I've always categorised and compartmentalised throughout my life. It's the anorak in me I think! Whether it was Monsters as a boy, Kung Fu and Bands as a teenager, Birds [feathered] as a young man and toys as an adult [which sounds a bit back to front!] I categorised, listed, ordered and 'collected' them all. At the heart of any categorisation is a a good tick list and here's just such an attempt at one for SWORD toys.
My rule was simple for this. If a company made at least 2 SWORD toys they made the cut. Each toy range has a different colour. If I have one it get's an X. I've included any toy which pushes the list further such as Imai's Snow Train/ Beetle [Thunderbird 7]. I've not included masses of Zero X versions as there are too many. The last two toys are Century 21 toys, which the 1960's toy trade press connected to SWORD so they are in too. There are many omissions such as the Japanese Space Birds and the many clones of both Space Gliders and Probe Force 3, which would form bristling checklists in themselves. Finally, I may missed out toys which should be in so please let me know. The challenge of a checklist are the boundaries it has, which, although good at the time but later may seem restrictive.
I would welcome other readers' checklists of SWORD or any other toy range - either for publication or interest. Anyone else like lists like these?
