and beautifully detailed) and the Revell kit of the Apollo CSM (the same kit features in loads of episodes of 'The X Files', Mulder has one in his office!).

Take care,

Kevin

DANIEL'S DINKY MSV

I received a second MSV. It was the most successful eBay purchase I ever made and is superior to the one I had in a dozen ways. 

The MSV was the second Andersonian Dinky I acquired and I didn't know about the proper paints required. It had such a rough patina of surface chipping that I tried touching it up with some white and red paint I had around. Dreadful results. Easy to remove, however.

Daniel G

New York

USA

STEVE ZODIAC'S HOVERCAR

Here's a few photos of the hovercar seen in Fireball XL5. 

An impressive puppet size version was obviously built to transport Steve and other members of the World Space Patrol around Space City Island.

Here's a screen grab from the colourised, 'Day in the Life of a Space General' of Lieutenant Ninety using the Hovercar.

Here's a couple of screengrabs from 'Wings of Danger', showing both the'full size' version and the smaller model version.

One of the Como Confectionery sweet cigarette cards showing the hovercar. The painting is obviously based on this publicity photo.

An illustration by Rab Hamilton from the first Fireball XL5 annual.

The Hovercar went on to appear in several episodes of Stingray.

One example is in 'Tunes of Danger', although the model used for the long shots is what looks like a more contempory  E-Type Jaguar.

Here, both the puppet sized and model miniature it's being driven by a disguised X-20 in 'Stand By For Action'.

It even made an appearance on one of the Stingray Cadet sweet cigarette cards.

STINGRAY SUBMARINE AIRCRAFT CARRIER LOOKALIKE IN FIREBALL XL5?

Being a HUGE fan of the mega-rare toy Submarine Aircraft Carrier by JR21 - below - I'm always on the look out for anything that might resemble it.

Well, we know that the Carrier originated in a Stingray comic strip so how about this vehicle that appears in the MPC Fireball XL5 toy set? Similar? Waddaya think readers? And just what is it?

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO : RECHARGE

A quick rundown of the latest Thunderbirds are Go episode, Recharge,  written by Amy Wolfram.

This story takes place at the Arctic Circle,  and centres on a power station which converts the charged particles of the Aurora Boreallis into electricity. A system that discharges excess energy has malfunctioned which will result in reversing the polarity of the Earth!

The station appears to manned by a solitary female engineer who hasn't been able to fix the fault and needs International Rescue.

Quite an interesting  (and implausible ) premise (doesn't the iron core of Earth have a part to play in the magnetic field)

For me, however it is intriguing how in this story Scott has gone through a complete personally change, abandoning safety advice from Virgil, and going on to wreak his pod vehicle.  My first thought was it was down to yet another tiresome appearance of The Hood; but no, it seems Scott is just missing Dad!

In spite of the episode dealing with the developing characters of an impetuous Scott and his sensible brother Virgil, this story is very much about MAX, or Mechanical Assistant : eXperimental as we are reminded by Virgil. Scott, on the other hand had completely forgotten that it was an acronym!

With MAX 's involvement and the wintery environment I was reminded of robot Braman in the original episode,  Sunprobe. (those with HD supersize screens might want to check MAX's label!)
All that being said it's still another fun episode for fans of the new series, although,  I have to admit while I'm still enjoying watching Thunderbirds are go it still doesn't come close to the original for me.

THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK: HE'S EVERYWHERE!

Sometimes when your looking for a Klingon up pops a Vulcan. Spock to be precise, Mister Spock and I'm starting to see him everywhere!

Like this for instance. Mattel must have based the look of Captain Laser on the Vulcan Mister? Do you agree?

Spock also became a poster boy for the first generation of geeks. He could be said to be Geek Zero. Here he is playing space chess.

and here's his doppelganger in 1970 on the box cover of the game Ploy!

Speaking of space chess, lesser mortals than Spock only got to play Space Checkers in Star Trek on account of their limited brain function.

Which explains why I got a set one Christmas! This set was a version of Tic Tac Toe in the UK and was called Space Lines. Did you get a set readers?

ROB'S SPY TOYS BYE BYE

Reader Rob T's beautiful collection of spy toys before it all got sold!

THE NEW ORIGIN OF THE PROJECT SWORD MOON RANGER

Some time ago I suggested a similarity between the US Ideal Astro Base Scout Car and the Project SWORD Moon Ranger. I would like now to formally link the two.

Here is the Ideal Astro Base Scout Car:

To remind readers of how the Ideal Astro Base and car operate then the best place is to go is to an original TV advert, which fortunately for us can still be seen on the Classic Airliners and Vintage Pop Culture You Tube channel:

The features between the Scout Car and the Moon Ranger which I would like to suggest are the same or related are: the pilot, the pilot's seat and the cockpit dome.

The pilots of the Ideal Astro Base Car and the Century 21 Moon Ranger appear to be the same as you can see from the comparison shots I've put together. The only difference is colouring and perhaps size, but as I don't have the Ideal toy I can't be sure about dimensions.

The pilot's seats are related. The ribbing is virtually the same. Only the overall shapes differ. I have compared them below.

The cockpit domes are related as well I would say. Both of them even have a similar top feature. The radar antennae are also of a similar rotating type.

This link that I am proposing also pushes back the date for the toy origin of the Project SWORD Moon Ranger. Previously in my post New Origins of Project SWORD the date of origin I gave was 1963, the year of manufacture of the Japanese Nichimo Car Boat Pioneer seen below.

The new date can be pushed back to 1960, the year of manufacture for the Ideal Astro Base [ref: Alphadrome - the site also mentions a US patent for the Astro car but I have been unable to find it]. Comparing the Nichimo pilot with it it seems likely that the Japanese Pioneer is also based in part on the Ideal Astro Base Car.

Finally, if this is all indeed correct then not only is the date of the Moon Ranger toy origin pushed back but also the date of the toy origin of ANY Project SWORD toy, now 1960.

What do you think? Anyone got both toys?