Mystery Cool Radar Car

Seen on Ebay this year this neat lunar radar rover caught my eye. It looks familiar sort of. Described as 6 inches long with a Home made dish.

Any ideas as to what it is readers? 

MYSTERY ANTENNA

I often check Vectis auctions for Project SWORD and JR21 toys. Here's an old auction box of treats some lucky bidder got.

I was interested in the red antenna at the bottom in the middle below Thunderbird 3. Anyone recognise it?

HENRY GORDY RADAR STATION

Keeping an eye on fellow bloggers' blogs I was so impressed with this carded rack toy on Ed's cool blog Toys n' Stuff.

Its a Henry Gordy Radar Station. Wow! What an amazing toy. I would have loved it as a budding astronaut!

http://toyconnect.blogspot.com/2014/02/gordy-satellite-and-just-bein-lazy.html

BLOW BALL RADARS

Looking at this blow ball pipe on You Tube I immediately thought of an antenna array I'd seen on at least 2 old space designs.

Check out the rear antenna on this MEV2 concept from artist Ed Valigursky [our masthead]

and even more blow ball-like is the array on the back of the Corgi 007 Moon Buggy!

Just a theory. Feel free to blow holes in it! ha ha

WRONG RED RADAR

I saw this nice Moon Ranger on an old Vectis auction page. Its got the wrong revolving radar antenna on it. Anyone know what this red antenna is from? Looks familiar.

SL MULTI LOAD TRUCK: ITS A MOKE THING

Its not often I see any plastic toys by SL of Hong Kong.

They came dramatically to my attention about 10 years ago when I acquired what is probably one of my prize Project SWORD collectables, the SL Task Force No.3 Space Rocket.

Shortly after getting it I started a checklist of SL toys on Moonbase

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2009/11/sl-toys-of-hong-kong.html

I wanted to find the toy model numbers before and after my space rocket, which is number 121 C. I also wanted to shed some light on the letter C at the end of it. What did it mean?

Well, sometimes, indeed often, a great notion falls by the wayside and my checklist was one such project. 

I never did find those model numbers or solve the C question [which we've also seen relating to LN and LP toys on Moonbase as discussed by Arto.]

I still can't.

So, in the spirit of keeping things going a little bit I will now add at least one new toy to the SL list.

Its a beautiful set I noticed recently on the Bay [seller 123pusso].

The Multi Load Truck.

SL loved Mini Mokes and issued many variations.

This is another Moke and this set gave kids the chance to put 6 different plastic loads on the back like coal, timber and big milk churns.

The model number is 112- M.

Nowhere near my space rocket's number of 121, the M is still intriguing. Could it really be as simple as M for Multi Load Truck? Or did it mean M for multiple toys to go in the box?

But why C then on my rocket box? Carded? Its boxed though. Surely it would be B?

Anyway, I've enjoyed seeing this new SL toy. I do its relative simplicity and the box art depicting different industrial settings.

The red hatching at the side of the text panel on the box reminds me of another toy box livery, the red lines on the JR21 Rocket XL9 Spaceship.

What is the origin or purpose of this red hatching on toy boxes in the Sixties? Anyone know?

Have you any SL toys?

UNDER THE RADAR

When is plastic tin?

When its the Space Radar Car.

I saw this on the Bay and thought it was plastic.

Its not. Its main body is tin I'm sure.

But its really hard to tell.

The description didn't help although the seller is tin toy guy.

The base looks plastic though!

I think I can see the LN logo.

We have seen an all plastic version of this toy.

Firstly back in 2010, a boxed one in a book. 

I thought it was an LP toy back then.

Compare the boxes.

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2010/06/summer-special-new-vehicle-in-lp-fleet.html

Arto prophetically pointed out in the comments even then that the plastic toy was in fact released by LN.

8 years later Arto brought us all up to date with more LN insights in his post this year

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2018/05/science-friction-ln-range-of-plastic.html

At the start of all these there was a tin toy which I assume began this mini radar craze, the Masudaya Radar Scout Pioneer I mentioned back in 2010.

Compare the box.

Have you a radar car or any other LN toy?

SCIENCE FRICTION: THE LN RANGE OF PLASTIC SPACE CAR TOYS BY ARTO

Dear Woodsy,

This LN Fleet is now successfully at Helsinki Base. 

To pay tribute to the Alphadrome posting, that has fascinated me for so long, I took the attached piccy for your enjoyment. 

http://danefield.com/alpha/forums/topic/18091-space-vehicles-from-hong-kong/

LN is a curious one, overshadowed by LP, which of course is a much broader range. 

The Space Radar Car is No. 303 / 303 C and the Combat Car 305 C. 

I'm not sure if there was a picture of the Amphibious Missile Carrier on the Blog, showing the item number. At least it is not mentioned on the card, nor is the LN brand. The Merehall version is 215. 

The numbering would suggest that there is more to the toy line. 

The "C" presumably denotes "Carded". There is a boxed version 303 of the Space Radar Car, so I would assume there be one or more boxed versions as well.

Enjoy!

Arto

*

Woodsy adds:

Previous related posts include:

Space Radar Car

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/space-toys-and-me-guest-article-by.html

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=space+radar+car&updated-max=2015-10-29T16:00:00Z&max-results=20&start=3&by-date=false

Combat Car

Loose and misidentified as Argentinian

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/echo-car-mighty-jack-apollo-moon-clone.html

Merehall Amphibious Missile Carrier boxed and carded

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=merehall+carrier

UNDER THE RADAR: HONG KONG PLASTIC

 I spotted this old plastic space capsule on the Bay. It's marked HP and is classic Sixties Hong Kong.

Its the radar that caught my eye.

I used to think this was the same as Project SWORD's Scout 1 [below right] but I actually think its the the same as a toy called the Firefly XYZ Mark 111 [below left]

Anyone got one of these capsules or Fireflies?

GLICO THUNDERBIRDS RADAR TRUCK

Behold the Glico Thunderbirds Radar Truck from front and back. Courtesy of Yahoo Japan. The radar truck is a distant relative of the SpaceX Tractor T5 I think, giving a sprinkling of Thunderbird 2 pod vehicle magic! Would you agree?

Unsure who the chap is above. Brains?

FLORIDA SPACE CENTER RADAR CAR T.218

Hi Woodsy, I send you two pictures from my Radar Car. It was a merchandise from the early 70`s and I get it in the Space Center in Florida. Enjoy your week,
Best Regards from Germany / Berlin
Thomas

T218 RADAR CAR

Hello Woodsy, I came across your website as the only place online I could find an article or information about the 1970's die-cast Radar Car Toy. I've included 2 Jpegs of my Radar Car toy for you toview. Thanks, A

Thanks A. Lovely toy. Anyone else got a radar car like this or similar?

UNDER THE RADAR

There's something iconic about a radar transmitter. The silver dishes ooze a cold war in space. Naturally there are many cool radar toys.

 

 

My favourite is the Spacex Apollo Tracker seen here in its original orange, together with a custom purple version both from Bill's collection.

 

 

 

 

The mighty Crawler by Imai is another favourite; articulated, battery powered and missile firing. This example is on You Tube.

 

 

 

 

Last but not least is the Thunderbirds Transmitter Truck, which formed part of the TB2 pod fleet. This one is courtesy of our very own Scoop and his diorama workshop.

 

 

 

Can you think of any more radar toys readers?