CENTURY 21 & SPACEX TOYS

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about Spacex toys and their connection with Century 21.

As most of us know TV21 is littered with several designs that would eventually form part of the Spacex toy range.  JR21 and Century 21 toy maker, Jack Rosenthal was the man behind Project SWORD and Spacex, and inspiration was drawn from the pages of TV21 and its associated publications.

I’ve dusted off my old Spacex diorama so here we go…

Although there’s plenty of Spacex inspired designs amongst the pages of TV21, I’ve chosen three Spacex toys that had their first appearance, drawn by Eric Eden in the 1966 TV21 Summer Extra, starting with the Spacex MLP.

The inspiration for the Spacex Mobile Launching Ramp was taken from an article on Universal Engineering Incorporated, a company that (in the TV21 universe) builds the fantastic vehicles that appear in the various Gerry Anderson TV series, and features in the TV21 strip,’ The Investigator.’

The Spacex Nuclear Pulse.

The Nuclear Pulse was initially envisaged as a World Army Command Craft, a heavy duty super freighter with the designation, CGX 9 in the Summer Extra feature, Defence 2066.

The Spacex Nuclear Pulse space station is seen as a flying saucer and spaceship launch pad.

Finally, the Spacex Needle Probe.

This was seen as a stratospheric reconnaissance craft used by the World Air Force, as can be seen in the above page from the Summer Exra.

The Spacex Needle Probe is one of the smaller pocket money bubble card range that could be found in local newsagents or Woolworths in the UK.  Spacex also saw releases in America under the Golden Astronaut banner.

The box art for the MLP and the NPX-9...