STARCOPS RADIO TIMES ARTICLE

I'm getting more and more intrigued by Star Cops and it's cult status, and that maybe I should re-access my thoughts on it.

Here's an article from the Radio Times I saw on the Star Cops fan page

The Radio Times front cover that Kevin D mentioned kindly provided from his own collection.

Cricket, Anyone ?

A quick Cricket refit in the style of the Molto Radar Car version, courtesy of some car paint and an Action Jack radar scanner!

KEVIN'S STAR COPS BADGES

It's becoming clear that our Kevin D is probably the world's biggest Star Cops fan, and has many items in his corner to reinforce this idea.

Here is Kev's latest addition to his Star Cops collection - an ESL-1 patch .This is a badge that would've been sewn onto the uniform of a crewmember working on the European Spacestation in the series (the 'Charles De Gaulle').Although it is certainly made for the series production though  Kevin couldn't swear it was actually used on the show.

 However, the other patches he owns  would have been used as they are sewn onto original costumes he already has in his collection.

To finish here's Kevin's original Star Cops prop gun, the pride of his collection.

A FEW MORE TITBITS

As Yorkie mentioned the Titbits magazine featuring Space I999 during his comment on my earlier Blake's Seven post, here's a reminder of the scans I took of my copy a while back.

STAR COPS THEME

Strictly for fans of the cult BBC 2 Sci-fi series, Star Cops (and Kevin)

'It Won't be Easy' performed by Justin Hayward, of Moody Blues fame.

When the series was beaten in the ratings by BBC 1 sitcom, Terry and June, I can see how apt the title was.

BLAKE'S SEVEN RADIO TIMES ARTICLE

A 1978 article heralding a new Sci-fi series for the BBC, Blake's Seven. 

I can still remember watching that first episode, and continued to follow it throughout all it's four seasons.

However it's not a series I've ever bothered to return to, as apart from the Liberator model, it just holds no appeal for me anymore. Maybe it's the pessimistic aspects of the story, or possibly the lack of what I consider to be  likeable characters - Avon tries to come close as the titular anti- hero, starting out as a Mr Spock clone in the early episodes, before finally evolving into a sardonic swash buckling space buccaneer.

I'll forgive the low budget effects, and the costumes that look like they came out of  a jumble sale. As we all know the BBC at the time just didn't have the resources to compete with glossy American space operas.  Not that it ever stopped them. Remember those other pedestrian  BBC dramas set in space, Star Cops and Moonbase 3!

X-40 SPACE ROCKET ADVERT AND TIMELINE ON ALPHADROME

If you like the X-40 from the X series of plastic Hing Kong toys [possibly JR21] then check out this cool thread on the uber-nifty Alphadrome forum re. a piccy of the space rocket in a US catalogue:

ALPHADROME

X-40 SPACE ROCKET ART

pic: allposters

A DISCOVERY

Came across this rather interesting photo of a proposed, and ultimately unused miniature of the 2001 spacecraft,  Discovery. The chap in the the photo is special effect supervisor Wally Veevers.

A photo from another angle, with additional Pod and astronaut miniatures. 

ITALIAN PARATROOPER TOY

This Italian parachutist toy reminds me of Project SWORD in two different ways!

1. The red and white cheque parachute is similar to the one found on top of the Apollo Saturn

and

2. The ribbed Spaceman reminds of a standing version of the seated pilot in the Moon Ranger.

Anyone got this parachutist?

Home on the Range

A transit of Venus occurs more often than An occasion when I find a rare space toy lately, so I was especially pleased to find a toy I have only ever seen twice in my not inconsiderable lifetime. As a boy, I had a set of three space toys which mirrored the design of the Topper Cape Canaveral Rocket Base; a transporter, rocket gantry and the missile bank. Recently, I came upon the missile bank in a Spacex junker lot and after some negotiation on price, managed to buy it.

This particular toy also does service in the earlier Apollo Moon Exploring series, but with the missiles substituted for radar dishes. This version was not issued by Imperial, LP or Multiple, but by Blue Box. Blue Box were a favourite toy dealer of mine, who produced roadwork sets, cars, army and planes and issued a lot of the LP series in their iconic blue window boxes.

The piece was a little knocked about, with one launcher missing, so I fabricated a new one and from a distance, it fits nicely. The little rockets also appear on a Telsalda Rocket Firing Armoured Car too. (far right with later longer version missile )

I just need to get another example of the rocket transporter lorry and thats a big hole in the wants list plugged!

OPERATION X-500

I would have liked this as a youngster.

TIN MOON CRAWLER MYSTERY MEMORIES

Years ago we posed a tinplate Moon Crawler mystery on the blog based on part of an interview with Howard Elson of Century 21 on the GACCH website.

"But in the annual, we have the Project SWORD Moon Crawler, and they actually had this merchandise - this Moon Crawler - made out of plastic and tin and whatever, and that's what they wanted to sell, so we just wrote scripts round the machines."

You can read the full interview on the GACCH site here.

Regarding a "plastic and tin" Moon Crawler I found this response to me from our very own Bill which I've never posted I don't think.

"Rolling back to that question and Howard Elson referring to a 'moon crawler made out of plastic and tin', I recalled a sixties toy which fitted (roughly) those criteria. The Super Moon Patroller. 

If you look at the drawing of the moon crawler from the UFO Tank box .....

and also compare the wheels from the toy with the SWORD Moon Crawler and the antenna with the Spacex Surveyor below [left], there are similarities. 

I'm not sure it would fit the correct time-frame though? Bill."

Can anyone date the Super Moon Patroler readers?

THE QUERCETTI FIREBALL XL5

There's a brilliant short article about the development of Quercetti's Fireball XL5 toy by Graeme Walker of Canada. This article appears on The Big Red Toy Box.

HERE COMES TOBOR (AND ROBERT)

Continuing my delve into Sci-fi films of the past, I watched Republic Pictures' 1954 classic,  Tobor The Great, about a revolutionary mechanical man , designed to fly space rockets. However, before Tobor gets the chance to reach the stars, foreign agents kidnap his creator, Professor  Nordstrom and the professor's grandson, and it's down to Tobor to rescue them.

Tobor (a reverse anagram of robot) was designed by Robert Kinoshita, who went on to create Forbidden Planet's Robbie, and the B-9 from Lost in Space.

Ideal's Robert The Robot toy, which came out at the same time as Tobor enjoyed a bit of cross marketing, and although Robert doesn't appear in the film , several publicity photos show Tobor and the film's young star, Billy Chapin  appearing with Robert. 

Here's the film on dailymotion

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xeodlw_tobor-the-great_shortfilms

The unsold pilot for a proposed TV series called, Here Comes Tobor

ACTION MAN RIBBONS AND RANKS

I was fascinated by hierarchies when I was kid: who was the best, which was the fiercest, what was the oldest what came next and so on.

I loved all kinds of hierarchies: monsters, cars, football teams, dinosaurs, planes and the Armed Forces.

The Armed Forces were a particular favourite as I was a huge Action Man fan as a nipper. I adored the coloured stripes some of the jackets, the epaulets on some of the coats and the small metal medals which featured in some of the sets. 

I used to compare them to my Dad's real medals and my Mum's insignia from their time serving in the Royal Navy and the WAF in WW2 respectively.

A couple of years ago I posted about an Action Man Adventure Team decorated jacket I had. Reader Paul V kindly explained the significance of the collar badge and ribbons in the comments.

I've often wondered since I was a kid which was the highest rank possible in the Action Man world? Also, what were the most decorations possible for an Action Man? Of course in the US and elsewhere it may have been different.

Current UK Armed Forces rankings look like this:

COSMIC MONSTERS FROM PLANET X

I was watching the Strange World of Planet X last night, which is a kind of crossover between 'THEM' and 'The Day The Earth Stood Still'.
It's loosely based a book by Rene Ray, and like many British made sci-fi thrillers  uses tension rather that expensive effects to entertain.
In America it was called Cosmic Monsters , and like a lot of films made during the late fifties, it's a cautionary tale dealing with the atomic age and pushing the boundaries of science .

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x20k1cq_strange-world-of-planet-x-1957_shortfilms

CAPE KENNEDY MOMENT

Picture: NASA

May 20th 1969

from the NASA Apollo 11 Image Gallery

MARS WANTS MEN!

The ultra low budget cult classic 1954 Danziger brothers produced, Devil Girl from Mars  featured a neat flying saucer, a slow moving robot and a leather clad domitrix on the hunt for male breeding stock to take back to her planet.

What's not to like!

A bit pf trivia: One of the sound editors was  Gerry Anderson.

GERMAN UFO TV BOOK 1971

Century 21 Merchandising stretched right across Europe particularly when it came to UFO. 

There are Italian books and here's one from Germany I saw on  The Cartoonist blog here. Its called In Den Faengen Der Ausserirdischen dated 1971.

ROBOTS AND ZOMBIES

A publicity shot from The Earth Dies Screaming., one of my favourite vintage British Sci -Fi B movies.

RISING FUN: THE MYSTERIOUS SOFT RUBBER SPACE TOYS OF JAPAN

Looking at Kusachian's small Japanese toys blog I realised that I had some of them!

Years ago I bought a bag of soft rubbery plastic space vehicles for fun. I've sent batches out over the years to friends. You may have got one or two! I blogged about them in 2012 here.

Unless I'm seeing things I reckon some of them are the same as these on Kusachian's site and ....... they fit together!

Looks like these are Omake or small premiums and came in that small box along with this leaflet depicting the full spaceship.

So what is it readers? What is this mysterious craft that I have soft parts to?