Its years since we first featured the Elf Tracy Island on Moonbase. Maybe 14 years, something like that. I think it was Will Osborne's.
I don't think I'd ever seen one on online before that. Certainly not in real life. I don't recall seeing one in a shop, which is where they were made for, to display JR21 Thunderbirds toys.
Elf made their Island from painted wood. It looks like a model albeit very stylish. Like something that Century 21 might have used in Thunderbirds itself. Yes, it looks like a prop. I wonder who made them? Model makers? and where? In London? What do you think readers?
I've always wondered if this was the concept for the Project SWORD Moonbase Set, a wooden diorama to display a few of the Century 21 SWORD toys on in some way. I wonder if Elf were ever considered for something like this as well?
The Elf Tracy island has taken on a life of its own these days, popping up in auctions, reputable toy dealer stores and inevitably on Ebay, where it manifests in two forms, a genuine and eye-wateringly expensive complete set and also and more interestingly to a poor bodger like me, a much cheaper home made set!
I imagine countless Tracy islands have been home made over the decades: Dads and Grandads beavering away in sheds to create the perfect circular pool for Johnnie's Thunderbird 1. Somewhere out there there'll be DIY Tracy Islands just as good as the Elf Toys set and from the Sixties, gathering dust in a forgotten attic.
In the meantime Elf Toy Tracy islands continue to pop up now and then and here's an online auctioned set with a die-cast bundle from a few years back that I saved the image from [Adam - yes, Adam! - Partridge Auctions].
Did you ever see the Elf set in a toy shop readers? Did you have a Tracy Island made for you? Did you make one?
There's one on eBay.uk £2750!
ReplyDeleteYes, I've seen that Khusru! My eyes watered!
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