This article brings together all the research I've done on the blog about the late Seventies brand Star Command by Calfax.
It includes previous blogging and some brand new information and observations I've had.
The challenge with researching this line is the sheer number of toy companies, sub-brands and trademarks involved: Calfax, Caprice, Star Command, Star Raiders, Starroid, Starroid Raiders and Tomland.
Probably the brand most popular with collectors is the 'Tomland' - like figure line called Star Raiders and Starroids by Caprice/ Calfax. There are loads of websites devoted to the countless variations of these 'Tomland' - related figures, large and small, so I won't reinvent the wheel about them, but they are fascinating and I imagine an addictive collecting area [if you have any of them send us your pics!]
Star Command itself is one of the hardest toy lines I've had the pleasure of researching but I was so chuffed to find that there's also a Thunderbirds connection!
Check out the 1979 backing card of Calfax's Star Command Interplanetary Starroid figure called BICO [ previously Morlock in the earlier Monsters of Legend series].
Yes, there's a Thunderbird 3 and 4 pictured!
Now what have they got to do with Star Command?
The uber-cool Plaidstallions noticed this connection as well in their Star Raiders section, but further mention of the significance of the Thunderbirds craft wasn't made.
Well, buried deep in my memory I recalled a Thunderbird 4 kit I couldn't quite place. Scouring my blog archive, success! Eh voila! The Star Command Galaxy Airsub aka Thunderbird 4, the very same featured on Bico's backing card!
Here we have, pictured below from the blog in 2011, the Galaxy Airsub space model kit.
As I understand it the Galaxy Airsub was a rehash of the Lincoln International snap-together Thunderbird 4 kit below.
I couldn't find any other online reference to the Star Command Galaxy Airsub other than my own previous pair of posts! This is one uncommon kit!
I've no idea how Calfax/ Caprice got hold of Lincoln International kits though, but looking at the Bico figure backing card above and the pictured Thunderbird 3 it would make sense if there was a Star Command Thunderbird 3 kit as well - a Galaxy Rocket maybe? If there is I certainly can't find one online.
Lincoln International's own Thunderbird 3 kit is well known.
But perhaps the most exciting of all the Star Command Thunderbirds kits is one that I was unaware of until this week but one that has been right under my nose since 1996!
Its the Star Command Galaxy Transporter aka Thunderbird 1!
A picture of it has been languishing in my Anderson toy bible by Dennis Nicholson all these years!
If you thought the Galaxy Airsub was hard to find on the web then the Galaxy Transporter is positively non-existent. I couldn't find a sausage!
is it possible that there's more Lincoln kits masquerading as Star Commands out there?
Any information and pictures greatly received as always.
The other Star Command space toys were are all radios, a mixtures of chunky robots and vehicles, which featured small silver astronauts in the windows.
Released around 1977, these radios were a Calfax/ Caprice speciality and go to prove just how diverse the whole Star Command brand was, ranging from action figures to model kits to radios!
The Star Command radios are all well documented on online sites like The Old Robots and various vintage radio sites and often appear on auction sites as this sample of old auction photos shows:
Star Explorer
1-M-1 Starroid Robot
[there are many more Star Command robots]
Aqua Star Air-Sub
[is this from a TV show anyone?]
Dark Invader
There are many more Star Command radios and figures, a members club and even a battery operated Interplanetary toothbrush, a sort of white Task Force 2, pictured in this Caprice/ Calfax catalogue, top right.
There's also a rather nice white space glider of sorts bottom left which appears to be a light control target game. Anyone got one?
You can check out some more Calfax ads at the brilliant Golobthehumanoid and here are Calfax's various trademarks that help in researching this fascinating and eclectic range should you wish to delve into it too!
What do you think of the range readers?
If anyone has any Star Command or Calfax-Caprice toys then please send us your pics!
Quite an interesting line that I had no idea just how spread out it was in products.
ReplyDeleteThe air sub is obviously a bit of a wink at the flying sub from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.Same yellow color but that's about as close as it gets. The Dark Invader is just an alternate color of the same radio. The design reminds more of the Voyager from the animated Fantastic Journey series (not to be confused with the Proteus from the movie of the same name). Even the dome on the upper hull is in the same spot. I think it is a close in general terms but a dead on copy. Here's a pic of the Voyager model http://fantastic-plastic.com/FVVoyagerMain.jpg
It is interesting I agree Lance. There can't be many other Thunderbirds toys actually made in America can there? I totally see what you mean about the Voyager, its mightily similar! So that's another TV related spaceship they used, this time a radio. I'm surprised they didn't do a Thunderbirds radio as well.
DeleteI think I can add a little to this, although I do not have any of the Thunderbird kits. When the Lincoln International kits were available in the shops here in NZ (late 1960s or early 1970s ?) I really wanted them, but Mum said no, you had to assemble them. I knew that, they were kits.
ReplyDeleteYears later, I saw the kits again in the shops, but can not recall the brand name. Not sure exactly when, but late 1970s or early 1980s as I think I was working by then. They were rather expensive, and I was in to model aircraft kits by then, so I did not get any. I do recall there were several models in the series, which looked a lot like the kits I had longed for years earlier. All the models had different names, with (as far as I can recall) no mention of Thunderbirds. Fairly sure these were the main Thunderbirds craft, so likely Thunderbird 1, 2, 3, and 4. I can not remember if FAB 1 and Thunderbird 5 were included. This means that these kits were certainly available in NZ somewhere around 1980, give or take a few years. Again, I do not recall clearly, but I think the boxes all had photos of the models rather than paintings. I now really wish I had bought a set at the time, hang the expense.