Its interesting to look back at how much-older sites than Moonbase Central once described Project SWORD. This small paragraph on the SWORD Moon Base Set on the TV21 site caught my eye again.
It was already on the site in the mid-1990's when the then editor Kelly Lannan accepted my own Project SWORD toys checklist for publication [after a long absence the site is live again by the looks of it].
The author of the paragraph was Marc Frattassio who wrote many online articles about Gerry Anderson toys and in particular the kits and die-casts used in the shows. I corresponded with Marc many times in those early days. I think I may have summarised his TV21 articles on this blog in its first year.
When I rediscovered SWORD in my Forties and set out as a novice to find out more, the prevailing view at the time in the mid Nineteen Nineties, among experienced Anderphiles writing in books, magazines and online, was that the set existed. Marc's summary fits in with this view.
Despite the mystery still surrounding this most fabled of SWORD toys, seeing the phrase Moon Base Set next to the name J. Rosenthal Century 21 Toys always gives me a thrill!
"PROJECT SWORD
Moon Base Set. J Rosenthal Century 21 Toys, UK 1968. Playset contains six plastic astronaut figures, Apollo Lunar Module, radar station, housing unit, vehicle storage unit, Scramble Bug vehicle, Moon Prospector vehicle, Lunar Excursion vehicle, and molded plastic moon surface play mat.
Motorized operating features and lights are controlled by battery operated switch panel. Project Sword was a toy marketing concept which drove a comic strip feature seen in TV21 annuals of the late 1960s."
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