Reader Rob from the USA asked me about this image earlier in the Lockdown.
"I was poring over your amazing cull of vintage newspaper pages, and came upon one that really stumped me - although I have a feeling that Swordies will know what they are. They are two toys depicted in the Neisner's ad, and they are blatant knockoffs of Thunderbird 2 and Thunderbird 3, but weird permutations I have never seen before. What are these?"
Rob C
The two toys shown are 2 of the 3 Nova spaceships released by Tarheel Industries in the late 1960's.
We've featured them a few times on Moonbase as they do have Thunderbirds roots.
The left hand rocket is definately a Thunderbird 3 knockoff, but done with great style and the characteristically bright colours of Tarheel's toys.
Interestingly I'd never noticed the similarity of the right-hand toy to Thunderbird 2 before until Rob mentioned it. Yes, its basic form and wings are there!
The toy may have been further inspired by a model in the film Thunderbird 6. See the labels below.
The third toy, not shown in this Newspaper ad for some reason, is the other Nova, a large version of the SpaceX Hawk space jet. Again click on the labels below.
The three Tarheel rockets came in individual window boxes and make great display items. Durham Toys also offered these three toy spaceships on blister cards as rack toys.
have you got any?
I'm probably the only guy who didn't know what these toys were, but now I do! That one on the right looks like Uncle Fester put Thunderbird 2 on his stretching rack!
ReplyDeleteHardly Zigg. I have the three Novas and have never linked them to TB2. TB3 yes, but not 2. Doh! So thanks!
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