The second of our Lone Star sword customs, Steed's Sword Stick.
Steed, a la The Avengers, always carried a cane or a brolly on TV, both hiding a lethal rapier blade. In Germany it even got a mention in its TV title, Schirm, Scharm und Melone: Brolly, Charm and Bowler!
Like all Lone Star's toy swords Steed's sword stick was inserted through the card header. They must have been quite difficult to display in shops.
Our cane has a bamboo handle from China (incredibly fast shipping!), a plastic eBay fancy dress 'shepherd's crook' scabbard (very long, in sections and enough for three scabbards! Result) and various bits from the moonbase bits drawer.
.png)
The blade, like Zorro and the three to come, were all supplied by an ever-reliable eBay cosplay stockist called RubberPlantation. Their plastic rapier is just the job and could be straight out of Lone Star!
As always, it's Bill's fabulous card art that once again properly animates these home-made creations and this one's another terrific backing card from Bill International!
As a final flourish I've added a small baggy of red plastic balls to simulate the ammo bag on the original. Ours is a dummy though.
We hope you like this latest effort, our second in Operation Lone Star!
Three to go!
.png)
For fun, here's the original toy and reference courtesy of the ever-helpful John B of the fabulously comprehensive cult TV Murdersville Little Storping Museum website.
.
The sword-stick is just one of hundreds of Avengers collectables, which John has painstakingly listed and described, not to mention every other UK and US vintage cult TV show and their merchandise. Well worth a gander! Click on Sword-Stick above.
More original toy shots from Hakes.
%20(1).jpg)
We've completed our sword but it's interesting to see the one part we didn't make, simply because I've only just seen it, a tiny instruction card inside the ammo baggy. I can't read it personally. Seen on Vectis.
%20(1).jpg)
Taking my cue from Looey's carnation comment here's the intro to The Avengers from You Tube showing Steed and his sword stick!
∆
Till the next toy, one Adam Adamant.
He lives!
Little Storping eh !
ReplyDeleteBeen there many times. Even had a pint in the pub there.
It's just down the road from us ( in reality, the village of Aldbury in Hertfordshire ).
Still looks pretty similar today, but with a lot more cars parked around the place.
Ha ha, small world Mish! I had to look it up, "Little Storping in the Swuff" was the eponymous Murdersville in the Avengers episode. I really must re-watch The Avengers. Anyways, here's some location hunter's shots of Aldbury from 2017. Your pub might be in them!
DeleteYep, that's the one Woodsy.
DeleteI had a pint of Badgers ale there.
Nice Mish! Not sure I've had Badgers. Is it local?
Deletehttp://theavengers.tv/forever/locations-5.htm
ReplyDeleteAnother great looking project, with a great card from Bill. The rate at which you fly through these still amazes me. Well done to you both.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Paul. Just wait till you retire, there'll be models flying out the door! Ha ha
DeleteNot even Santa's workshop can compete with your production rate, Woodsy. Breathtaking!
ReplyDeleteThe instruction sheet seems to be for some kind of handgun toy.
Ha ha, praise indeed Arto! Santa eh! I wonder if he has samples of everything he ever delivered? Hee hee.
DeleteAnd thanks re. The little card. I will have to look into that. The steed stick does fire stuff.
Looking at the card again, it mentions a lump of potato. A Lone Star spud gun?
DeleteLone Star were famous for Spud Guns and they were brilliantly effective too! Bill
DeleteOuch!
DeleteSweeet Woodsy!! Excellent teamwork with Bill to come up with these one-off replicas.
ReplyDeleteThanks a bunch Ed. It's big fun doing these mock-offs! More to come soon.
DeleteI had a die-cast Lone Star Spud Gun as a kid, it doubled as a single shot water pistol!
ReplyDeleteI like the Steed stick a lot, but i never had one although I remember seeing them in toy shops, back in the day.
Strangely I don't think Steed ever used his sword stick operationally, he used it to snatch a carnation from the vase in the opening titles, but I think that was it.
Did he use a gun in Police Surgeon?
I'll have to rewatch my Avengers box set again (I never finished watching the Tara King episodes again after 50 years. not because I didn't like them, but because I wanted something fresh when I get back to them. I don't think I've ever seen the final episode!)
Fascinating Looey. I must add a clip of Steed snatching that carnation! Great that you saw his Sword Stick in the shops?
Delete