Hoover's Spaceships: Swallows and Rockets

Hoover released two Swallows.

Recently I saw this one on auction. It's Hoover's militarized F-111 version of the pair.

Five guns, red colouring and a tailfin were added for combat readiness.

This is its civilian counterpart in pearl white. I prefer this one as it's spacier.

The same box was used for both.

Similar to the Swallow, some time ago I got hold of a Rocket Car by Hoover.

I was looking for toys, which may have cast some light on Hoover's Project SWORD knockoffs.

Not to be confused with the similarly named HOVER, Hoover toys were marked with a geometric arrow and an Art. No. My rocket car is numbered 302 but is sadly unboxed.

This boxed version of my rocket car appeared later. There was no mention of Hoover in the listing and the box says 'Empire Made'. It could be the original, which Hoover knocked off. Does anyone know?

Hoover also made this Rocket XL9 Spaceship.

Packaged in a red striped box similar to that of the Swallow Rocket. The model number is 304.

This is a stripped-down Probe Force 3 and is also a knockoff.

The source of the toy can be traced accurately to the JR21 original, which has the same name, box and even the same model number, 304!

Anymore HOOVER or HOVER rockets or rocket cars out there readers?

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Breaking News! New Rockets coming to MC! 

IT WAS A CASE OF DRAGGING DOWN A BLUEBIRD BOX WITH COMBAT MAN FROM THE ATTIC!

 I've been rummaging in the attic and dragged out a few bits.

This is a nice 1983 Buebird Toys plastic carry case. I remember buying it at Thorpe Arch car boot sale a couple of years ago, full of MASK figures and toys [since sold on].

Very dirty but since cleaned up, the case is a sort of large lunch box. It must have been for storing Bluebird toys at the time. I've read that it was part of a Masters of the Universe competition prize as well but 1983 and its toys passed me by I'm afraid, as I was trudging round the mountains of Snowdonia most of that year just prior to becoming a Dad!

Is this case something you remember?

This is a large talking Thunderbird 2 from 1999. It could be Vivid Imaginations. It says Carlton on it. I got it for Junior last year in a charity shop but he's sort of moved away from Thunderbirds onto Pokemon and Nintendo Switch.

I added a home-made roller to the pod so it would roll and made sure all the talking and sound effects worked, as well as the spring-loaded legs. Not sure what went inside the pod. Its a big TB2, around 18 inches long. Its best features besides the pod are the opening cockpit and the descending grapple hook. Is this one you had readers?

This one was put away for a future sale, a gorgeous child-size plastic toy hoover from Zodiac Toys, which I bought on Doncaster second hand market a few years back.

I fixed the battery unit and once working it roared like a hoover, filled the bag with air and the front lit up just like the proper big one we had when I was a nipper!

Its great to see a Zodiac Toys price tag again. It was one of my favourite toy shops in Preston in the 1960's and early 1970's. That red ZODIAC lettering is so memorable!

Do you recall Zodiac Toys readers?

The last toy I dusted off was this Combat Man military Train Set, which I bagged a few years back at a boot sale, whilst on holiday.

It was the box art that drew me in first, very reminiscent of Action Man or Airfix toy soldier boxes.

Maybe Combat Man was a brand?

I had to replace two train wheels and an axle with home-made ones so it could run and also gave it a new cellophane box lining.

It looks great chugging round its circular track, the Special Forces livery flashing by.

I've just noticed the loco has a front light too!

Have you anything like this readers, a military train?

Dome Is Where The Car Is

 This was a revelation at the time, a wholly new space toy for MC seen on Facebook, the domed Space car.

It looks like Christmas morning 1967!

If you have FB then re-live it again!

I don't have FB so can't access it properly. if you do look then please let me know if see anything else of interest in this store.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=232205420286447&story_fbid=1373930016113976

DOME SWEET DOME

There's something cute about Popeye leading this small group of plastic toys on Worthpoint. He looks pleased with his snow dome. Not sure what's in it? Olive oil?

The ball seems to sit will with the two domes vehicles. The orange one is a T in a Circle space ship and the white moon car is by Hover or Hoover I think.

Have you got any of these?

AUSTIN 1800 by HOVER OF HONG KONG

Another nice plastic toy I saw this year by Hong Kong copyists Hover, here's the Austin 1800.

Hover knocked off Project SWORD toys in the Sixties and they are now unusual and sought after additions to a SWORD collection.

Have you got anything by Hover or the related Hoover brands?

Avoid that Droid

A mate gave us a spare robot floor cleaner. It's very small and plastic and has bump n go action like the toys of the sixties! Reminds me completely of the SWORD Moon Prospector, which I adored as a kid.

Alas, despite my nostalgic gawping, little Moonbase Miss can't stand it! The whirling droid is in its back in the box! I'll have to sell it to the Jawas!

HOOVER TOYS TRAIN

Here's a Hoover Toys [Thailand] toy I haven't seen before, a plastic train set. Here's one boxed on Worthpoint. Did you have one?

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/hoover-toys-vintage-battery-operated-831866276

HOVER SPACE BIRD 3 AND CO: NEW TO THE BLOG THIS ANNIVERSARY

Its rare that new plastic space toys pop up that haven't featured on the blog yet.

So I was surprised when I saw this grouping on Twitter Bangkok, a grouping of really smart plastic toys made by Hover.

 

This is the best shot to see the group of three Hover toys.

The first new toy is a new variation of something we've seen before, the Rocket XL9 Spaceship by Hoover. This is a grey bodied version by Hover new to the blog and the colour is much more like its successor the Project SWORD Probe Force 3.

The second newbie is this Swallow Rocket colour variant in red by Hover as opposed to one we've already seen, a white Swallow by Hoover.

The F-111 lettering and the plastic guns are also new.

Last but not least is this wonderful plastic Space Bird 3 by Hover, wholly new to Moonbase. Its a cracker!

Have you got any Hover or Hoover toys readers?

A HOOVER TOY NO. 407

This is a new one on me, a rodeo boy by Taiwan toy outfit Hoover, who released some project SWORD clones in the Sixties. Have you got a Hoover toy?

https://rachelsvintageretro.co.uk/product/vintage-plastic-wind-up-toy-rodeo-donkey-cowboy-hong-kong-70s-80s/ 

HOOVER TOYS CONCORDE

 

I was surprised by this Concorde toy on Worthpoint. Its by that old blog friend Hoover Toys. The box is unlike anything I've seen by them and looks quite modern.

Have you a Concorde toy?

MYSTERY PARACHUTE

 

I was wondering how this parachute toy I saw online actually worked. Anyone know?

As an aside, the blue cone inside the bag looks amazingly like another space toy part we've featured before. Wotan's legendary spacebird nozzle blogged years ago!

JET POWERED BIRDS

I do love this 3-Wheeler, the Space Bird.

I saw this pic on an old Worthpoint auction.

So sleek and stylish, its clealy based on a landspeed record breaker like the Spirit of America.

Its almost art.

Don't know the maker. 

Do you like it?

It reminds me of my very similar grey racer by Hoover, the name of which escapes me and the shorter blue Space Racer X-50 by JR21.

CAMEL TOYS SHOOTING STAR RACE CAR

This caught my eye online.

Shooting Star friction race car by Camel, a company I've not heard of before.

Sadly there were no pics of the toy on Yahoo Japan, just the cool box, although I may have seen this in kit form.

The toy looks very sleek and almost Project SWORD-like.

It's got that Land Speed Record vibe going on.

There's a whiff of other toys here too, Hoover's Space Racer and the X-series X50. Maybe even Project SWORD's Task Force 2 in car-form.

Here's the kit I was talking about, the green one bottom left by Otaki. The brown one next to it is the forerunner of SWORD's probe Force 3.

Anyone got one?

HOVER LOTUS RACING CAR

Hover made some great toys including this rather slick Lotus Racing Car, model number 870, I saw on an old auction site. I saved the pic.

Many Hover boxes have the multi-coloured stripes around the lid edge.

Hover also released knockoffs of project SWORD vehicles covered many times over the years here on Moonbase C.

For a cloner they really weren't that bad at all and the standard of this toy looks spot on.

Have you any Hover toys or the related Hoover toys?

There's more Hover toys on the checklist below the posts. It may need updating!

HOOVER SCANS PLEASE

This is the Space Glider by Hoover.

Its an orange version of the Century 21 Space Glider from Project SWORD.

It came in a card window box.

I have the toy but not the box and despite trying have not found a loose one.

Is anyone able to email me a scan or scans of the box so that I can make a custom one for myself?

Flattened out would be superb but scans of the all the sides would be brill too.

Thanks in advance!

My email address is at the bottom of the page.

Woodsy

henry and the hoovers

My daughter recently offered me her unwanted Henry hoover as she's invested in a G-Tech, the up-to-date battery-powered appliance sweeping the nation.

Since we already have a Henry - one of those small droid-like units with a pipe - I declined the offer. I'm sure Drerek Meddings and co would have said yes and found a perfectly sensible new use for the vacuum cleaner on Thunderbirds!

In fact I'm pretty sure that there are some recycled Hoover parts somewhere in Thunderbirds. Does that ring a bell?

Speaking of vacuum cleaners I recently saw a system in a Stately Home which took vaccing to a whole new level and it was installed decades ago!

Basically a suction system had been built into the interior walls of the house and in order to access this suction flexible pipes could be inserted into one of the many holes located just above the skirting boards on each floor.

I for one was impressed although it was unclear where all the stately dust went!

As a kid I used to enjoy pushing round our Ewbank, a sort of powerless brush on wheels. I also had a small toy hoover as well I think. For some reason the words Bex Bissall are floating round my head as well. What was that?

Have you got a Ewbank, a droid-like Henry unit or an upright Hoover?

HOOVER SPACE GLIDER AUCTIONED IN 2001

This is an early'ish internet reference to a relative of Project SWORD toys, the Hoover Space Glider.

Auctioned on the net in France in 2001 along with a Tomy Space Climbing Mobile, its one of the few instances of a SWORD-like toy online that I can find from the early Noughties.

https://www.collectoys-auction.com/vente/lot/resultat/13477

The Hoover box is also one of the few things I would love in my collection and the two sold for 39 euros!

Anyone got the Hoover Space Glider box?

THE HOOVER PROJECT SWORD SPACE GLIDER

source: Ferryman and Ebay

Have you got one of these readers?

NEW YEAR, NEW HOOVER

Hoover Toys Rocket Cars

As its a brand new year I thought I'd get my hoover out! Some time ago I got hold of a rocket car by Hoover. I was looking for toys, which may have cast some light on their Project SWORD knockoffs. Not to be confused with the similarly named HOVER, Hoover toys were marked with a geometric arrow and an Art. No. My rocket car is numbered 302 but is sadly unboxed. I have seen them since, unboxed, at toy fairs and on Ebay.

This boxed version of my rocket car appeared on Ebay last year. There was no mention of Hoover in the listing and the box says 'Empire Made'. It could be the original, which Hoover knocked off. Does anyone know?

A similar SWALLOW Rocket appeared on Ebay in November this year as seen here above. It's the first one of these I've come across. The box is clearly marked as HOOVER, as is the toy and also has the model number 302.

Hoover also made this Rocket XL9 Spaceship packaged in a red striped box similar to that of the Swallow Rocket. The model number is 304. Alas, this Probe Force 3 prototype is also a knockoff and the source of the toy can be traced accurately to the JR21 original, which has the same name, box and even the same model number, 304! See for yourself below.

Anymore HOOVER rockets or rocket cars out there readers?