Back in our first full year on MC, 2009, born out of my childhood love of Project SWORD, we largely focused on Gerry Anderson's amazing shows and toy lines.
Here's what appeared here that day, sixteen years ago!
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Thunderbird 6
Mentioned earlier on the blog, I couldn't resist posting this fabulous set of pics from Philosophic Toad / WOTAN.
They show all 3 prototype Thunderbird 6's made by Brains in the film of the same name. The sleek silver one makes me think of an Angel Interceptor.
The middle one is very Matt Mason. As I've talked about before, the bottom red one is a deadringer for the Tarheel NOVA III toy rocket. They all got trashed in the film.
Wonder of any more of them were made and survived? We know what Thunderbird 7 is - no such drama - the Project Sword Beetle or Snow Train.
Here's the second offering for the Project SWORD anniversary, the Tarheel Nova III.
I have both the Nova II and Nova III listed as Tarheel Part No. 5918 which I suspect is incorrect.
The Tri-ang figures shown with the craft make for a good size comparison. These Tarheel toys are more appropriate in size to HO scale or 1/72 scale figures than most of the vehicles and spacecraft Tri-ang offered.
My sample has no packaging and is missing the canopy.
From Vegas Base
Ed
This is one of three plastic Novas from Tarheel, all inspired by either Triang SpaceX or Thunderbirds and very close cousins of Project SWORD toys, which Tarheel also issued in North America.
I was browsing this morning drinking coffee and stroking Blue the Moonbase Mutt when I came across this toy online. Its described as a 1918 Thunderbird plane. Plastic, friction drive and in a nice window box. Maybe by TM.
As soon as I saw I thought of the yellow biplane in Thunderbird 6 the movie. In fact the biplane is Thunderbird 6 if I remember rightly.
Bandai made a toy version of it, which also came in a window box.
Wanting to test my theory that these two toys are similar I went to look for a decent big picture of the Bandai vintage toy boxed.
I know it came in a similar window box and was part of their Space Age series, but it may also have been badged up as Thunderbirds in another box, although I'm unsure.
You can see a small picture of the yellow stripy biplane on the rear of the Bandai Space Age box for the Excavator [courtesy of vintagespacetoys]
On the other side you'll see that model number 7007 is called the Patrol Plane in this range [courtesy vintagespacetoys]
Can I find a big image of this old Bandai toy Thunderbird 6? No!
Reader Rob from the USA asked me about this image earlier in the Lockdown.
"I was poring over your amazing cull of vintage newspaper pages, and came upon one that really stumped me - although I have a feeling that Swordies will know what they are. They are two toys depicted in the Neisner's ad, and they are blatant knockoffs of Thunderbird 2 and Thunderbird 3, but weird permutations I have never seen before. What are these?"
Rob C
The two toys shown are 2 of the 3 Nova spaceships released by Tarheel Industries in the late 1960's.
We've featured them a few times on Moonbase as they do have Thunderbirds roots.
The left hand rocket is definately a Thunderbird 3 knockoff, but done with great style and the characteristically bright colours of Tarheel's toys.
Interestingly I'd never noticed the similarity of the right-hand toy to Thunderbird 2 before until Rob mentioned it. Yes, its basic form and wings are there!
The toy may have been further inspired by a model in the film Thunderbird 6. See the labels below.
The third toy, not shown in this Newspaper ad for some reason, is the other Nova, a large version of the SpaceX Hawk space jet. Again click on the labels below.
The three Tarheel rockets came in individual window boxes and make great display items. Durham Toys also offered these three toy spaceships on blister cards as rack toys.
Being a specs wearer since the age of 12 I've always admired Brains' blue gigs.
They always reminded me of the prescription glasses I wore from the off. Mine were black though. I doubt if blue was an option in 1972.
I did see a female news presenter with a pair of thick pale blues specs on the TV the other day and I immediately thought of Brains or in her case Mrs. Brains.
I can't find any just like Brains online but here's something along those lines.
The movie Thunderbirds Are Go is a must see for SWORD Fans. Its all about Zero-X after all!
The movie Thunderbird 6 has much to offer too. Besides the amazing Skyship 1 there are some beautiful models too.
I've discussed Brains' tantrum in Thunderbird 6 many times on the blog. Its a painful watch as the angry boffin destroys three superb model craft, all of which were his prototypes [or were they maquetes?] for Thunderbird 6.
If you haven't seen it here's a handy montage of the three models being thrown on the floor, which I found on You Tube.
There is a toy connection to the red model shown above. It involves the Tarheel and Durham toy companies of North Carolina, USA. I first talked about it here years ago and was chuffed to have the idea included in the latest copy of the Gerry Anderson based fanzine ANDERSONIC.
Its interesting to note that the clip's You Tuber has also commented about the potential numbering of these three models if they had all become part of the fleet. Thunderbirds 6, 7 and 8!
This isn't the first time we've seen a Thunderbird 7. Certainly not in the model/toy world. Imai released a Thunderbird 7 in the 1980's.
We now know that this is actually the Snow Train from the Project SWORD universe and more exactly its the Snow Train with its heat shields up ready for magma diving as seen in the Project SWORD Annual.
In this shielded form its called the BEETLE.
Like the red Thunderbird 6 in the clip the Beetle would have made an excellent friction drive toy. Its a real shame that Century 21 Toys never released it as part of the Project SWORD toy range [although C21 did licence the Imai model].
We can get an idea of what a JR21 Beetle might have looked like in this superb mock-up done by collector Ferryman in 2009.
The actual model was released by Imai in orange plastic and intriguingly in plain white.
I shall write about the white version at a later date.
Below is the NOVA III by Tarheel Industries of Tarboro, better known to us for their Project SWORD US copies.
It's one of three NOVA's that formed the series pictured belows: I, II and III: II being a pink Thunderbird 3 lookalike and I a green jet similar to the Spacex HAWK.
The blog covered the origin of NOVA III earlier in 2009, which you can read here and on the Space 1999 Forum here.
In short the NOVA II is for a short time THUNDERBIRD 6!
At least, its one of Brains' Thunderbird 6 designs - the red craft at the bottom of the picture below. I don't think the other two designs were ever made as toys. Or?
Here it is once more
and on the floor!
You can see footage of Brains trashing the yellow design in the film about half an hour in here courtesy of You Tube.
I can't find footage of him smashing up the silver jet. Does he?
Brains trashes the red NOVA III design as well around the 43 minute mark here. Do you think that these models are made of wood readers?
In a strange quirk of synchronicity, my favourite wishbone ash song is Throw Down Your Sword and they even mention a NOVA in the first line of the singing here! ha ha
