THUNDERBIRD 5: RADIO CONTROLLED AND READY TO ROLL

Knockoff Thunderbird 5's are always interesting and have appeared here many times.

Here's another one I saw on Ebay, this time radio controlled.

EA is a brand I've seen before but can't think of the name. You?

Anyone got one of these or any TB5's?

SPACE CRAFT LATEST DESIGN MADE IN CHINA: A MINI THUNDERBIRD 5?

 

There is something very Thunderbird 5 about this Chinese spaceship, the "Latest Design".

the box art shows a silver rear engine, which I must say looks a lot better than the yellow one on this example of the toy I saw on vintagespacetoys.com

I like the pipes coming out of the engines too, which look like a stethoscope attached to the cockpit dome!

Do you like this toy?

NEW TO THE BLOG: SONIC CONTROLLED THUNDERBIRD 5

Saw this on Vectis' old auctions and realised that the top right box is new to the blog.

Its the one named Sonic Controlled Space Ship, which to us is Thunderbird 5. Its a knockoff like the well-known white one underneath by Soma.

The listing described it as white as well and I'm wondering if its by Soma too. I like the photo box I must say. Do you?

Has anyone got this Sonic controlled Thunderbird 5?

SOMA SPACE SHIP: WHO IS THE PILOT?

I've often discussed the SOMA Thunderbird 5 knockoff Space Ship.

Like the variation post I did in 2017.

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2017/06/some-more-soma-x711-thunderbird-5-hing.html

Today I thought I'd revisit it to look at something else.

The figure inside.

Its an odd figure like a racing car driver called Stig!

He appears to have a black visor, black gloves and boots and a black decal on its chest.

I've seen similar figures. I assume he's meant to be an astronaut but he has a distinct racing driver look.

I'm leaning towards a mixture of the two and that leads me to thinking SOMA made a knockoff of those guys driving Dinky Lunar Roving Vehicles and their ilk.

What do you think readers?

[pics: Ebay]

some more soma: the X711 thunderbird 5: a hing cheong variation

Knockoffs are a favourite of mine and especially Gerry Anderson ones.

The SOMA Thunderbird 5 is just such a knockoff, which I've blogged about many times including its turn as an ice-crusher.

You know the SOMA TB5: white-coloured plastic and known as the Space Ship X-711.

Its often cited as a knockoff of the JR21 TB5, which I've also discussed before in this origin post.

To remind you here it is courtesy of You Tube Japan.

and again here displaying its amazing non-fall action on a table almost looking like a a living thing! [courtesy of You Tube once more]

Here's the SOMA X711 toy on top

and on the bottom showing the non-fall unit and the long thin battery compartment

and on the battery unit lid is the maker's mark,

a HC inside a circular cog, the number 959 and Made in Hong Kong

The oracle that is Alphadrome has long made it clear that he HC stands for HING CHEONG. 

Here's the SOMA HING CHEONG space ship advertised in the Aldens Christmas Catalogue 1978 courtesy of Alphadrome.

So you can imagine how surprised I was to see this on Ebay, an apparently different version of the SOMA spaceship listed by seller Vongold.

It has the same white astronaut in the blister cockpit [just who is he?] but now with the addition of an internal radar or  pedestalled screen.

More tellingly the colour has darkened to a sort of dull gold and the livery around the mid point has changed.

Most exciting of all is the change to the maker's mark and the underside generally. Gone are the long thin battery cover and non-fall unit having been replaced by a much wider battery cover and standard tyres.

The maker's mark has E S added to the number 959. 

I have no idea what E S might signify, have you?

I am excited though as this does appear to be a SOMA variation and perhas even a stepping stone towards that mystery toy which JR21 are often cited as having recycling to make their own Thunderbird 5.

Why do I think this?

Well, the gold colour of this SOMA toy is more akin to the actual JR21 release than the white SOMA.

JR21 issued a deep gold-brown incarnation of the toy as their Thunderbird 5.

Its interesting to look again at the JR21 TB5 logo itself:

A capital H with a globe, the left half of which appears to be a capital C. 

Below this is the number 507. 

Compare this to the circular logo of the SOMA variant  [and all SOMA X711's]: the HC inside the circular cog.

Could the CH seen on the JR21 be the HC seen on the SOMA, which we know stand for Hing Cheong?

What do you think readers?

CROSSING THE T'S: THE TOY ORIGINS OF THE JR21 THUNDERBIRD 5

We love mysteries at Moonbase. One of the most persistent has been the origin of JR21 Toys' Thunderbird 5.

The mystery of its clunky composition is well documented, a hybrid of a strange flying saucer and other plastic bits.  

Well-known collectors have often described the flying saucer part as 'another toy' used by JR21. Modmart comments on this problem with Thunderbird 5 on You Tube. Steve, proprietor of the excellent Thunderbird Vintage Toys website, talks about how the saucer was clearly a toy 'that already existed' and 'marked differently to other Thunderbird toys' [point 2 here] i.e. number 507 and this H in a globe icon.

It was our very own Scoop who first made reference on the blog to a possible source for the flying saucer, the Clifford series Moon Ranger, back in March 2014. He was definitely onto something. 

and this was further pinpointed when just this week our very own SWORDcast producer Bill Everatt suggested the source to be this T in a Circle UFO.

I personally think Bill has hit the nail on the head here! All the main elements are there on this T UFO: the sloped edge, the inclusion of coloured lights but more crucially the recessed band running around the middle, which is exactly as it is on the Thunderbird 5.

But not all the elements of the JR21 Thunderbird 5 are found on the T UFO. For those we have to look elsewhere i.e. the base, the wheels and the clear dome, which are different on the T UFO.

The base of the Thunderbird 5 looks like this:

Comparing various toy bases is helpful, particularly more T in a Circle toys, which would have made sense in the toy factory: 

              

                  T UFO                       T MOON PROSPECTOR                 T NEW FLYING SAUCER                     JR21 TB5

So you can see that the most similar undercarraige to that of the JR21 TB5 is the T in a Circle New Flying Saucer. The edge is bevelled, the wheels protrude and the battery case is long, thin and in the right sort of place as you can see below.

This toy also provided a clear dome too! 

Obviously JR21 had the undercarraige changed and re-sized to fit the specific needs of the TB5, as they did with the top section. where the main engine rig was stuck on, extra lights added and John Tracy and his circular dash placed in the dome.

But basically I think between us we've cracked it and solved the mystery folks! The JR21 TB5 was put together using T in a Circle toy designs made to fit, specifically the T UFO for the top part and the T New Flying Saucer for the base.

This connection between the two toy companies also gave us the Moon Bus and the Moon Prospector, so it would make sense that as many designs as possible were cross-fertilized. Don't forget that the two silver pilots in the T New Flying Saucer are the same ones found in the Century 21 Project SWORD Moon Bus!

All that remains now is to make some sense of the TB5 toy number '507' and the strange 'H in a globe' logo. I will leave these for another day [ideas welcomed though], suffice to say that you might wish to ponder the numbering of T in a Circle toys yourself by looking at Arto's comprehensive T Checklist done for the blog a few years ago.

It's worth also saying that mention has been made by collectors of variations in JR21 TB5 toys such as screw-on domes and glued-on domes. If you know of any specific differences like these I would be pleased to hear from you.

Finally, the story doesn't end here. The JR21 TB5 design itself was upcycled for another toy and unbelievably so was that! More of this cloning around to follow.

Any thoughts so far readers?

JR21 THUNDERBIRD 5

When Jack Rosenthal’s toy company was busy creating and manufacturing their range of Thunderbird craft I imagine there was a bit of head scratching when it came to Thunderbird 5. Unlike some manufacturers of the day, JR 21 quite rightly felt it should be included in the set.

To my mind, the iconic and unique design of the real thing did look like it was hastily cobbled together using bits of plywood and plastic kit parts.

Unlike the other Thunderbirds,  Thunderbird 5 didn't do much except hang around above Earth. The space station shape didn’t much lend itself to a push along friction motor, and the lower pylon projecting from it’s base was a definite no - no!

The end result was a reasonable copy of the docking section of the station joined to an already available bump-n-go flying saucer toy.

Looks nothing like Thunderbird 5 but I still think it’s got great plastic toy appeal.