UNSCRAMBLING THE MARSH BUG

 If you like the Project SWORD Scramble Bug then take a look at the origin of the tyres in Popular Mechanics way back in the American south in the 1930's.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vtoDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA529&dq=%22marsh+buggy%22+popular+mechanics&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwismdyurt78AhVKRUEAHZEqB-sQ6AF6BAgDEAI#v=onepage&q=%22marsh%20buggy%22%20popular%20mechanics&f=false

For more on this click on the labels at the base of the post.

GENESIS OF THE SCRAMBLE BUG

 

1937 - 1967

Terra Gup 5 Scramble Bug

 Check out the cool scramble bug free with the latest Octonauts comic! What do you think?

THE WHEEL DEAL

 Guess what happens to a Project SWORD Scramble Bug when its in a crash.

This!

I love it, a a four-wheeled wheel with a driver's cab in the middle!

What do you think?

The image was in Farm Show Mag 1990 as seen online.

MONSTER BUGGY

 Remember the Gulf Oil Marsh Buggy I've covered here a few times?

I've written about its likely links to the Project SWORD Scramble Bug.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2016/01/on-film-genesis-of-project-sword.html

So I was amazed when I saw this Hot Wheels toy called Wrecking Wheels.

Its like a Marsh Buggy!

have you got anything like this?

RUSSIAN BUG

I love this Soviet moon rover I have in my old photo archive. There aren't any more details with it. It looks maybe metal as well as plastic to me. What do you think?

BOEING MOLAB SCRAMBLE BUG

Boeing MOLAB pics courtesy of Rob Godwin, Canada.

The Origin of the Scramble Bug Tyres

I've featured this before but I just love it so much. The Marsh Buggies of the old South and widely covered at the time in American and British transport magazines and newsreels. The tyres are deadringers for those on the 1967 Project SWORD Scramble Bug toy - click on the labels for pics of the toy. What do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufVfYpEeV4M

THE SHERP ATV

This is the awesome Russian SHERP doing its stuff. I'm surprised just how floppy the tyres are!

What do you think?

The tyres are virtually the same as the Century 21 Scramble Bug!

COOT: THE REAL-LIFE SCRAMBLE BUG

Above is the Coot, the real life Scramble Bug going for a swim on You Tube. It looks quite hairy crossing that lake on an ATV! Would you have a go?

Anyone got an ATV, a real or toy one?

Seeing it made me wonder if the Century 21 Scramble Bug toy would actually float and 'swim' as the wheels turn. What do you think?

here's some short footage of the toy on dry land in Japan on You Tube.

JIM'S ROVER

Hi Woodsy

You might like this one.

https://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/miscellaneousImage.cfm?ImgCat=Miscellaneous&Image=369

Cheers

Jim P.

COLD STEEL: DIE-CAST PROJECT SWORD

 I've wanted to do this for ages.

To bring together the only two die-cast Project SWORD toys.

They are the Aoshima Zero-X and the Imai Scramble Bug. 

Luckily I've got both so lets introduce them.

The Aoshima Zero-X is well packaged in a polystyrene inner box

Inside a plastic cover, the Imai Scramble Bug comes in a nice card inner display

Under the card base is a colour leaflet

The rear of the box display has a colour diagram of the vehicle.

The leaflet showcases five of Imai's miniatures.

So, lets get them together.

My Zero-X lacks the MEV [it was donated to MC] but does have the silver nose cover.

With similar blue bodies I think they look great as a pair

The Zero-X comes with a small plastic stand

Even the Scramble Bug gets a lift!

I did find opening the landing gear on the undercarraige quite fiddley but all in all the OX is a beautiful die-cast toy.

I do wish I had the MEV but in the meantime my Bug carries the silver nose-cone quite well.

I also discovered that the Bug has a push-down dome, which raises the bonnet! I didn't know that!

One final shot as the OX takes off on a secret mission.

Have you got either of these die-casts readers?

*

Some Tri-ang SpaceX toys, which are miniatures of Project SWORD vehicles, also have some die-cast parts.

wrecking a scramble bug: the movie

Here's my latest home movie.

Its me destroying my Scramble Bug!

Part 2 to follow this summer.

Enjoy!

origin of the scramble bug: my new video

My latest video, about the origins of the Scramble Bug, is a little different.

Having discovered how to insert third party footage on You Tube into my own You Tube film I thought I'd have a go at a short documentary.

I've chosen not to narrate it. Instead I've used captions like in a silent film. Its set to music too.

Let me know what you think. Maybe I should have narrated it?

MINT BOXED PROJECT SWORD SCRAMBLE BUG BEING OPENED

I stumbled across this on You Tube.

Its a box opening of a mint Project SWORD Scramble Bug in Japan.

Wearing white gloves, the care the chap takes its almost reverential. The fact that he does it all in silence is just fabulous.

Note the various pieces of inner card packaging and tissue paper, which is how a factory fresh example would look I guess. Anyone else got these?

Not sure if the booklet baggy is original and of course this example is missing its badge.

What do you think readers?

To finish Tanaka Jun switches his bug on!

IMAI GOOD BOY MODEL SCRAMBLE BUG: DISPLAY BOX

These are pictures I found on a Japanese auction site of the mini die-cast Scramble Bug by Imai. 

Each bug came in its own clear plastic box typical of the Imai/ Edai Grip ranges.

Six bugs were packed into a yellow carton, which I assume was for wholesale going out to model and toy shops.

Has anyone got this small die-cast Bug?

SCRAMBLE BUGS, PEOPLE AND PERSPECTIVES

Bugs and people through the decades!

1937

by Edgar F.Wittmack

1968

by Malcolm Stokes

MODERN

by Azuma

EARLY LUNAR SCRAMBLE BUGS ON FILM FROM JPL

Check out these two short films showing vintage tests of Scramble Bug-like prototypes by the Jet Propulsion Agency.

Videos courtesy of JPL.

ON FILM: THE GENESIS OF THE PROJECT SWORD SCRAMBLE BUG

I was so amazed when I saw this that I had to blog it! So, having paid my $4 fee to CriticalPast here you go. Its from Louisiana in 1937 and shows the Marsh Buggy in action, an articulated amphibious rover.

The 'cleats' spanned across the tyres were added to give the vehicle more traction when crossing the marsh. They were either thick ropes or chains.

This vehicle is the same one that featured on the colour cover of Popular Science in 1937, which I blogged just before Christmas.

I suggested that it may have been the inspiration for the front and rear tyres of the articulated Project SWORD Scramble Bug toy pictured below on the left.

The articulated vehicle on the right is another possible inspiration for the Scramble Bug. It featured in the General Motors Futurama expo at the 1964/65 Worlds Fair. I blogged about it in detail in 2012. You can see it in action courtesy of the You Tube archive here.

General Motors tested many other articulated rover designs in the early Sixties like their SLRV [Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle] shown below in colour and also with one of its designers M.G. Bekker crouching down. The SLRV pictured from one end could almost be the Project SWORD Scramble Bug!

[NASA]

[flickr NASA APPEL]

You can see footage of both the proposed deployment of the SLRV [ejected from a Lunar Lander] and articulation over rocks on JPL's own website here.

 A different design, here's footage of this doughnut tyre GM concept again with articulation courtesy of You Tube. This design featured in children's publications during the Sixties.

My guess is that the Marsh Buggy inspired what came after it 25 to 30 years later and those smart designers like Bekker and others at GM and co. made it moon-worthy. In 1967 Century 21 Toys eventually captured their roving spirit for us kids in the play room in the shape of the Project SWORD Scramble Bug.

What do you think readers?

MO WHEELS

Before Christmas I had fun finding some vehicles with the same wheels as the Project SWORD Scramble Bug, pictured. Bitten by this particular bug I thought I'd share a few more toys I've found with similar big wheels. No more identical ones this time.

First up is the Mighty Mo Canon. It was released by Deluxe Reading in 1963 and was huge! In this You Tube clip it looks like a fully working life-size canon! Did any of you have one of these babies?

https://youtu.be/9GeGvOazzLs?t=2m37s

Here's a shot of the canon and a better look at those massive wheels.

[pic: www.playsetmagazine.com]

Next up we have the Astro Train by Remco from 1968, one of their amazing Skyway contraptions. It does look fabulous. 

I found this old TV ad footage on You Tube https://youtu.be/6TtLBPaEKnk?t=57m22s.  Does anyone have one?