PROJECT SWORD TOP SECRET FILE OPENED: THE BEETLE/ SNOW TRAIN

Ah, the Snow Train! What a vehicle!

The original concept illustration for the Snow Train was by the great Eric Eden in the fabulous 1966 TV21 Summer Extra, where so many origins are.

It then morphed into the Beetle/ Snow Train duo for the 1969 Project SWORD Annual.

Above shows it brilliantly illustrated on page 12 of the Annual by Malcom Stokes in its 'heat shield' mode, a caterpillar-like mole-ship, which could 'fly' through rock, lava and magma. If you've seen the modern film The Core then its the same idea only much earlier! 

This Beetle mode is also captured in the Imai Thunderbird 7 kit, although this model can also open up to launch a small Booster Rocket. It didn't do this in the Annual strip, so I'm not sure if this is based on the TV21/ SOLO comic strip? I think Imai simply made up the name Thunderbird 7. There's no such thing in the show. Or?

The Imai kit originally came out in yellow [shown below in the middle] but was later re-issued in white.

The vehicle's 'Snow Train' guise, without the curved heat-shields, looks more like a Polar CAT with tracked carriages and is the star vehicle of one of the 1969 Century 21 Cut-Out Model Books.

In 2013 Reader Joe Murray sent in these brilliant shots of his Snow Train constructed from scans of the Century 21 Make A Model books. Its the only time I've ever seen it made up.

Have you got a Snow Train or Beetle? Did you read the strip in the SWORD Annual readers?