Kev's Crate Idea

I wanted a suitable box to keep spare batteries in for my model room. 

I thought about vintage lunchboxes or pencil cases to fit the theme but couldn't get a suitable, cheap one. Instead, I scratchbuilt this small replica of a Moonbase Alpha crate.

Boxed off!

Kevin

SEARCHING FOR THE ONE

I'm positively clackered after searching for the perfect blister for my custom Victim figure.

The trick has been finding a 7 inch blister, a relatively small container when many blisters are quite big.

Well, it would appear I've found it quite by accident in my daughter's recycling!

A clear macaron box, half a dozen and it looks great. 

There are two in the middle of the bunch above.

I think one of these should do Wotan Bill's fabulous card art justice.

Harpooned! The Woodsy Wotan Lone Star James Bond Custom Toy Harpoon

 To me this is Wotan Bill's best card graphics so far, the Lone Star James Bond Harpoon toy.

The long picture, taken from auction images, is just superb and is easily three feet in length.

My attempt at a toy harpoon gun I made last month doesn't look half bad on such a fantastic backing card.

The original Lone Star toy came in a box but we've opted for a backing card so my toy version could be attached.

A joint effort and tons of fun.

Hope you like it readers.

Doll, Card and Blister: My Home-Made Star Maiden's Final Look

 Armed with my baguette blister box I've finally finished my home-made Star Maiden Guard doll on card.

Here's she is complete with new glued-down blister cover.

This decent 12 inch blister does real justice to Wotan Bill's fab repro card art and my home-made doll and clothes.

Its been fun!

Hope you like the final article.

BLISTERING SUCCESS, SORT OF!

Blisters are tricksy things. Finding blisters for toys. Transparently obvious I know but a clear path to victory is eluding me!

I have had one success with a Star Maiden doll blister. Short of buying a brand new doll in a plastic box [which I did look for in discount shops] I first bought a box of Xmas baubles. This required printed labelling being removed with lighter fuel and a light scourer. Alas, methinks he scoured too much and it was compromised. Besides, it needed cutting and gluing to make it fit, never great for that perfect blister.

So, thinking out of the box, I searched for subway packaging - you know, the foot long butties - and found a company, Advanced Disposables, that did clear baguette butty boxes. 

The box cost 5p for a single sample and postage was £3.55. I received tracking info every day from Royal Mail until it arrived; the service was startlingly impeccable so the box makers must pay handsomely for that!

Here is the baguette box, a hinged affair from which the top is perfectly clear and can be cut off to create a fabulous 12 inch cover for a doll or figure. I was thrilled!

However, finding a decent blister for my 7 inch Victim project is another sandwich altogether. Currently she resides in a Sushi box, but being trimmed and glued, it just doesn't cut the mustard for a backing card as good as Wotan Bill produces.

Finding myself in Poundland I stumbled across blusher cheek brushes. Wow! The boxes looked just the thing! The right petit size and depth, in a fever of elation I bought three for £6. At last, the Victim will be finished and could well get some pals!

Alas, on closer inspection at home it turns out what I thought were paper labels inside are actually printed onto the plastic in a thick central band. Tarnation! Scouring and lighter fluid will get it off but ruin its pristine clear looks.

Back to the drawing board with this one to find that goldilocks box that's just right!

PROJECT SWORD BOXES HIDDEN ON A HONG KONG ASSEMBLY LINE

I'm always amazed what's hidden away on British Pathe footage.

In this film, amazingly, Hong Kong toy factory workers are using flattened Project SWORD Cape Kennedy Set boxes as assembly line table covers whilst making racing cars! Its at 1.08 on the counter.

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/VLVA38SVVZCW74P7YBE5RXEE4OHWF-HONG-KONG-MAKING-CHRISTMAS-TOYS-FOR-1971/query/hong+kong+toys

This is a picture of the box top for reference.

A number of things spring to mind watching this footage. Why are Cape Kennedy Set boxes being used like this? Is it because its 1971 and the sales of SWORD toys, having been launched in 1967, will have ended and therefore the boxes are now redundant?

More intriguingly, could this have been the very Hong Kong toy factory that the Cape Kennedy Sets were produced years earlier on behalf of Century 21 Toys?

What do you think?

There are lots of Project SWORD toys on British Pathe. This is just one.

PRINT-OUT THE MATTEL EAGLE BOX

I've just found this printable Space 1999 Mattel Eagle box!

I don't have the toy but maybe you need that elusive box!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonliebigstuff/6708381039

What If Airfix Kit Boxes Including Zero-X and Thunderbirds Fire Tenders!

Hi,
I do not know if you have seen this before, but I just found this site with pictures of boxes for models that Airfix might have produced, but sadly did not. All would make great kits. Several are of Gerry Anderson subjects.

What do you think?

ArtStation - 'What If' ARTWORK, Matthew Teevan

Paul Adams from New Zealand

ARE YOUR TOY BOXES VERY GOOD?

This is an old pic in my archive of two Project SWORD toys sold in The Saleroom auction in 2013.

The Space Glider and Booster Rocket.

I saved them as examples of what the valuer rated as VG or very good boxes. They do look superb I must say. Not a blemish, tear or crease in sight. Very few of my own Project SWORD toy boxes are as good as this, maybe a couple., so I'm always chuffed to see beautiful condition boxes like these.

What's after 'very good': near mint and mint?

Are your toy boxes very good or above readers? Does it influence what you buy or collect?

VINTAGE MICRONAUTS BOX REPAIRS ON TOY POLLOI YOU TUBE

Which tips do you have for repairing boxes?

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?

BLUE BOX

Moonbase Mutt Blue is guarding my new Ellegi Intrepid Missile Boat box.

I don't know why, its a wreck!

BOX FLAP

BLISTER BOX

About 25 years ago I bought a Billy Blastoff radiation truck.

It was one of the first mint vintage items I acquired.

I got it mail order from TV Toy Zone from their beautiful catalogue pre-internet and pre-Ebay.

An unusual feature was the packaging. It was a plastic sealed blister box with an internal card base.

Just like this one I saw on Ebay this month.

Alas I don't have mine anymore.

But I remember the unusual blister box, which I never opened.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see a similarly blistered toy on the Bay this week.

Tommy Turtle.

The packaging looks sealed like my old Radiation truck.

Have you any blister boxed toys?

I BRUSHED LIGHTER FLUID ALL OVER MY BOX

Remember that tape - covered toy Space Tract box?

Well, I took your advice and after trying all other methods I bought some lighter fluid.

After an hour's soaking and picking and tweezering and soaking it all came off!

I wuz chuffed!

Removing the tape revealed a long thin piece of the box missing from the front and the side. Drat!

What to do?

I made a patch!

You can see the start of it on the right, like a long thin chicken!

The patch was then glued down.

All the areas of speckled paint loss after getting off the tape where touched up with .... felt pens.

I know, sacrilege but it was something I could do.

And so ....

its done!

The front part of the patch and felt penning seems to worked OK.

The side part of the patch is a bit ropier and I struggled with replacing lettering on the left.

but all in all it came out better than I thought.

From this ....

to this.

Just need to staple the ends.

I'm toying with covering it all in sticky back clear plastic to protect it but unsure.

What do you think readers?

Thanks for the advice.

Time for my Pot Noodle!

STEAMING MY TOY BOX

Before reading readers' counsel on how best to remove masking tape from my Space Tract box, I did try another method I thought of.

Steam Ironing!

I opened up the box on the ironing board.

I draped a towel over.

I heated up the gizmo and steam ironed over the towel.

It did nothing to the tape but it did flatten the box completely!

You'll be pleased to know that I've now invested in a bottle of lighter fluid!

MEGO SPACE TRACT BOX: OPERATION TAPE REMOVAL

Today I attempted to remove some old masking tape off my Mego Space Tract box.

I call it the Pot Noodle method.

With my Pot Noodle softening nicely I set to work.

By way of distraction I tried the toy with batteries. It didn't light up and drew a perfect circle on the floor, whilst screaming like a T. Rex.

And so to the tape problem. My box is covered in the stuff.

The Pot Noodle method - my own concept - involves steaming.

First I stood it in a pan.

It stood on a bowl.

Then I filled the base of the pan with steaming hot water and covered it with a bin.

I repeated this twice.

It didn't work!

The box got damp.

Regrouping resources, I went outside.

With a can of WD40.

I'd heard it loosened old tape.

It doesn't.

Any ideas how I can safely remove very stuck-on masking tape from my toy box with pulling off the box art?

toblerone task force toys

We've been Christmas shopping and whilst out I saw a large Toblerone.

The box immediately cried out.

What did it cry out?

Why, Project SWORD Task Force 1 and 2 of course!

They have the same shaped triangular boxes!

Now, my idea runs like this: would a Task Force 1 and 2 fit into a large Toblerone box?

It could be a gift set!

Yay! A Christmas special!

If anyone tries it out do send us pics!

boxes of loose space toys: is there anything better?

I love the phrase often used by Auctions: a quantity of mixed childrens toys.

Its a phrase which promises hidden gems and lost treasures, exactly the sort of thing we want as we cruise towards a decade of Moon Base!

The UK Auction house Vectis is no exception. Here are a few of the fine 'mixed quantities' they have featured online over the years, boxes of interest to MC readers I'm sure.

First up is this assortment of JR21 Thunderbirds toys. What a trove it is! There's every vehicle from 1 to 5 in there! I don't know whether they were all complete but it must have been like Christmas day 1967 getting this lot!

Next is this selection box of Captain Scarlet collectables. If interest to me are the plastic target figures from the Cap Gun set. If I'd have gone home with this lot I think I maight have had a go at a custom Project SWORD cap gun set like the one Rob G found this year.

Third is this cornucopia of Angels items: books, bags, brushes and, mirrors and interceptors. I wonder of the whole set of brushes and mirrors is there to make up a complete Angels vanity set?

Last but not least is my favourite mixed quantity of toys What a box of goodness! There's so much on there. Can you imagine the fun you'd have sorting through it and trying to ID stuff!

I'll have a go from the pictures. I can see a red missile from the Screaming Mee Mee toy pistol centre left.

What can you ID readers?

project sword badge research: you tube examples

As I begin the final three days of my recuperative stay at home before I re-enter my 'old' working life I plan to do something this weekend I've meant to do for a while: to check whether all my Project SWORD toys have the correct badges.

By way of limbering up with my trusty coffee cup and faithful Moonbase hound by my side I thought I'd watch a few short films about Project SWORD toys and see how other people handle unboxing them and the badges.

Here's my absolute favourite SWORD unboxing - of a Scramble Bug. Its 'performed' by prolific toy You Tuber Tanaka Jun of Japan. I say performed as it does feel like a short Kabuki play or similar. I am entranced when I watch this guy's white-gloved hands! They are so methodical and reverential!

You'll notice that it looks like an almost mint boxed toy complete with all its inner card and tissue packaging, which is great to see for a SWORDie like me. I believe the bag in which the paper Manual is seen has been added for protection though and oddly enough I couldn't see a badge!

Here's another You Tuber, C J Campbell, unboxing his Project SWORD Space Glider five years ago. It s a much longer and noisier film as Mr. Campbell actually speaks and he is not as reverential with his toy, but to be fair its not a mint boxed specimen like Tanaka Jun's. Once again there's no badge. 

It can't be embedded so click on the link [I think the repackaged Fireball XL5 toy he mentions towards the end could either be the JR21 Stingray Submarine Aircraft Carrier the Hover Space Bird, which looked a little like Fireball XL5. Neither of them are connected to Project SWORD]

https://youtu.be/xY9z1P2FjFM

My final bit of You Tube research before I unbox my own toys is this informative film about the Century 21 Zero-X by Modmart, who's films I've been enjoying for as long as I've been blogging. Modmart is passionate about his Gerry Anderson toys and a very knowledgable collector. As he points out his own Zero-X contains the incorrect blue plastic Astronaut badge. It should be the Supremo badge in white.

PS. let me know what you think of these films.