PROJECT SWORD TV21 AUGUST 31st 2068: THE WHIRLPOOL

What do you think of this readers?

IS THE MOON BUS A LOCOMOTIVE?

This clip of a Japanese Exploration Train toy borrowed from You Tube reminds me how similar the front loco is to the original drawing of the Moon Bus in 1963.

What do you think readers? Similar?

SENDING ACTION MAN DOWN THE CLOTHES LINE!

Like most houses my Parent's place in Preston was great for playing in.

Bits of the home just cried out for strapping a toy onto or wheeling your cars round.

I suppose there were some official requirements for using the home. Some toys needed clamping to something in order for them to work properly.

Airfix Flight Deck was a good one, where the nylon string could be attached to a door handle so the jet could land on the deck of the ship. A superb thing and a really clever design. I seem to recall it had a breaking hook too. The only problem came when your Mum opened the door and Squadron Leader Woodsy fell to earth!

Plastic die-cast car track needed clamping into something too. You know the stuff: usually bright orange or red with small vertical kerbs and a complete sod to roll up and store. They had to be clamped onto a chair or a table to create height for the starting point. Attaching them to your Dad's crossed trouser leg when he was asleep in the chair always added that surprise element too. 

From this altitude the cars of your choice - Whizzwheels, Corgi Rockets, Superfast or my own favourites, Hot Wheels - could be let loose down the near vertical slopes of orange mayhem. Loop the loops could be added for extra thrills and lines of Airfix soldiers would be sacrificed in the quest for speed.

A cruder version of the track was the do-it-yourself road of books. For some reason a long line of them, preferably hardbacks, made a fantastic motorway for cars. The longer the road the better it was and all sorts of interest could be added to the ride: hills, tunnels, bends and elevation. Even better was testing the climbability of bigger toys. 

There was something completely satisfying about watching a Scramble Bug or a Marx Hill Climbing Truck trundle along a long bumpy book road! Yes, its what the Encyclopedia Brittanica was made for!

Going down stuff was a universal principle when it came to toys, especially Action Man. Palitoy's fighting hero was often used and abused beyond the call of duty in the name of play. He had the cheek scars to prove it and I don't mean the one on his face! 

My favourite dare for him was the death slide aka Mum's washing line! On a non-wash day I would commandeer the plastic cable and remove all the pegs. I would untie one end and re-attach to a tree branch dramatically increasing the height. Before knotting I would slip over Action Man hanging from a string. Eh voila! I could while away the entire morning sending old Action to his untimely doom on the enemy's red hot pokers at the other end of the garden!

What did you do with your toys readers?

THE LOST SECOND ISSUE OF MONSTER MAG

In 1973 UK Customs and Excise confiscated and destroyed the complete stock of issue 2 of the poster magazine Monster Mag.

I loved Monster Mag as an 11 year old. It really did hit the spot and it wasn't old. It was brand new and in the Newsagents. Well issue 1 was and 3,4,5 onwards. I still have my mags collection!

Even better I've just found out that a reprint of issue 2 is now available over 40 years later! It has been for some time. Reprints of the other issues are available too!

To find out more then go to the publisher site direct here.

I have come to this party quite late so please check with the publisher regarding availability.

Do you remember Monster Mag?

WHAT'S IN THE PACKET WOODSY?

All will be revealed on the blog's 8th birthday, September 15th!

THE STORY OF MAJOR PROBLEM AND HIS RECURRING DREAM

The dream begins inside a hot blue sweaty capsule with the sun roof wide open.

Major Problem lands in a pool of lukewarm liquid and tests it.

"We've landed on a plate boundary!" he suggests to no-one in particular

"I could do with a rocket to get off this crock."

"Eureka!"

With no dream fuel left Problem lands on Planet Gravel.

Sensing he's being lead up the garden path, he searches for the nearest public phone box.

Meanwhile the Space Patrol are looking for him. Because he's a Problem, they know he won't have any change for the phone.

It becomes quite a thorny issue.

Space Patrol drop a rescue pod for our hero. He clambers in and begins to float.

He can't find the light switch though.

There it is!

His colleague battles his way to the pod but next door's Dogzilla wants to play.

Re-reinforcements arrive!

Major Problem is taken to Colonel Saunders for debriefing and promised some fried chicken.

Instead he's driven to a nearby field and told to get out.

Suddenly floodlit we can see a Major Problem.

This isn't KFC! He makes a run for it.

only to return to the place he started!

"I wonder if I'll get some KFC this time?"

The End

[thank God!]

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BEHIND THE SCENES

Must go faster!

Continental film-making!

My next project is kicked into the long grass.

IT COULD BE PROJECT SWORD: RC DYNA SOAR

Check out this You Tube rocketry with a model Dyna Soar from the States. I wonder if a project SWORD toy Dyna Soar could be converted to fly like this?

https://youtu.be/rJtHt7p-EKI?t=28s

IT COULD BE PROJECT SWORD: RC SATURN V

I love this short You Tube clip of a model Saturn V rocket being launched in the States in 2009. All beautifully constructed it really could be a Project SWORD Cape Kennedy Set!  What do you think readers?

https://youtu.be/cNyN3bBV08I?t=2m48s

FISHER PRICE ADVENTURE PEOPLE, MASK AND MANTA FORCE BOOK NEEDED

My favourite book on loose action figures doesn't cover some ranges I often see loose at Boot sales. 

One of these is the Adventure people by Fisher Price. I love this set from the Seventies, although I didn't have any back then. I have been finding the little articulated fellas for over 25 years at sales. Easily the most prolific is the bearded lumberjack figure. I've found quite a few of those chunky astronauts as well.

Alas, I have never found any of the translucent green X-Ray figures.

A gap in the market, it would be great to have a small pocket book that identifies loose examples of the following action and miniature figures and their vehicles to compliment the brilliant SU- verlag German book I have, in which they are sadly missing:

1. Adventure People

2. M.A.S.K

3. Manta Force

4. Action Force

5. STAR FORCE

6. C.O.R.P.S

7. Explorer 12

8. SpaceX/ Golden Astronaut

Can you think of any other miniatures figure lines like M.A.S.K readers?

HAVE YOU SEEN ANY FILMS WITH OLD TOYS IN THEM?

I can think of two movies featuring old toys off hand: Salem's Lot and Super 8.

There must be loads more.

Any ideas readers?

MYSTERY PROJECT SWORD RUBBER: YOUR HELP NEEDED!

Can anyone help sharpen the quality of this image I've found on an ended online auction? This is the actual image size.

I am particularly interested in this item ringed in white? Its a UFO Project SWORD rubber shape I just can't identify as it is.

Any graphical help would be great.

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POSTSCRIPT

Readers Paul V and Andy B have both kindly sent me suggestions for this mystery rubber shape.

Andy's suggested this image of the LP Explorer car as a possible 'shape' fit.

This is really interesting as it confirms what I was thinking as well, that there is a domed cockpit at the front of the blue rubber craft.

Paul's image below was very helpful too as it traces the outline. 

Paul also suggested that it may be a crawler without the dozer blade. This also concurs with what I've been thinking myself, that it is the Project SWORD Moon Ranger without the front shovel.

This also fits with what Andy suggests, as the Ranger does have a front domed cockpit like the LP Explorer Car.

The Project SWORD Moon Ranger looks like this from above at a similar angle to the blue rubber.

What do you think readers? A fit?

REPRODUCTION GERRY ANDERSON VINTAGE BOARD GAMES

Things just got a lot easier - or harder - depending on your viewpoint - for the UK vintage board game collector.

I was in a small shop called Something Different in Wentworth, South Yorkshire today and spotted a game I recognised.

It was Blast-Off by Waddingtons, the classic space game from the 1960's. With its iconic box art its unmistakable and one which found a welcome home in our house when I was growing up.

But there wasn't just one Blast-Off in the shop, there must have been twenty, all neatly displayed in rows in a special shop display base!

They were reproductions! 

The box, plastic parts, the lot! All for £11 each!

I couldn't believe it. I spent £10 just on a single original spare part last year, the white plastic moonscape!

Blast Off wasn't all. Next to it were the same number of Z Cars and Lone Ranger Board Games! They were all made by a company called West 11.

Looking them up online this afternoon I was staggered to see that they have also reproduced both the Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds Waddingtons board games from the Sixties! Alas, these trade items are sold out.

Well blow me down! If your'e after original parts then be careful what you are offered. If you want an inexpensive copy then track down a shop that sells these clones.

For further repro surprises check out West 11's full wholesale design range:

http://www.west11designs.co.uk/all-products

What do you think readers? Are these for sale in shops near you?

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PS. the small Blast Off plastic moonscape or moon I refer to above is pictured below [not to scale]:

SWORD NEWS: NEW PINK RUBBER

 I've blogged the Project SWORD UFO rubbers many times.

Here's another bundle I saw online this summer. Whilst none of these are actual SWORD vehicles the UFO backing card is the same.

The four craft remain a mystery to me to be honest. They could be generic space designs but then again they could be specific to a Japanese anime.

The pink vehicle is wholly new to me.

Anyone got any ideas what they are?

WHAT'S YOUR LATEST COLLECTABLE?

What's the latest collectable that's found its way into your humble abode readers?

Mine's two things: 

a Rosko Charlie Weaver bartender toy, which I'll do a post on at some point and a stack of vintage trashy horror paperbacks from the 1980's, which I adore! You know, Guy N. Smith and Shaun Hutson et al! 

I blame my Mum and those creepy Pan Herbert Van Thal paperbacks she read in the Sixties!

So what's yours readers? Or what will it be when you get chance?

VINTAGE TOYS AT TODAY'S CAR BOOT SALE

Today's mega boot sale in Fitzwilliam was extra ginormous and positively Californian. It was so damn hot, at 28 degrees, almost too hot to bother with the boot sale! Getting in and out was a nightmare too!

I picked up a couple of old Star Wars mini - vehicles but walked past loads of stuff as usual as I find it difficult opening my wallet these days saving for retirement!

Walk pasts included these loose nuggets:

1. Cherilea Action Man green armoured car [huge!]

2. Strike Force Action Man green Truck with tarp, beige Jeep with Trailer and beige Armoured Car

3. Hundreds of Dinky and Matchbox cars

4. Two dozen loose MPC astronauts

5. Various types of plastic Thunderbird 4 inc. the modern movie version

6. Merit Metal Puzzles set

7. Robo Force Motorbike

8. Joe 90 VHS Video

9. Blakes 7 VHS Video

10. A stack of SHOOT comics from 1971

Would you have gone for any of these readers?

The most interesting walk past was a Blue Box Laser Wars set, a toy wholly new to me. It looked quite interesting and space-age'ish: like Manta Force/ M.A.S.K. The box was a bit battered. The vendor said it was 1974 [?] and priced at £35. 

Below is a picture off Ebay of the same set in a much better box. Anyone know Laser Wars?

SWORD NEWS: TARHEEL PROJECT SWORD TASK FORCE TOYS

You don't often see the Project SWORD Task Force ships made by Tarheel of the USA.

These two of the three popped up on Ebay this summer.

The obvious differences with the original Century 21 toys are colours and livery: the original number 3 is red and not white and the engines of number 1 are black and not green.

Some lucky owner now has these two of the three Task Forces.

ROLL ON LUNCHTIME

ICE-CREAMED!

I recently had the pleasure of visiting a well-stocked ice cream vendor in St. Davids, West Wales.

You know the sort. There's a large glass cabinet with tubs of different ice-creams and a display of cornets on top.

Getting my double scoop cornet reminded me just how many more flavours there are these days. Literally dozens and dozens at the vendor I was at.

When I was a kid in the Sixties the range of flavours was tiny in comparison. The main one was what all soft ice cream tasted of, the Mister Softee taste. Its hard to describe. Cold, white, milkyness. I suppose it was vanilla maybe.

Other hues included chocolate, mint choc chip, butterscotch [or was it toffee?], the ultra exotic tuti-frutti and my personal favourite, raspberry ripple.

There was another one in the supermarket freezer aisles, Neopolitan, but this only came in blocks so your parents could look swish at the dinner table! I think it was coloured like the Italian flag.

My Missus's current favourite when in Europe is Sahne Gries, that's creamed semolina! It is quite delicious I must say.

If they can make semolina work then maybe the two bete noirs of my schoolday dinners might make it. Can you imagine, sago and tapioca flavoured ice-cream! Yuk, all those little balls!

What's your best ice cream flavour readers and is it the same as when you were a kid?

DINKY THUNDERBIRD 2 & 4

In the final look at my Dinky die-cast toys based on those that featured in Gerry Anderson's TV series I come to the ever popular Thunderbird 2.

Dinky's Thunderbird 2 first appeared in 1967 as model number 101, and remarkably for Dinky the earliest issue was a nice shade of green just like in the series. 

Unfortunately, the metal base was riveted to the top section which meant that if the thin, spindly legs snapped , they couldn't easily be replaced. However, later editions did have screws for easier accessibility.

Although that was a good idea, Dinky soon replaced the original colour with a metallic green, presumably to improve sales.

The model comes with a 'dinky' little Thunderbird 4 submarine which looks more or less to scale.

These versions of Dinky's 101 model would continue to be produced until 1973. The final edition omitted  the Century 21 wording from the base of the pod.

Dinky produced a whole new retooled Thunderbird 2 which began to appear around 1974, and with it a new number -106. (the number which formally belonged to Dinky's  Prisoner Mini Moke)

This was bigger and blue!

The legs were much more solid and a definite improvement. The first versions had die- cast bases which were painted blue.

Thunderbird 4 looks even more in scale.

However, further cost cutting measures at Dinky meant that later versions had die-cast tops and black or white plastic bases.

Production ended in 1979.

Comparing the two versions.

The early display boxes. Note the addition of Gerry Anderson's name on the later one.

The second version of the outer box along side the window box which appeared during the production's final year.