EXCLUSIVE! TARHEEL AMERICAN PROJECT SWORD TOYS CATALOGUE

 As I've said before, very occasionally something amazing pops up in the world of Project SWORD.

Like the boxed Japanese Probe Force 3 and the Century 21 Task Forces boxed set I posted yesterday, here's another Project SWORD day exclusive.

The Tarheel Project SWORD toys dealers catalogue from the USA!

Spotted by the ever-diligent Arto at Helsinki Base this fabulous 4 page wonder was offered up by Seal Beach Books of California on Ebay.

Here's the cover, a beautiful and unique illustration of Project SWORD and Captain Scarlet toys in a futuristic setting.

The two middle pages showing both Captain Scarlet and Project SWORD toys and vehicles offered by Tarheel in America. It amazes me to think there are plastic Tarheel SPC's and SPV's in the States somewhere!

The rear cover showing the four more classic Tarheel SWORD vehicles.

Interestingly the three Re-Entry Task Force toy vehicles we know that Tarheel offered are not shown here.

The inclusion of both Project SWORD and Captain Scarlet toys is fascinating and we've seen two examples of Tarheel SWORD/ Scarlet mash-ups already, both pictured in this catalogue, albeit without SWORD labelling: -

The Project SWORD Spectrum Patrol Car at the Hamilton Toy Collection, Callander

and the Project SWORD Dart Gun Set found by Rob Godwin in Michigan

Its just a matter of time before the Captain Scarlet Gun and Holster Set and the SPV are found in the States with Project SWORD labelling. Keep your eyes peeled folks!

Finally, despite a valiant effort and a very high bid by a blog reader to secure the Tarheel catalogue for the wider Moonbase community, it was bought by an unknown buyer who clearly wanted it a great deal.

Here are all the auction pictures from Seal Beach Books.

What do you think readers?

A FEVER OF YELLOW SPECTRUM PATROL CARS

The subject of yellow Spectrum Patrol Cars [or Pursuit Cars if you prefer and SPC for short] surfaced recently, so, with the help of Captain Scarlet, I thought I'd do a quick round-up of the one's I could find online.

The most interesting for Dinky collectors must be the yellow experimental SPC reported on on the brilliant Dinky TV Space Specials blog. I'll let you look yourselves 'cos they have a really fine picture and description here.

There are some yellow Code 3 SPC's online too. Here's a nice one that was a restoration project on You Tube. It's been on the blog before here.

There's also this McDonalds Code 3 with red wheels on Flickr

Of interest to collectors of plastic SPC's will be the yellow magicar version, which appeared in this 1967  Pursuit 21st Century Driving boxed set by Rovex Tri-ang, one of three magicar sets they put out but the only one with the yellow SPC I think. 

The set was blogged last week but I couldn't find any images of the Rovex yellow SPC out of the box. Only the red one. Can you?

For an exotic finish here's the Argentinian contribution and probably the largest of the fleet I think, the Explorador Lunar by Gorgo.

Gorgo's SPC came in various colours including yellow, which we featured on Moonbase way back in 2011 in this Argentinian medley I did below.

So readers, do you like yellow SPC's?

For more SPC colours check out Terry Harle's marvellous Tornado 31 fleet on Moonbase [see labels below] and the blue Dinky SPC on Dinky TV Space Specials, a superb bit of research by that blogger.

Have you got an SPC? Which colour?

THE TARHEEL PROJECT SWORD SPC

From a fair few years ago here's the Worthpoint auction picture for the wonderfully unusual Project SWORD Spectrum Patrol Car by Tarheel.

Its model number 5923.

Anyone got this box and toy?

TARHEEL CAPTAIN SCARLET

I've always been hugely excited by the Tarheel Project SWORD Spectrum Patrol Car.

We've featured it on display at the Hamilton Toy Collection.

For those interested this webpage looks like the original sale listing of the toy on Worthpoint some years ago.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/spectrum-patrol-car-vintage-tv-series-534247757

As we know this is one of two Century 21 Captain Scarlet toys repackaged as Tarheel, the other being a Dart Set.

Do you know of any other Tarheel Captain Scarlet toys?

BIRTHDAY DETECTIVE: THE TARHEEL PROJECT SWORD SPC

This year I enquired as to how the Hamilton Toy Collection got hold of their fabulous and scarce Tarheel Project SWORD Spectrum Patrol Car seen at the rear of this display.

They sent me the following reply:

Hi,

Thank you for your email. we brought it from Ebay more than 10 years ago.

Hope this helps 

HTC

I thought I'd try to find another one anywhere on the net as its such a darn beauty.

I didn't but I did find this ebay listing stored on Worthpoint from June 15th 2014.

Are there two of these Tarheel brand toys out there somewhere?

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/spectrum-patrol-car-vintage-tv-series-534247757

A SWIRL OF TORNADOS: THE KNOCKOFF SPECTRUM PATROL CAR 31

Captain Scarlet superfan Terry H has been collecting these unusual knockoff Spectrum Patrol Cars or SPC's for a number of years now.

They are called the Tornado 31.

We covered it back in 2016

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/8th-birthday-dossier-tornado-31.html

and fellow blogger Geoffrey Peters posted about it way back in 2011

http://geoffstoys.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/captain-scarlet-spectrum-patrol-car-spc.html

This year Terry managed to pick up a green one and add it to his red and white cars.

Its a handsome trio don't you agree?

Have you got any SPC's?

tarheel Project SWORD dart gun and target game model number

Darth has confirmed the model number of his new and stunning Tarheel Project SWORD dart gun set. It's 5916.

Before I do anything detailed about this number I thought I'd at least compare it to the last known Tarheel toy in this SWORD Captain Scarlet 'range', the Spectrum Patrol Car numbered 5923.

Numbered 5916 the Dart gun set actually comes before the Tarheel Project SWORD Task Force toy spaceships numbered 5917 and several other SWORD toys after that.

I wonder why Tarheel released the two Captain Scarlet toys out of sequence and not consecutively? Was it a timing issue?

Project sword news: Tarheel Captain Scarlet Dart gun and target set discovered!

Hey Woodsy

I didn't do a deep dig on your site so I wasn't sure if you had seen this?

I walked into a flea market in Lansing Michigan yesterday and this was front and center in a display case near the entrance.

I'd never seen it before so I thought I'd better grab it in case you hadn't seen it.

I notice it seems to be almost identical to the one on your site here. Pity no Century 21 logo though.

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.ca/2010/09/birthday-century-21-extra-captain.html

Cheers
Darth

Canada

*

Woodsy replies: this is a stunning find Darth and thank you so much for sharing it with MC readers. 

It confirms what I thought when I first saw the Tarheel Project SWORD SPC that fellow Canadian Graeme Walker introduced us to last year, that Tarheel released a few different Century 21 Captain Scarlet toys under the SWORD brand. 

I think we'll see a Tarheel SWORD SPV before long!

Has anyone seen anymore Tarheel SWORD toys?

*

Just remembered that I did a bloglet about Captain Scarlet toy guns three years ago, which includes more versions of the above set. Woodsy.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/the-toy-guns-of-captain-scarlet.html

and the mythical Century 21 Tool Belt and Repair Kit!

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/century-21-toys-captain-scarlet-tool.html

BIRTHDAY DOSSIER: TIEDTKE'S PROJECT SWORD SPECTRUM PATROL CAR

One of the most exciting Project Sword finds of last year was the surfacing of a Tarheel Spectrum Patrol Car.

It was 'found' in the Hamilton Toy Museum in Callander, Scotland inside the Gerry Anderson cabinet.

The Museum's proprietor kindly sent me close-ups of the toy and its box in January and on the one below appeared an original shop price tag. The toy cost all of 99 cents!

On closer inspection the shop name on the tag is TIEDTKE'S.

Having looked them up it appears that Tiedtke's was a department store in downtown Toledo in the state of Ohio, USA.

This postcard I saw on auction gives an idea of how the store looked in the 1950's [on the left].

Captain Scarlet arrived on US TV's in 1968. The Century 21 SPC had been available since 1967 so I can only assume that the Tarheel SPC was available from this date too.

The price tag says '6-69' on it. This could mean June 1969, which would mean that this particular toy was on Tiedtke's shelves one year after Captain Scarlet was on American television.

Is it the only american branded captain scarlet toy?

What I can be sure of is that at some point this Tiedtke's SPC travelled the 3521 miles from the Toledo store in to the museum in Callander. Where and when it stopped along the way we'll never know!

Did you buy any toys at Tiedtke's readers?

8TH BIRTHDAY DOSSIER: THE TORNADO 31 SPECTRUM PATROL CAR MYSTERY

Earlier this year I received a surprise package from my friend Paul Vreede. One of the toys it contained was a plastic Spectrum Patrol Car [SPC] I'd never seen before.

It was called the Tornado 31 along both its sides and had pull-back and go action.

Knowing how much of a fan of SPC's my friend Terry Harle was I sent it on to him as a gift.

Terry had seen a white one before but the origin of the Tornado 31 remained a mystery!

Beginning to look around I found this online picture of the same SPC on the really excellent Geoff's Toys Blog:

Geoff sggests that it may originate from Argentina but no maker's name was apparent. I was already aware of a company there called Gorgo that made SPC-style toys, pictured, but they are completely different to this new one.

Another possible lead was in Dennis Nicholson's Gerry Anderson Memorabilia book. 

He decsribes a certain "Alf Zero Toys SPC, ITC Mechanics Choro-Q versions. can be mototised via spring motor - pull back type. spc, spv, msv. all 60mm in length."

I can find only one reference to Alf Zero toys/ models online, on an Italian UFO site referring to an Angel Interceptor, 3rd from the bottom:

http://www.isoshado.org/6/6_merchandise_archivio/model_kit_miscella.htm

The interesting thing about this is that it has "30's" on the top left. On the mystery SPC is what looks like the number "31" on the sides. 

A possible link perhaps?

Terry's own extensive collection has since ruled out the Aleph Zero connection. It turned out to be this vac formed kit he has. They also produced a version of the Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle and Maximum Security Vehicle. 

These were all small vacuum formed compact deformed body shells that a Choro Q pull-back and go chassis could be fitted to.

.

At this point in the search both Terry and I agreed that the Argentinian connection was a good possibility although their items could sometimes be crude copies. The Tornado 31 is a well-made toy.

Terry recalled that in Dennis Nicholson's "Guide" there's also reference to a Tri-ang friction SPC, though neither of us have ever seen one. They also made the Pursuit Racing and Escape and Capture versions of the SPC, so could the Tornado 31 be Tri-ang too?

 If a friction SPC by them did exist we would expect it to be prominently branded with the Tri-ang logo. The Tornado 31 certainly isn't.

Terry acquired a further example of the Tornado 31 SPC, this time in white, although the birth of these toys still remains stubbornly obscure. 

Pictured are the red and white versions of Tornado 31 with kind permission from the owner Terry Harle.

Can anyone help with this birthday mystery readers?

AMERICAN SWORD: THE TARHEEL INDUSTRIES PROJECT SWORD TOY FLEET

With the recent discovery of the Tarheel Spectrum Spectrum Patrol Car at the Hamilton Toy Collection I thought it would be a good time to bring together all of Tarheel's American Project SWORD toys that we know about.

Space Glider - two different Tarheel logo styles, one with and [the less common] without both the T globe and Project SWORD brand, together with the "Battery Operated" red star.sticker.

Space Glider - two different Tarheel logo styles, with and without both the T globe and Project SWORD brand.

Moon Bus*

Moon Ranger*

Probe Force No.1

Probe Force No.2

Probe Force No.3

Spectrum Patrol Car

Task Force No.1 [mocked-up backing card]

Task Force No.2 and No.3

Have you any other Tarheel Project SWORD toys or box/ card variations readers?

*do box variants exist as with the Glider and Prospector?