The Booster Rocket was one of my favourite toys as a kid in the late Sixties.
It was the multi-fuel-tank rocket from Project SWORD.
It first appeared in SOLO comics as part of the strips and also the toy itself featured in ID charts and competitions.
Here's one such competition in SOLO August 1967. The Booster Rocket is picture C. All you had to do was name it and the others!
I was six at the time, didn't read SOLO but fortunately got a Booster anyway thanks goodness!
The toy itself was magnificent. Its blue fuel cells could all be detached and the whole thing could be disassembled. In fact it came like that in its box.
With batteries in place and by turning the larger red button it would roll along the floor with an illuminated rear red exhaust. The rather cool looking silver jet at the front could also be ejected from the nose via the front red button.
All in all a fantastic toy and one which I loved to play with as a young Project SWORD captain.
A number of other Booster Rocket toys exist and courtesy of Bill B here are the four of the five we know of [the fifth is a miniature rocket found in the Thunderbirds 7 kit, also on the blog]
From top to bottom: Century 21 original, Hoover clone, SpaceX miniature and R&L style cereal model from Mexico [built and painted].
Perhaps the best-known artistic representation of the Booster Rocket was Ed Valigursky's wonderful painting in the Man and Space book well-known to space fans.
Multiple-fuel-celled space rockets have a long history in vehicle design and like the Project SWORD toy these early designs influenced scale models like this Convair Manned Lunar Reconnaissance Vehicle released by Strombecker and designed by Krafft Ehricke.
Booster Rockets designs have also provided pulp book cover artists across the world.
This Agente Espacial No1 ship is like a streamlined version of the Valigursky/ SWORD design.
This Galaksija craft appears to be a simplified rendition of the Strombecker/ Ehricke design. The cover artist has thrown in a 2001 Space Odyssey astronaut as well for good measure.
Have you got a Booster Rocket?
My Project SWORD Booster Rocket has long gone, but I really like the cover art on these old European sci fi paperback novels, Woodsy. Always a welcome sight to see these vintage illustrations. More so when they 'borrow' from popular sci fi :)
ReplyDeleteSo you had the Booster Tone? Did you have any other SWORD toys?
DeleteAs a lad I had the Booster, Probe Force 2, and my childhood fave, Task Force 1. As an adult collector I've also had a few come and go through the black hole of ebay over the years :)
ReplyDelete"As a lad I had the Booster" ha ha, we all had a booster. I still have the scar! Nice collection Tone. Did they all come from the same childhood toyshop?
ReplyDeletehttps://superfantasticmodel.wordpress.com/2018/10/18/moebius-convair-nev-1/
ReplyDeleteDon’t know if links are allowed, but if so, here’s a similar Rocket I built last summer.
Links are fine Zigg. That's a gleamingly gorgeous model you've made and clearly a relative of the Booster Rocket. Wow! What a great job youve done.
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