Moonbase Central has, over the last 12 years solved many mysteries relating to the Project SWORD toyline and several other ranges. With such a wide reader base and the hard work of the base bloggers, it has been possible to uncover details of toy lines and other related information, that was previously assumed to have been lost.
Back in the heyday of the blog, we had the help of of ace researcher Kim Stevens, who worked on the phenomenal Gerry Anderson Comics archive and Kim would spend long hours in the British Library archives, poring over various trade journals and magazines and kindly delivering us any space toy related snippets. One such fascinating item was the mysterious Project SWORD bus ticket. Kim reported thus:
I Came across this snippet today in Retail Newsagent, Bookseller and Stationer, dated November 2nd 1968:
SWORD Toys Campaign
A PROMOTIONAL and advertising campaign to boost the SWORD range of space-age toys from Century 21 Toys Ltd. is being launched throughout the country during November.
The campaign will embrace trade, provincial Press and children's comic advertising, advertising on millions of bus tickets and competitions for both retailers and consumers.
It starts in Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow in November when millions of bus tickets in these three key cities will carry advertisements for SWORD toys.
Early in December the 280, 000 circulation comic TV 21 will carry a "Design a new SWORD toy" competition with a first prize of a hovercraft trip to France.
Advertising is planned for TV 21, Eagle, Valiant and Buster, and Century 21 Toys are holding a national window display contest with separate classes for retailers and special display staff.
It was suggested that as Birmingham was the heart of 'ATV Land' , according to some who worked on 'TV21' it may have given the higher percentage of reader feedback, probably owing to the Anderson series receiving a greater profile in its native region.
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