PROJECT SWORD INTERNET SIGHTINGS 2023

 Japanese Scouts

Hover Probe Force 2

Tarheel Probe Force 1

A mixed bag; 2 x Century 21 Toys and one Tarheel Space Glider

NASA Probe force 3

Space Bird 3

More Project SWORD finds in the New Year including two new fabulous Japanese discoveries!

NEW PROJECT SWORD TOY DISCOVERY: BAGGED JAPANESE TASK FORCES 1 AND 3

About a month ago, as well as the Tarheel Spectrum Patrol car found in Scotland, I mentioned another new SWORD discovery. Well here it is - or should I say here they are!

They were nestling in one of the boxes loaned to me by supercollector SWORDgrasshopper, who a year ago also brought us the unique carded Scouts from Japan.

Well, the new discoveries are a BAGGED Project SWORD Task Force 1 and 3 also from Japan. I will let the pictures do the talking for now and discuss their significance later. Enjoy!

TARHEEL PROJECT SWORD SPECTRUM PATROL CAR: NEW DISCOVERY

OK, this is the first of two stunning Project SWORD discoveries made this weekend just gone. Focus on the red car in the centre and look at the box. It says:

Project SWORD Spectrum Patrol Car by Tarheel!

Now that is amazing! Not only is it a wholly new and never seen before American SWORD toy by Tarheel, it is also the first SWORD toy, which specifically mixes Gerry Anderson worlds, ie. SWORD and Captain Scarlet! Fabulous I hear you say! And I would agree.

We will hopefully get more photographs from the toy's owner later in the year. In the meantime you can go and see it on display for another month at the Hamilton Toy Collection in Callander, Perthsire, Scotland, where it resides with owner John Hunter. John has kindly agreed to me showing this photograph of the toy. You can see more of his museum on his website.

I would like to thank Graeme Walker of Canada for initially flagging up this toy, which he saw on Facebook. Thanks Graeme! That's the power of the web!

If you can take anymore then the next new SWORD discovery will follow soon!

PROJECT SWORD NEWS: LBZ THUNDERBIRD 2 TOP BOX FOUND!

As blogged at the time, a few years ago I bought and restored this LBZ spinning top from West Germany. It contained a silver Thunderbird 2 and illustrations of the Moon Prospector and the Scramble Bug. For years I have have been trying to find an image of the box.

Until now that is. Courtesy of a Spanish auction site here is the said box, a standard LBZ carton with open sides and a lid. Nothing specific about the top's design so far.

Neither is there anything unique about the standard box side art.

Its the box top that's the business end. You can clearly see the Thunderbird 2 and the Moon Prospector just below it. The silver space rocket has nothing to do with the toy itself but us called Starfire, the only other word that appears on the box lid other than LBZ itself.

Here's a close-up.

Another mystery solved!

NEW PROJECT SWORD SIGHTINGS FEBRUARY 2015

This year's new SWORD cyber- sightings are coming thick and fast. Some are Japanese collectables we've seen before and some are new to the blog.

First up is this beautiful shop display of rack toys. Japanese shops appear to have gone in for these cards of assorted bagged plastic gifts in  big way. They probably still do. The SWORD interest is the bagged blue pop rocket top right. The header card has Probe Force 2 illustrated on it. We've seen this before but never on its display card like this. Interestingly, next to it is a grey Angel Interceptor! See the close-up shot.

morozumid

Next up are a series of online appearances of our friend the 1972 Imai kit Thunderbird 7, known to SWORD fans as the Beetle, the shielded version of the Snow Train. This first shot is the kit almost finished.

mibro

This Imai Thunderbird 7 is definately new to the blog. Dirtied down and mounted on a sandy base, it looks fantastic and totally transformed.

M's Plus

And here's some cool footage of the Imai TB7 in action courtesy of You Tube. We get to see how the rocket launcher works too!

Tachit Sky

This final shot is of a white Thunderbird 7. The still is from a Japanese collectables book posted online. It says that the model was issued in 1989/1990. Was it white plastic instead of the standard yellow or has someone simply painted it white? Was the box the same in 1989?

hokutochoitiro

In the blog's first year we reported on a Japanese meccano-style Scramble Bug toy by DeltaX. We've never seen the back of the box - until now. You can see that the biult-up toy can double-up on itself. Whether this toy is inspired by the SWORD Scramble Bug I don't know but it does look similar.

Yahoo Japan

Here's the small Japanese model Zero-X again. This time we see it with its box. I'm not sure if its Glico or Morinaga.

Yahoo Japan

And finally the most exciting sightings of the month are the next three items. First we have two small green plastic SWORD replicas, which I assume form part of the hard plastic Japanese miniature fleet reported on the blog before. The Probe Force 2 is completely new and the green colour of the Scout 2 is new to the blog too.

 

 

Yahoo Japan

The last item was flagged up by two fellow SWORDies at the same time, Terry H and Salim, to whom I'm grateful for the heads-up. Its a Japanese display card of assorted bags of plastic toy spaceships. the real SWORD interest is the header card, which shows what is clearly a Nuclear Ferry. This time we have an astronaut sat astride it and another space-walking. I can't see any Nuclear Ferry toys in the bags although the red and white UFO type spaceship top right on the illustration does feature as a grey toy in the bags at the bottom.

Yahoo Japan

This display card illustration is very similar to this one we saw on the blog years ago featuring space watches rather than bagged toys. The Ferries are identical.

That's all for this month SWORDies!