HOVER GOOD FLIGHT!

 

For Hover fans, this their cool BA Boeing 747 with transparent roof.

Have you anything like this?

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

Hover Bovver

 Checking old auctions it was nice to see these distant cousins of SpaceX and Golden Astronaut, the Hover space range.

Years ago, we saw them boxed on MC.

Bottom is the loose Space Car and mid right is the space glider.

Not often seen, has anyone got any Hover toys like this?

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?

LIKE A LEGEND HOVERING OVER THE MOON BASE

 We don't often feature Hover's window boxed Moon Base sets on MC nowadays, largely because they so seldom appear anywhere else. Google image search doesn't recognise them either. A Goggle text search brings you to ... Moonbase Central and that's it! [apart from the 'borrowed' [hmmm] posts of mine on Planet Diecast back then].

A shame, they appear to be lovely sets straight from the space race.

For a while, over a decade ago, we enjoyed a feast of Hover. Click on the Hover label below.

So, I was excited when I clocked these two boxes a while back and kept the snaps. They could well have appeared before so I apologise if so.

Space Adventure features a fabulous ship with a ball in the middle. I've often wondered if it rolls. It recalls the overall look of Marine Boy's simple sub, with its central dome and narwhal spike. Maybe even the Jetsons flyabout. Anyone got one?

The Space Tank set includes a fabulous scramble bug toy, the so called 'tank'. I love the look of this toy but I've never seen one in the flesh. Incredibly Bill had one and the last remaining orange wheel he gave me years ago!

I assume all these Hover sets - there are more - were inspired by LP's output of Hong Kong space plastic.

There's also a small blue Hover Lunar Rover as part of the series, which Bill owned too.

Having searched the blog it's clear that the packaging of the Lunar Rover hasn't ever appeared here and I've never seen it anywhere else. You?

I might as well ask, has anyone got any of these Hover sets?

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?

COMPLETELY NEW TO THE BLOG! ARTO'S HOVER PROBE FORCE 2

My friend and uber-Project SWORD collector Arto has recently bagged from Canada something entirely new to him, me and blog, the Probe Force 2 released by Hover. 

It may well be the only one known!

Always likely but never before seen, this Probe Force 2 completes Hover's trio of Probe Forces. The boxes can be seen as direct copies of the American Tarheel photo-box versions of the Century 21 Toys originals.

Note there is no mention of Project SWORD on these Hover toys. For views of the other two then just click on the labels.

Thanks Arto for sharing this unique find with us!

Have you got anything like it readers?

THE PROJECT SWORD MOON BASE SET: TAKING STOCK

 Project SWORD fans have often pondered long and hard about the fabled Moon Base Set as illustrated in the Project SWORD Manual.

Does it exist?

As far as I know there have been two sightings of the set, one good sighting in a box inside a shop and one less detailed sighting in Hong Kong.

No known commercially sold examples exist i.e. a toy set in a box and no known example of a loose set either.

The two sightings may well have been prototypes or trade samples for shops set up in the way that the Elf Toys Tracy island displays were set up for Century 21 Thunderbirds toys.

The two most prominent Project SWORD trade displays that we know of, Hong Kong and Hatchetts, contained the entire range of larger SWORD toys but no Moon Base set, despite it being the logical choice for a SWORD diorama. It wasn't there.

Disappointingly the Project SWORD Annual itself failed to offer anything about the Moon Base Set either. No ads, no strips, no drawings. Not encouraging at all. Having said that neither did it contain anything about the Nuclear Ferry and the Scouts but we know they do exist.

If an entire set has never turned up then have any of the constituent parts? The modules and the vehicles? As far as I can tell the answer is no. Certainly no toy lunar modules in the vein of those shown in the Moon Base drawing have surfaced. None of the big space toy firms released anything like them: Century 21, LP, Hover etc in the 1960's.

Tri-ang SpaceX did offer a Moon Base Set called just that but despite it containing a Scramble Bug and a Moon Prospector, like those pictured in the SWORD Moon Base set illustration, its housing modules are completely different.

Imai and later Aoshin released a UFO Moon Base Set, which also contained modules and vehicles including among many others a SWORD Scramble Bug and Moon Prospector. Sadly the modules are nothing like those again pictured in the Project SWORD Moon Base illustration.

There is also the question of which toy vehicles they were? Were they the existing Prospector and Bug? This would have made the Moon Base Set huge. So were they SpaceX sized, maybe the small toy craft released by Hover, which included a Scramble Bug?

We can ponder till the cows come home on this one and no doubt we will. Until then here's the Project SWORD Moon Base Set entry in the Official Project SWORD Manual.

Thoughts on its parts, box, existence and scale welcomed!

A CHRISTMAS BIRD: THE SPACE BIRD 3 BY HOVER

Hi

Here, as promised, are some photographs of my Hoover Space Bird 3 car. It is in the same colours as the one you showed in the recent post on Hoover toys.

MOONBASE CENTRAL: HOVER SPACE BIRD 3 AND CO: NEW TO THE BLOG THIS ANNIVERSARY (projectswordtoys.blogspot.com)

Thank you to Woodsy for identifying this toy; and thank you to Wotan for identifying the real car the toy is based on, the 1963 Silhouette, a custom design by Bill Cushenberry. I had not known that before.

I have had this toy for a very long time, probably since the 1960s (or early 1970s), so it must be over 50 years old. I did not realise that it was considered a space toy - I always thought of it as a racing car, especially given the number 3 on the nose. I do not recall what the packaging for it was like, if it had a box or what type.

The toy is moulded in red plastic, with white spray-painted detail on the upper nose. This is rather 'soft and fuzzy'. The wheel hubs are silver-grey plastic, with black firm-rubber tyres. There are two half-figures in the cockpit, both moulded in silver-grey plastic. The driver is a normal racing car driver in an open-faced helmet with goggles, while his passenger is an astronaut - I always thought that was an odd mix. He seems to be the same astronaut as the crewmen in the Hover Space Tract toy shown a few months ago.

MOONBASE CENTRAL: ARTO'S MARVELLOUS HOVER SPACE TRACT (projectswordtoys.blogspot.com)

The box in your earlier post shows both driver and passenger wearing suits and ties, with racing car crash helmets, which is just as odd. The steering wheel has three spokes, and is yellow plastic. The clear plastic dome is held in place with three clips, but these have broken off over the years. The dome is also a bit scratched, and has a crack.

The toy is friction powered, with drive to the front wheels, although this no longer works. The box shown has 'With Siren Fiction Drive' - but I do not recall any sound effects. Metal axles front and rear. Moulded in to the underside is what I would describe as a winged-V, forming part of the word HOOVER (not HOVER). Below this is the number 303, then the words MADE IN HONG KONG. The upper and lower body are held together with two screws.

The logo seems to be the same winged-V for both Hover and Hoover, so was this the same company, just with a slight change of name ? My guess would be that as Hoover is a British nickname for vacuum-cleaner, they just decided to change it.

Length is about 8 inches, width just under 3 1/2 inches, height about 2 inches. It was a fun toy, and seems to have survived the years fairly well, apart from the clips on the plastic bubble.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

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?

ARTO'S MARVELLOUS HOVER SPACE TRACT

The unusual dome is the on-off switch on the Space Tract.

This is the scarce Hover version of the more common grey Mego Space Tract.

Special thinks to Arto for sharing pictures of his terrific find.

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.

Hover Moon Base Space Glider Set

MR. RUSTY'S GANG

Took a snap of this little shelf corner 'cos there's a neat gathering of odd toys forming.

From left to right: home made photonic station, Hover LEM wheel, mystery torpedo, Keloggs Mr. Rusty [I think], Trader Joe [thanks Lance] and a 1977 Kenner Darth Vader in a bag with a plastic doll's house telephone [he likes to chat].

BILLY BLASTOFF'S CRAWLER WHEEL

Seeing Billy Blastoff's orange Crawler wheel rang a bell.

Was it like the Spacex MEV2's?

Not really.

Was it like the much scarcer Hover LRV as seen here, top left, in Wotan's very old collection.

Hmmm. What about the related Scramble Bug wheels by Hover too?

Well, it just so happens that Wotan still has a wheel from his Hover LRV [nothing else mind].

here it is.

front.

Back.

Can anyone confirm if this was also used on the Billy Blastoff Moon Crawler?

Go and have a look when your'e next playing with your Billy.