WILL DIVES IN THE TV21 WHIRLPOOL

Just finding the Project SWORD stories in my new TV21's. 

Will O.

UK

have you got a SWORD Moon Ranger?

NICHIMO! WOW!

I love this model by Nichimo of Japan, a forerunner of the Project SWORD Moon Ranger. Do you have this model or a Moon Ranger?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9S4nNUH_fk

KILLDOZER!

 As I'm interested in the SWORD Moon Ranger here's another lively bulldozer. 

I give you KILLDOZER!

Heard of it?

http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix7/killdozer.htm

RISING POWERS

 I've always loved the rising treads of the Project SWORD Moon Ranger box art, that rearing up.

The upbucket view lends it an exciting movement on the moon's jagged surface.

So when I saw this Masudaya Snow Mobile's box art I thought yes, that's similar, as it rides the ups and downs of the polar ice sheet.

This one was for sale on the Bay in the American Mid-West so I've borrowed a few snaps. Its an amazing looking toy and the polar regions have always generated some excellent toy vehicles.

I wonder if it really could handle snow?

Did anyone have this toy or indeed the Moon Ranger above [which is one I had as a kid] ?

I suppose the king of rising treads illustrations has to be the much earlier and quite vicious magazine cover art for Killdozer!

What do you think of that?

THE RIPSAW: A GIANT TOY IN REAL LIFE?

Well, this Ripsaw seems to be a mixture of some fine old toys and then brought to life!

Maybe Big Trak?

a bit of the Project SWORD Moon Ranger?

and the Jetson's moon ranger?

See what you think. 

Do you like the Ripsaw?

https://youtu.be/prmrok1PQno?t=311

IDEAL ASTRO BASE FIRST DATE

The American Ideal Toys Astro Base mechanical car was one of the likely inspirations for the 1967 Project SWORD Moon Ranger.

Here's evidence of the Astro Base's first date of use from the US Patents Office: September 12th 1960.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rUUOirehsQ8C&pg=PA759-IA22&lpg=PA759-IA22&dq=ideal+astro+base+patent&source=bl&ots=7uSs1EDFhb&sig=ACfU3U2zXX7fb_izg_5gzcuaL4jhGxDQTQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjniZzdmNHlAhVaiVwKHWYiAVcQ6AEwEnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=ideal%20astro%20base%20patent&f=false

THE TRAXCAVATOR

The Moon Ranger is my favourite Project SWORD vehicle and the concept of bulldozers in space has always appealed to me.

In fact I like all bulldozers!

Here's Paul's Super King in New Zealand.

Hi Woodsy

The Matchbox King Size K-8 Caterpillar Traxcavator has a copyright date of 1970 on it. It is mainly metal, with a purple plastic driver. 

The front arms raise and lower, and the bucket tips. This was the only King Size model I had as a boy. The King Size range being similar in size to Corgi or Dinky models, the later models had numbers with a K-prefix. It came in a window box.

Paul Adams

NZ

Have you any toy dozers, space bulldozers, excavators or dioramas readers?

DOZING

 I had a double take when I saw this upturned tracked vehicle!

I thought at first it was my beloved Moon Ranger from Project SWORD like this one!

Its actually this neat bulldozer which came with a fine truck by french toy form Sitap.

All pics from old auctions.

Have you got any bulldozers?

THE THREE TARHEEL-STYLE BOXES OF THE PROJECT SWORD MOON RANGER

These are the three different Tarheel-style Moon Ranger boxes.

The differences are not huge.

All these pictures are from old auctions.

Here's the US box with the small red globe within the black curving capital T. It also says Project SWORD.

 Here's the second type of US box with the less curved T inscribed with the name Tarheel. The T is also held by two illustrated kids. Interestingly any reference to Project SWORD was removed from the box and the red arrowhead decal on the photo of the toy.

The third style of box is this one for the Italian market. |There is no reference to Tarheel and the upper portion of the title panel has been blacked out as is the case along the sides too. Interestingly the word SWORD does appear on red arrowhead decal on the Ranger in the photo, as it does on the toy itself.

An Italian import decal is virtually always stuck onto these boxes as seen here top right. Click on the labels below for more info.

Have you got any of these or anything different?

WRONG RED RADAR

I saw this nice Moon Ranger on an old Vectis auction page. Its got the wrong revolving radar antenna on it. Anyone know what this red antenna is from? Looks familiar.

DOPPELRANGER

I had to look twice at this Earthmover.

I thought it was a cardrd project SWORD Moon Ranger!

No such luck!

Consorti Toys of Italy

Bill B sent me these fab images of Consorti toys adverts.

Consorti were a distributor for the Italian market.

Their logo can be seen below left, a beige circle with a walking red figure inside.

Here we have  two of the Yonezawa 21st Century range on offer in Italy presumably in the late Sixties.

Here is the Space Frontier tinplate rocket, one of my fave toys of all time and one I still have.

And below is a German ad for Yonezawa toys including the two 21st Century toys above.

Consorti is of note to Project SWORD collectors as they distributed the knockoffs of the Tarheel Moon Ranger and Hover's Booster Rocket and R/C Probe Force 3 in Italy.

The Hover Booster Rocket can be read about here.

Ideal Astro Base 1960 : How Brilliant is that!

This is a decent video demonstration of the functions of the 1960 Astro Base by Ideal. Its a You Tubed sales pitch from 2010 by a chap called Dezertdude but ignore the sales talk and focus on the amazing movements and actions of this early and complex space toy.

Why am I particularly interested? Well, its because the astronaut and scout car cockpit are the earliest examples I know of toy parts that eventually became incorporated into the Century 21 Project SWORD  line 7 years later in 1967, specifically in the Moon Ranger.

Having watched the clip I am now wondering of there is any evidence of the 'ring' on the back of the Project SWORD Moon Ranger astronaut? The same goes for the American Moon Ranger by Tarheel or indeed the earlier Japanese Moon Ranger by Nichimo?

Anyone want to look and let us know?

away in a ranger

This is the Ranger by Nichimo of Japan.

It was the forerunner of the Century 21 Project SWORD Moon Ranger.

Anyone got one?

What does JUSPI-5 mean?

japanese history of model tanks like the moon ranger

This is a neat Japanese site explaining the history of Japanese model tanks. It includes the Nichimo Ranger, the source of the Century 21 Project SWORD Moon Ranger.

http://home.s00.itscom.net/nekonii/uma/mizu/2006king.htm

how to search for japan's nichimo moon ranger

To search for the Nichimo Moon Ranger then you can use these Japanese characters in Google images.

ニチモ 「パイオニア

akasikigorou's amazing japanese sci-fi models: can you name them?

This amazing collection of some of Japan's amazing plastic SyFy model vehicles appears on akasikogorou's brilliant blog.

You can see more of how some of these models were built in his blog here.

I can name a few like our mate the Pioneer/ Ranger, back row 2nd from right and the Beetle front row first right. 

Can you name any more?

ideal astro base origin of the project sword moon ranger pilot and dome

In Winter 2015 I did some research into the likely origins of the Project SWORD Moon Ranger pilot, cockpit and dome released by Century 21 Toys in in 1967

I concluded that they were first seen on the space car of the Astro Base by Ideal 1961 and blogged my findings at the time in  new origins. A few weeks later I blogged a link to a picture of the Ideal pilot's mould.

Eighteen months on I hope to further help visualise the connection between the two toys. I have posted here two short films showing the pilot and dome being lowered onto each toy.

This first clip, top, shows Ideal's Astro Base in action and the how the pilot and dome was lowered [and raised] via the battery-operated winch on the tower. It is an original 1961 US TV commercial courtesy of You Tube.

This second clip above shows the Century 21 pilot and dome being lowered into the Project SWORD Moon Ranger. 

This does not usually happen but has been used to show the similarities between the two pilots and domes.

This film was kindly shot by Bill B of his own Moon Ranger and I edited the final video making it black and white as well. 

Its interesting to start both films at the same time and watch the two lowering sequences together.

Hopefully this mini film project has been of some interest.

Let me know what you think.

alphadrome's treasures: moonships and moon rangers

Like an old stack of TV21's, Brian Haye's fabulous Alphadrome website never ceases to amaze me! Whenever I read it another handful of gems surface!

Recently I browsed a few of its depths again and found the following treasures:

Hong Kong Space Toys: there is a fabulous thread about Hong Kong plastic featuring lots of the X-series of rockets and spaceships as well as LP's cool Space Blimp on page 2.

Under The Radar: a wonderful short thread from 2004 about the Moonships no less. ZZRobot pictures his Century 21 Moonship and box [look for the hot link] years before it appeared on the blog here!

Dealer Catalog 1969 - 1970 M W Kasch: again, a fantastic thread from 2004, four years before the blog started, about this US toy catalogue from 1969 - 70. Of great interest to me are the Moonship and the Moon Ranger entries.

The Moonship shown appears to be the white UK version rather than the green US version. The name 'moonship' concurs with this as does the use of the model number 6801 in the catalog notes below it [the 1969 Ahi catalog I blogged yesterday doesn't mention the model number]. 

Sold as either a Full Carton or BK. Carton whatever that means? [the flag sticker on the ship's side sort of looks like the Union Jack but its so unclear I can't really say].

The Moon Ranger is fascinating as it appears in its own grassy diorama and was sold in bulk in packs of 12 [I assume PK. means pack but no idea if a carton is bigger than a pack!]. The model numbers do not relate to either the UK Century 21 or US Tarheel versions so it could be either.

Chinese Rare Moonship: again another thread from the Moonship King ZZRobot, this time bang up to date this month about the tin moonship from China. I have had a loose one for twenty years but never owned a box. 

We've featured the box before but it's always a revelation to see how old this toy actually is as the box is dated 1965. That's a whole 4 years before the 2 plastic versions were released in 1969 and was clearly their source.

Perry Mohney Collection: check out the nice clear USA flag decal on this Ahi Moonship. Look for the entry April 9th [this year]. Check out Perry's entire collection whilst your at it. Simply breathtaking!

If you haven't checked out Alphadrome then do so now!

ITALIAN PARATROOPER TOY

This Italian parachutist toy reminds me of Project SWORD in two different ways!

1. The red and white cheque parachute is similar to the one found on top of the Apollo Saturn

and

2. The ribbed Spaceman reminds of a standing version of the seated pilot in the Moon Ranger.

Anyone got this parachutist?