THE SKYSHIP'S THE LIMIT!

 

I saw this Skyship 1 online in Japan and had to blog it. I mean, wow, it even lights up!

Have you got a fave Skyship 1 collectable or story?

FAB1 BOARDING

I've recently got excited about where FAB1 was stowed in the Thunderbirds fleet.

Courtesy of the brilliant Thunderbirds Wiki's TV screengrabs we can see.

Here's the pink roller in the superyacht FAB2. 

About to board Skyship One.

About to board Fireflash.

Still no evidence FAB1 got stowed in Thunderbird 2's pod.

Or?

HOME-MADE SKY SHIP 1 FINISHED!

After wrestling with different shades of blue I eventually settled on Mediterranean and finished my homage to the Bandai Sky Ship 1 toy.

Phew! It was fun though.

It's core are two cheap spirit levels. I've used two of the bubble windows as port-holes on the sides.

The silver band is baco-foil.

The landing gear are various dud circuitry parts and a whole lotta buttons.

The gondola is an old P and O Cruises Ferry I had.

That's my last lockdown project I reckon. Back to school on the 15th June! Drat!

See what you think of this final junkpile effort.

CLUB MED

Got myself some Mediterranean Blue and I'm so happy I did.

Sky Ship 1 "Spirit Levels" is coming along.

Phew!

SKY SHIP 1 WOODSY 0

My ship is forming.

But the paint is storming.

The levels are norming.

But will it ever be performing?

Watch this space!

Waiting for my Sea Blue paint to arrive now. Then its the silver bands and the red lights to sort.

Which will lead to tackling the Gondola.

Phew!

WHICH BLUE IS SKY SHIP 1?

OK readers, get your colour specs on.

Next to Century 21 Toys' Zero-X Take a look at Bandai's Sky Ship 1 above and please tell me which Humbrol blue colour you would say it is [pic: Ferryman].

Here's the Humbrol blue chart

https://www.humbrol.com/uk-en/shop/paints/colour/blue/volume-/14ml/sort-by/sku/sort-direction/desc.html?

I ummed and aaghed about this for ages.

I've ordered Sea Blue Gloss because I'm impatient! It'll take a few days to arrive so no modelling till then.

Which Blue would you have chosen?

CAPTURING THE SPIRIT

More progress!

We have a gondola!

I need more tea!

THE BULLET AIRSHIP

Futuristic airships are on my mind at the mo.

Googling I found this from 2010, the fabulous Bullett.

Like a huge space maggot, Bullet was the biggest inflatable vehicle in the world. Unsure if it still is but it looks incredible.

You can read more here. What do you think?

https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0520/World-s-largest-inflatable-vehicle-Bullet-580-airship-inflated-and-ready-for-action

CARDBOARD SKY SHIP 1

In preparation for my next lockdown scrap project I knocked together a card mock-up of the vehicle so I could get the feel of it.

Its based on the Bandai Sky Ship 1 toy.

[is Sky Ship one word or two?]

KEV'S SCRATCHBUILT SKY 1 AND SKY-DIVER

Kevin D's scratch built Sky 1 and Sky Diver in flight and in water.

IS UFO'S SKY 1 THE SPACEX CRUISER 1?

 

Recently browsing the cool  Britmodeler site I couldn't help noticing the similarity between the UFO Sky 1 model by Imai [above] and my brown HG Toys Pleasure Cruiser kindly donated by Mr. Vreede last year [pictured above, top]. Is there a connection?

 

 

As far as I can tell the Sky 1, part of the larger SHADO Skydiver submarine, was designed by Derek Meddings around 1969. As Tri-ang's SpaceX only hit the shelves in 1970 the Pleasure Cruiser design could theoretically have been influenced by Sky 1, but there's no real evidence other than a superficial similarity in both look and name, Sky 1 and Cruiser 1.

 

 

About five years ago when many of the SpaceX toy origins were discovered by various intrepid blog readers, a more likely origin for the design of the Pleasure Cruiser was suggested by Toad as seen below.

 

 

 

 

It appeared in the Boys World Annual 1968 and is strikingly similar, particularly the top drawing shown above. So, there you have it. Boys World and Sky 1.  To remind you of what the Triang Pleasure Cruiser looks like here's Kevin's original toy and scratchbiult mega model seen recently here at Moonbase central! What do you think readers? Boys World, Sky 1, both or something else?

 

ZERO-X 'S RIVAL: SKY SHIP ONE



 

With it's ZERO-X - style C21 blue plastic this Japanese SKY SHIP 1 toy [Bandai?] would sit well in the  Project Sword fleet! And like Zero -X, Sky Ship One was also the star of a Thunderbirds film, THUNDERBIRD 6, although the actual vehicle of the film's title was for me a complete dissapointment and a damp squib, the red and yellow striped bi-plane, which is partly visible on the above box art. Am I alone in this view?

But is Sky Ship One as popular as Zero-X? What do you think of the two films? Is Thunderbird 6 better than Thunderbirds Are Go? If anyone is lucky enough to own this Sky Ship One and the Century 21 Zero-X I'd dearly love to be able to post a family photo on the blog!

 

 

I'm assuming that this and the other fab Japanese Thunderbirds toys we see on the blog were only available in Japan during the Sixties and Seventies? I never knew any kids with toys in Japanese boxes when I was still 'playing out'! Wonder when they first started to flow out of Japan?

Sky Ship 1

Reader Patron Zero has sent in this cool scan of the Imai Sky Ship 1 kit, one of my favourite Derek Meddings designs. The box art is by Shigeru Komatsuzaki, the late great Japanese Showa master of Anderson art [if only we knew where his originals ended up!]