The second mystery thrown up by my recent video stocktake of my Project SWORD badges was whether the Cape Kennedy Set included a badge and if so which?
Comic adverts picturing the Cape Kennedy Set in 1967 stated that ALL SWORD boxes contained a badge and a Manual.
The toy's box itself doesn't verify this as it omits to say anything about a badge.
My own set bought in the 1990's doesn't include a badge but my set cannot be considered complete or mint - I have blogged about this - and so may not be representative. It has to be said though that in my original SWORD toys checklist based on my own toys in 1998 it does contain this intriguing statement about my own Cape Kennedy set:
No reference to a badge on the box, although the set comes with the Official Manual and a plastic Sword badge ( Commander - see badges)
Did my set originally come with a Commander badge and has since gone missing?
So what about mint boxed examples of the toy? Do they contain badges? Here's a small gallery of online pictures I archived over the years:
This mint set appeared on Ebay in 2014 complete with all its inner packaging and a manual [not shown]. There was however no mention of a badge in the description.
This set, although disassembled, featured on Vectis in 2014 as well. Interestingly in contains 2 badges, a blue Astronaut and a red Commander.
I didn't record the source of this third complete set unfortunately as it also contained a red Commander badge.
A final reference comes from reader Arto, who kindly informed the blog about his own CK set:
Just checked my Cape Kennedy Set which is supposed to have come with first-owner original contents. Found an Astronaut badge still inside the folded manual.
The common thread that is starting to emerge is the inclusion of either a red Commander badge. a blue Astronaut badge or indeed both.
Is it possible that without clear guidance in the factory that there was some flexibility about which badge - blue, red or both - being included in the set?
On balance I think I will be happy to have either of them in my own Cape Kennedy toy.
Any further info about your own set and badges gratefully received!
Having written my earlier remark, I begun to have some second thoughts because the manual containing the Astronaut badge in my set was sharply folded vertically - the way they used to come in smaller TF boxes. I would assume there is no need to fold the manual, going into such a large box set. So there is a chance that the Astronaut badge + manual combo was added later.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, it would be more along the lines of the badge logic to include a higher-ranking Commander into the Cape Kennedy Set. So if it were a question of opinion, I would opt for Commander.
Yes, I do see what you mean Arto about the Commander being a more feasible rank for such a big toy. There is a folded Manual in one of the pictures above but then again there is also a flat one as well. I will have to ask Ferryman which badge his set contains.
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