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Friday, 28 December 2018

SPACEX MLP AND TV21 FRIENDS

A few photos I took in May this year of my Spacex Mobile Launch Pad, re-using my old Spacex diorama board. I really should attempt to find a white version of the rocket which would probably look slightly less toy like.




As a lot of you will already know,, Spacex has quite a few connections with Century 21, and JR21. Like Project SWORD, the Spacex range was created by Jack Rosenthal,( confirmed by blog friend and Spacex expert Paul Vreede on his Spacex  toys site) who  adapted several designs seen in TV21, and its associated publications and used them for some of the toys.

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Here's the inspirational illustration from the 1966 TV21 Summer Extra, drawn by Eric Eden.


Another page from the same magazine featuring the design inspirations for the Spacex Nuclear Pulse and Needle Probe. The Hover Tank design turned up as part of the Project Sword range, although only eventually being released as part of a  cut out carded make-a-model  book.



Quite a few other designs seen in TV21 turned up later as Spacex toys.


The Space Patrol 1 which first appeared in the Ron Turner illustrated Dalek strip.


The P3 Helicopter which appeared in the Rab Hamilton Agent 21 strip.



The Lift Loader and the Nuclear Freighter appeared in the Mike Noble Fireball XL5 TV21 strip. With the Nuclear Freighter, Mike looks like he's given a nod to Thunderbird 2.

Other designs for Spacex Toys have turned up in the pages of TV21 and other Century 21 Publications, but they themselves were probably inspired by previous designs seen in generally available space books at the time


I suspect the front of the T-5 Tractor owes something to trucks seen in Thunderbirds. 


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4 comments:

  1. lewis p morley12/28/2018 9:18 pm

    I love the low angle photography -really makes them look life sized!
    I suppose you could slap your MLP photos into Photoshop and desaturate the greens to give yourself a greyish white rocket!
    As a kid, I ended up painting my green rocket white with spray paint!
    Why did toy makers always think kids would prefer green to white? -Yes, I'm looking at YOU, Dinky!

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    1. SCOOP12/28/2018 11:14 pm

      Thanks Lewis.Yeah, I suppose a spray makeover on a spare one might do the trick.
      Poor old Dinky, they still get so much stick for their colour choices. : D

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  2. ZigguratSF200012/29/2018 8:35 pm

    These are all perfect as-is. That big Space-X rocket looks much better in day-glo green, because you want it to look like the beautiful toy which it is. White is THE most boring color ever used for spacecraft (see Space: 1999). The extraordinary (and totally unrealistic) color palette of these 60s Space Toys is what makes them PERFECT! And why the vehicles in the Supermarionation programs are far better than those in the live-action Anderson series...

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    1. SCOOP12/30/2018 11:15 am

      You do have a fair point, ZigguratSF2000. The Thunderbird craft would have looked fairly dull if they had been all the same colour, and I can't imagine Zero X in white.
      I suppose as the space race unfolded and people were introduced to real life spaceships, I imagine concept designers wanted a more realistic look, especially for 1999.

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