Walker Rider

 I'm not sure about this, the Walker Rider.

Is it a generic thing for other action figs like Micronauts or is it a toy in itself, even a knockoff?

There's hints of Micronauts, Galaxy Riders and more!

What do you think?

My other Car is a Jaguar!

 Yesterday I saw a battered old Jaguar car at an auction house.

It made me think of the black jaguar on the Avengers Shooting Game target set.

A proper black vintage jaguar would look like these old beauties as found on the web.

Cor!

If I had one of these I'd just sit in it all day on the driveway! Ha ha

The black one on the Merit toy box is similar. Here's one on the Vectis site. I assume that's Emma Peel with Steed. What a fabulous toy. I'd have loved it as a kid.

Did they actually use an old Jag like this in the TV show?

MoonBase Verify: Somportex Sweet-Filled JR21 Thunderbirds

In response to my last post and Kevin's observations I've reposted this very first piece about the sweet-filled JR21 Thunderbirds toys.

Note that it's 16 years old and none of the links will work, sorry.

Hope it all makes sense. Looks like the motors were missing and the gap filled with the sweets.

*

Hello Woodsy

Thanks for the mail & the comments about my thunderbirdsvintagetoys
site.

The sweet filled TB2s - Christies worked a real flanker with
those. They were sealed in 4's - in brown paper.They wouldn't open them for
viewing so it was pot luck as to what was inside & the state of it. All 32
eventually ended up with a friend of mine. I got the best box etc but strangely
he kept the only bag of sweets still in their original 60s state. They were
spiders & bugs etc.

I never knew there was so much SWORD stuff.
I do recall a 2nd hand/junk shop in Nottingham having bucketloads of the stuff
in the late 80s @ 50p each - presumably from clearing old stock- I'd only
just gotten into collecting & wasn't wise enough to buy
it.

Sadly I cannot answer your questions about
SWORD but ......... I have put them & a link to your blog on my
site http://thunderbirdsvintagetoys.co.uk/ExternalLinks.htm

The TB2 you have found is not mine. There are quite a few of them about.
Here's another http://www.solnet.co.uk/metropolis/albumdet.asp?id=1035

The common thing is all the boxes are stained. Very few have sweets in any
state.

Dennis Nicholson loved the "with sweets" story too. The guy that told it to me is sadly long dead. I have no reason to disbelieve it. He worked for JR21 & Lincoln International too apparently.
A lot of the JR21 stuff that's around came from him. He - again apparently - handled shop returns & made good out of bad. And hoarded it. What foresight?

I believe the "Stingray Museum" site is long gone. I did
hear that the stuff was all sold & split up.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Regards,
Steve.

SWEET FILLED JR21 THUNDERBIRDS TOYS: re-printed from thunderbirdsvintagetoys with kind permission from Steve the site owner.

To get a set of JR 21 vehicles is hard enough? What about the RARER ones?

There's a story to tell.............and here's how it was told to me, many, many, many years ago- by an ex-employee of JR 21 Toys. And, of course, it might be a work of total fiction. Here goes..............

5
In the mid 1960s JR21 decided to move production of their toys from Hong Kong to England. When manufacturing in England was set up & in production it was discovered that toolings to make parts of the friction motors had not been brought over from Hong Kong. In order not to disrupt production nor reduce sales prices it was decided to compensate for the lack of a friction motor by including a packet of sweets within each box. All mention of a friction motor on the box was covered by a sticker saying "SWEET FILLED" (TB2 top picture)

6
So this was done for a limited time.......................

2 batches (as far as I am aware) of Thunderbird 2's containing sweets have turned up & been auctioned through Christies. As, over the years, the sweets had disintegrated & covered the boxes with a sticky mess, it was difficult to find good examples. Most of the boxes were stained.

I also have a Thunderbird 1 with the "SWEET FILLED" stickers on the box (bottom picture). There is no friction inside apart from the metal casing which held the motor. Presumably it was necessary for this to be there to hold the wheel axle.That being the case I can only assume that there were "SWEET FILLED" Thunderbird 3s & FAB 1s done? Anyone know? Anyone have one?

What a fabulous JR21 story Steve! Thanks ever so much for letting me re-use it. If you haven't checked out Steve's TB Toys site then get to it. Highly Recommended! Woodsy, 2009.

Thunderbird Chew

 A blast from the past this, the uber-cool JR21/ Somportex Thunderbird 2 sweet-carrying toy.

The Somportex label is clearly seen under the two detached wings.

Did you have one or any rocket filled with sweets or candy?

Sausages and Supercar in South Yorkshire

 In my ongoing quest to find novelty Hong Kong plastic toys I visit a lot of emporiums.

My mate calls it junking.

One place we visit is Harrisons near Rotherham. A massive hangar if what seems like a million glass cabinets and an auction house to boot. They do a mean sausage butty too! 

Today's trip didn't garner anything I wanted but there's always interesting stuff. Here's a few tasty morsels I clocked. See what you think.

Glass bead ashtrays that were everywhere in my parents' home when I was a kid. Do you remember them?

An interesting BMW radio!

Fridge deodorisers! Really? Where do they hang?

A proper little Hoover, an exact copy of the one in my folks' house!

This Snow White house is new to me. You?

I'm sure this image is in Action Man packaging. Is that right?

A Give a Show Projector starring Thunderbirds!

A, I assume older, Super Show projector starring Supercar and Fireball XL5!

Pelham ventriloquist's puppet. I didn't know they made those too.

A quarter of the hangar from above.

Unknown ceramic figures. Anyone know what they are? French soldiers?

Classic soda vending machine.

Classic one arm bandits.

A lovely garage, maybe home made. Where's Amersham?

Palitoy's finest and Barbie steward.

One of a huge range of mint boxed Corgis.

All pristine, factory fresh and so cheap!

And then my mate said:

They're re-issues! 

Really? Have Corgi reissued everything?

The Man from Uncle See Through Walls Pen by Hidden Devices

 Years ago I got hold of a Propmasters catalogue offering for sale the personal Man from Uncle memorabilia collection of David Oliver, Propmasters founder.

Listed was a rare UK version of the Marx Man from Uncle Counterspy Set from 1966.

Unlike the US version, this one was listed with a Big Pen included.

I've never known what that Big Pen was. 

This week I found out about a Marx See Through Walls pen offered as a US mail in in the Sixties. It's chunky, maybe that means big?

See what you think. Could this be the mysterious Counterspy Set big pen? 

AKIRA

Seeing this ace Bandai Akira motorcycle on auction .....

... Reminded that I have this film on VHS and also a film artist's cel - from Akira the 1989 movie.

It was one of a large set I bought 25 years ago at the NEC Memorabilia. I sold them all except this one a few years later when I had a vintage toy fair stall. It's the one that got away.

 It's a bit of a tentacle writhing off Akira's cryo-chamber in the ocean off Tokyo Bay as seen in this GIF. You can almost spot the exact bit! 

 Did you or do like Akira?

Have you any film cells?

Will's Tin Boat

Hi Woodsy

Following Ed's pictures of his Hess lithoe'd tin battleship, here's the sail version.

Enjoy.

Will O.

Kev's Corgi Commer Fleet

 It's Vantastic! 

A REMINDER OF THE UFO LOCATION TOUR: PROJECT FORD

 Another reminder of the UFO Location tour, or to give it it's full title, PROJECT: FORD and UFOria 3: ALIENS ATTACK – Part 1. This is the big one for fans of Gerry & Sylvia Anderson’s UFO, which takes place on 31^st October to 2^nd November, 2025 at  Moor Hall, Cookham village situated in the county of Berkshire

Following in the footsteps of  last year’s successful Secret Service Location Tour this tour has very limited spaces, and as I write this it's now down to just 12 places .

Like Space: 1999, I know there's a lot of fans of UFO who stop by here.

Apart from the tour of locations in the Pinewood area seen in UFO, and one or two other Anderson puppet TV series, there’s also special guests, including Puppeteer Mary Turner and Ayshea Brough, who played Ayshea Johnson in the series, plus the extra special guest who’s flying in from Australia to attend is Keith Alexander who played SHADO Operative Keith Ford, hence the convention title.

Keith Alexander-Buckley as Lt. Keith Ford

There’s a full weekend of great nostalgic entertainment including talks, autographs, model displays which feature original props, and the odd bit of vintage merchandise, so anyone going should take some cash. Plus there’s a limited opportunity to have your photo taken in one of the original SHADO Jeeps with one of the original UFO cast!

Ayshea Brough who played SHADO Operative Ayshea Johnson.

SHADO Jeep restored by James Winch.

More info here: https://fanderson.org.uk/project-ford-and-uforia-3-aliens-attack/