The cover art is by that bastion of SWORD and SpaceX inspirations, the late great Ed Valigursky.
I really like Ed's cover LAMA. I've no idea if such a cosmic canon appears in the story but I think Ed's looks better than the SpaceX toy.
The light blue body, the more electrode-like black turret and the red checked rear end, reminiscent of the red check nacelle tops on the SpaceX toy ATS, all make for a really appealing vehicle. Why did Tria-ang choose metallic red instead?
The pilot is prominent too, which is less so on the toy I feel, although I have only ever seen photographs and not the actual toy!
It's probably just my poor eyesight. As a result I didn't put much effort into a pilot figure at all in the two LAMA's I scratchbuilt. Just a white pin head in the green one! Lazy!
Interestingly Sinister barrier, the title of the book, is taken from an excellently-written passage within it:
The scale of electro-magnetic vibrations extends over sixty octaves, of which the human eye can see but one. Beyond that sinister barrier of our limitations, outside that poor, ineffective range of vision, bossing every man jack of us from the cradle to the grave, invisibly preying on us as ruthlessly as any parasite, are our malicious, all-powerful lords and masters – the creatures who really own the Earth!
There must be some sort of canon in the story as this different - almost telephone speaker -like one appears on this particular cover. Has anyone read the book? Can you shed light on the meaning of the canons?
Although the above cover wasn't one of Ed Valigursky's he did paint more space canons.
Here's another one of Ed's, the turret of a sort of hover tank on the cover of Philip K. Dick's Clans of the Alphane Moon.
What do you think of this vehicle?
I can't think of any other cosmic canon-type toys from my generation. The exception was of course the Firebolt Laser Canon, which was one of the main vehicles of the Major Matt Mason toy fleet. I adored my canon as a kid and can recall vividly inserting Captain Laser's solid feet into its slots.
LP made a miniature version of the Firebolt. It was released as part of Imperial Toys' 1970 Apollo Moon Exploring carded series. A lot less detailed than Triang's LAMA, it is possibly on the same toy scale. It would be interesting to see the two canons together of anyone has both!
Here's LP's cool mini canon on its own as photographed on the blog by Scoop in 2012.
Can you think of more space canons or laser canons readers?
There's the Firebolt Space Cannon toy from Major Matt mason. You can see it was the inspiration for the Imperial toy from this view: http://www.wildtoys.com/MMMPage/MattelPlaysets/6340_FireboltTop.asp
ReplyDelete|It sure does Lance. Was it called the Firebolt Space Canon in the US? It was the Firebolt Laser Canon over here I'm sure. Wonder why the change? The Firebolt may also have inspired a whistle by Bruder. See what you think. http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2010/01/firebolt-lazer-whistle-or-what.html?m=1
DeleteI think the whistle is just a similar look and not really influenced by.
DeleteAs for the name change, I suspect probably some form of censorship/common sense. The US name indicates it is the Firebolt Cannon designated for use in space. Given that name, it "might lead to some thinking it only works in space and not on Earth" or that it "fires space" which is a downright silly idea.
As for the UK name, we get that it is still the Firebolt Cannon but is not "restricted" for play value by being for space only (not that that ever stopped any of us from playing with our toys as we wanted). So your version fires lasers which every kid knows of.
Plenty of room for lasers but look around your place, if you're like me, you never really have enough space let alone enough to spare for ammo ;-)
Ta for the insights Lance as always. I agree about the whistle. Coincidence. Yeah, its funny how names got changed on toys spanning the Pond. Same with Golden Astronaut toys and SpaceX. The Firebolt Laser Canon was one of the best toys I ever had for sure!
DeleteI'd give my eye teeth to be able to illustrate like that. A real lost art...
ReplyDeleteYep, Ed Valigursky was brilliant. A dark haired man appears in many of his paintings with people. I wonder if its sort of himself? Just google Ed Valigursky.
DeleteThat little green cannon looks just like a WW1 heavy howitzer, especially the wheels, perhaps a British 8 inch, dressed up with a space-suited figure, radar scanner, and a couple of domes. From the spring in the barrel I assume it actually fires some sort of projectile - plastic shells or the usual half a matchstick ?
ReplyDeleteSee what you mean Paul. Just checked, its a deadringer!
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