This article brings together all the research I've done on the blog about the late Seventies brand Star Command by Calfax.
It includes previous blogging and some brand new information and observations I've had.
The challenge with researching this line is the sheer number of toy companies, sub-brands and trademarks involved: Calfax, Caprice, Star Command, Star Raiders, Starroid, Starroid Raiders and Tomland.
Probably the brand most popular with collectors is the 'Tomland' - like figure line called Star Raiders and Starroids by Caprice/ Calfax. There are loads of websites devoted to the countless variations of these 'Tomland' - related figures, large and small, so I won't reinvent the wheel about them, but they are fascinating and I imagine an addictive collecting area [if you have any of them send us your pics!]
Star Command itself is one of the hardest toy lines I've had the pleasure of researching but I was so chuffed to find that there's also a Thunderbirds connection!
Check out the 1979 backing card of Calfax's Star Command Interplanetary Starroid figure called BICO [ previously Morlock in the earlier Monsters of Legend series].
Yes, there's a Thunderbird 3 and 4 pictured!
Now what have they got to do with Star Command?
The uber-cool Plaidstallions noticed this connection as well in their Star Raiders section, but further mention of the significance of the Thunderbirds craft wasn't made.
Well, buried deep in my memory I recalled a Thunderbird 4 kit I couldn't quite place. Scouring my blog archive, success! Eh voila! The Star Command Galaxy Airsub aka Thunderbird 4, the very same featured on Bico's backing card!
Here we have, pictured below from the blog in 2011, the Galaxy Airsub space model kit.
As I understand it the Galaxy Airsub was a rehash of the Lincoln International snap-together Thunderbird 4 kit below.
I couldn't find any other online reference to the Star Command Galaxy Airsub other than my own previous pair of posts! This is one uncommon kit!
I've no idea how Calfax/ Caprice got hold of Lincoln International kits though, but looking at the Bico figure backing card above and the pictured Thunderbird 3 it would make sense if there was a Star Command Thunderbird 3 kit as well - a Galaxy Rocket maybe? If there is I certainly can't find one online.
Lincoln International's own Thunderbird 3 kit is well known.
But perhaps the most exciting of all the Star Command Thunderbirds kits is one that I was unaware of until this week but one that has been right under my nose since 1996!
Its the Star Command Galaxy Transporter aka Thunderbird 1!
A picture of it has been languishing in my Anderson toy bible by Dennis Nicholson all these years!
If you thought the Galaxy Airsub was hard to find on the web then the Galaxy Transporter is positively non-existent. I couldn't find a sausage!
is it possible that there's more Lincoln kits masquerading as Star Commands out there?
Any information and pictures greatly received as always.
The other Star Command space toys were are all radios, a mixtures of chunky robots and vehicles, which featured small silver astronauts in the windows.
Released around 1977, these radios were a Calfax/ Caprice speciality and go to prove just how diverse the whole Star Command brand was, ranging from action figures to model kits to radios!
The Star Command radios are all well documented on online sites like The Old Robots and various vintage radio sites and often appear on auction sites as this sample of old auction photos shows:
Star Explorer
1-M-1 Starroid Robot
[there are many more Star Command robots]
Aqua Star Air-Sub
[is this from a TV show anyone?]
Dark Invader
There are many more Star Command radios and figures, a members club and even a battery operated Interplanetary toothbrush, a sort of white Task Force 2, pictured in this Caprice/ Calfax catalogue, top right.
There's also a rather nice white space glider of sorts bottom left which appears to be a light control target game. Anyone got one?
You can check out some more Calfax ads at the brilliant Golobthehumanoid and here are Calfax's various trademarks that help in researching this fascinating and eclectic range should you wish to delve into it too!
What do you think of the range readers?
If anyone has any Star Command or Calfax-Caprice toys then please send us your pics!
