Station to Station

 I've always liked the rare three-legged space station by LP or Lik Be seen here top right in Wotan Bill's old collection.

It's composition is described in detail by Bill n MC and our friend Paul V's Triang SpaceX site (link to site in the labels below)

Such a cool and simple thing, I love the two flat circular platforms the most.

Another structure with circles are these futuristic buildings with Saturn-like rings on the old cover of the US Tarheel Project SWORD catalogue.

Here it is in close up. Again, simple but effective.

The busy cover brings to mind a Worlds Fair like this artwork for Seattle in 1962 with it's iconic double-ringed needle.

Or Mike Trim's Car Vu, with those spiral ramps and the saucer tops, seen in the first episode of Captain Scarlet, where an SPV drives to the top!

Another rare toy is the card space-port tower found on the back of the Golden Astronaut gift pack described again on Paul's fabulous Triang SpaceX  site ( the only place I've ever seen it).

In close-up it's a central spike topped with another ring structure and a final smaller ring like the LP station.

Again it recalls the Seattle Century 21 Needle

Or even the Tracy Island roundhouse from Century 21's Thunderbirds, seen here being worked on by Mike Trim back in the day.

Another Century 21 building I like is this yellow Century 21 Toys, where Agent21 gets all his deadly gadgets in TV21.

That huge glass sweeping front could be straight off the pavillion at New Yorks World Fair in 1964.

My final sweeping structure is this excellent building and skyway on the box of Bichi's Carlos V Batmobile released in South America.

There is a black and white sweeping cityscape with FAB1 too but I can't find it.

Can you think of any circular space stations, ringed towers or sweeping future scapes you like readers?

EMPIRE'S LEGEND OF THE WEST

Its always to see an Empire toy. Empire were the successor to Tarheel of Tarboro, the makers of American Project SWORD.

Here we have a blister carded COCHISE action figure, part of Empire's Legends of the West line.

Have you any Empire toys?

Have you any Wild West toys, games and kits?

EXCLUSIVE! TARHEEL AMERICAN PROJECT SWORD TOYS CATALOGUE

 As I've said before, very occasionally something amazing pops up in the world of Project SWORD.

Like the boxed Japanese Probe Force 3 and the Century 21 Task Forces boxed set I posted yesterday, here's another Project SWORD day exclusive.

The Tarheel Project SWORD toys dealers catalogue from the USA!

Spotted by the ever-diligent Arto at Helsinki Base this fabulous 4 page wonder was offered up by Seal Beach Books of California on Ebay.

Here's the cover, a beautiful and unique illustration of Project SWORD and Captain Scarlet toys in a futuristic setting.

The two middle pages showing both Captain Scarlet and Project SWORD toys and vehicles offered by Tarheel in America. It amazes me to think there are plastic Tarheel SPC's and SPV's in the States somewhere!

The rear cover showing the four more classic Tarheel SWORD vehicles.

Interestingly the three Re-Entry Task Force toy vehicles we know that Tarheel offered are not shown here.

The inclusion of both Project SWORD and Captain Scarlet toys is fascinating and we've seen two examples of Tarheel SWORD/ Scarlet mash-ups already, both pictured in this catalogue, albeit without SWORD labelling: -

The Project SWORD Spectrum Patrol Car at the Hamilton Toy Collection, Callander

and the Project SWORD Dart Gun Set found by Rob Godwin in Michigan

Its just a matter of time before the Captain Scarlet Gun and Holster Set and the SPV are found in the States with Project SWORD labelling. Keep your eyes peeled folks!

Finally, despite a valiant effort and a very high bid by a blog reader to secure the Tarheel catalogue for the wider Moonbase community, it was bought by an unknown buyer who clearly wanted it a great deal.

Here are all the auction pictures from Seal Beach Books.

What do you think readers?

BIG TARHEEL PROJECT SWORD NEWS COMING!

 Tune in a little later for massive news about Tarheel's American Project SWORD toy range!

BAM!

9PM UK BST!

SEND IN THE CLONES: THE CHROMED SWORD TASK FORCE

These are the various Project SWORD metallic/ chromed clones.

About 15 years ago Dennis Nicholson sent me some photo's of a his friend Kelly Lannan's beautiful and unique metallic gold Task Force 3. I have wondered about it ever since. Is it a knockoff or is it a colour variant from Tarheel? There is no maker's mark or number on the undercarraige so no clues there.

In 2011 Bill kindly photoshopped a dome into place for me and we can see what it looked like completed below. I have inserted John Eaton's latest fabulous pictures of the new silver Task Force 3 for comparison. What differences can you see?

Bill B mentioned that he had owned a rare metallic blue Task Force 1. We were treated to an Ebay picture of Bill's toy - below - yesterday and also when the blog first launched. Could this be related to the two metallic silver/ gold Task Force 3's we now know of? Was it carded? Some evidence of all of them having backing cards came in Patron Zero's comment on the blog in 2014 here.

Daydreaming further I have photoshopped two of the loose toys together into the same shot to help you decide yourselves. I have added a Tarheel logo simply as garnish, no other reason. If all of the metallic SWORD toys are related then the next question is whether there is a metallic Task Force 2 as well? The mind boggles! What do you think readers?

and yep, here's Task Force 2 chromed as well, missing its dome!

I'm certain there's a silver chromed Task Force 1 on the blog but can I find it! It would complete the silver trio! ADDENDUM: Here it is courtesy of Paul Vreede's SpaceX Toys website:

As to whether these beauties are American Tarheel toys I'm still not sure. You?

If you have one or any of these then pictures please!

ED's SWORD DAY TARHEEL PINK NOVA I

I've just got this Nova I rocket in the post! It has a couple of condition issues, but these things simply don't come up for sale that often and, as they say, "Any port in a storm will do".

The canopy is missing and one of the canard wings is broken off (it appears that perhaps a 1/72 scale F-104 Starfighter wing might be a close match??). According to Paul V., all three Nova rockets share the same part or item number (No. 5918).

Enjoy!

From Vegas Base

Ed