Barbarella's Starcruiser Mission Kit Ray Gun

We've spoken about Barbarella's pistols before.

One of her lesser ray guns - pictured above - appears to be the same one in the fabulous Gerry Anderson toy Star cruiser Mission Kit by Thomas Salter featured yesterday ( just had a thought, is this a water pistol?)

The identity of Barb's ray gun has perplexed many a toy mind over the years. 

Here's a great discussion from a way back on the superb Alphadrome, including many versions of the toy weapon.

http://alphadrome.net/forums/topic/15808-my-barbarella-ray-gun/?page=2 

Have you got ray guns like this?

Do you like Barbarella?

I would have loved that Star Cruiser Mission Kit for Christmas back in the day. You too?

THE AIRFIX STARCRUISER KIT BY PAUL ADAMS

Covered before on MC, Starcruiser was one of several Gerry Anderson television projects from the 1970s that did not make it in to production. However, it did lead to a comic strip in the weekly Look-In magazine (1977-79), and two plastic kits from Airfix.

I recently came across a pair of unusual, and short-lived, American issues of these kits, which I thought deserved an article. Along with a quick look at the various boxes.

The Starcruiser 1 kit appeared in 1978, and was last listed in the 1984 Catalogue. It was followed by the Starcruiser Interceptor around 1980/81.

The Starcruiser 1 was a large ship, which broke down in to four separate units - Command Module (nose section); Main Unit (central fuselage with wings); Command Base (like the Eagle pods, a simple box-shape); and Interceptor Unit(atop the fuselage). It was a Series 7 kit, number 07170-9.

This was a clip-together kit, although Airfix barely mentioned the fact. There were 44 parts, in white and clear plastic, with a colourful decal sheet.

The first box (copyright date 1978) had a comic strip along the bottom. 

The second box (copyright date 1979 on the side) deleted this, and made the main image larger.

Airfix kits had been sold in America under the MPC name for a number of years, but in the late 1970s this changed to USAirfix, which was a single word. The USAirfix version of Starcruiser 1 had a new box, with a photograph of the built-up model.

Kit number 7100 was shown in both the 1979 and 1980 USAirfix catalogues, and even made the cover of the 1979 edition. Both can be found under Airfix, on the Box Art Den site.

The kit was still moulded in white and clear plastic, but came with a new decal sheet. This time the model was clearly referred to as a Snap-Fix kit.

USAirfix was short-lived, and Airfix kits were soon back in MPC boxes. Including the Starcruiser 1 and Starcruiser Interceptor.

Shown only in the 1982 MPC catalogue (which can be found on the Internet Archive site), these two kits got a major re-vamp, with new colour schemes, and decals. The box top said 'It's A Snap Model Kit'.

MPC kit number 1-1802 Starcruiser (the number 1 had been dropped), was now moulded in black plastic, matching the new colour scheme, with NASA decals in orange. Given the Interceptor Unit, it seems NASA now has a combat role.

According to the catalogue, the various units making up the model had been re-named. They were now the Control Ship; Power Module; Transporter Pod; and Interceptor.

The catalogue says copyright Gerry Anderson Marketing Ltd., 1982. Given that the kits only appeared in one catalogue, and the fact that there are very few sales listings for them, they do not appear to have been big sellers.

The moulding of these kits in black plastic reminded me of the Revell Alien Invader, which was a normal Space Shuttle kit in black plastic, with clear red parts and red decals. An attempt to get more sales from an existing kit, with a minimum of effort or expense.

Do you own any of these models?

Next up, the Starcruiser Interceptor.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

THOMAS SALTER TOYS: STARCRUISER AND BEYOND

Thomas Salter were a great toy company. In the late Sixties I loved their Adventurer set with its compass and water bottle.

In the late 70's they released a toy I would have enjoyed in the Sixties, the 1979 Starcruiser Mission Kit. The photo box art they used worked really well I think, a strategy they deployed on their 1979 catalogue.

Here's their Puzzle Pack.

and the interesting-looking Fun Optics.

...... the Chemistry set [everybody seemed to have one back then!]

and the fabtastic looking Space Explorer Kit!

How I would have liked that on Christmas Morning!

You too?

MORNING CAMPERS!

We've just been camping for a few days with our Grandchildren in Appletreewick in the Yorkshire Dales. You know, tents, pegs, guy [or is it guide?] ropes, camping gaz and a small kettle. Oh what fun we had.

We did have a few mod cons this time round; fridge, electric hook-up, double cooker and kitchenette and a fire pit for BBQ'ing.

The mod cons didn't stop us doing staff we did camping with our daughter in the 80's: cooking tinned potatoes, loving outdoor breakfasts and lounging on picnic blankets.

Camping again brought back a flood of memories of when I used to go camping as a young teenager in the Lakes too, most often in Langdale. It was a lot more basic back then over 40 years ago. The groundsheet wasn't attached to the tent and anything could wander in between the gaps!

Later I used to take my acoustic guitar and write a few tunes. Sometimes there'd be jams outside the Langdale pub, where a few acoustic guitarists gathered.

My mates were young climbers. They did Poor Man's Putery, where I joined them and learnt the basics of climbing too, but I was never going to get far with my fear of heights! Bouldering was OK and I did try to overcome my fear a few years later in North Wales when I stayed at Plas Y Brenin in Capel Curig, the National Centre for Mountain Activity as part of my HND in Conservation. Despite the leaders' best efforts to make a climber of me on the Glydyrs, on Tryfan and Cadair Idris I still very much prefer to gaze at the distant magic of the peaks from the valley floor!

Camping this summer made me recall my old camping knife from the early late Sixties. It was a sort of curved blade with a knobbed handle, like a small scimitar in a leather holster. It came in handy with firewood, cutting string and slicing apples. I doubt it would be acceptable nowadays to wander round a camp site wearing a knife. We did have a Swiss Army knife with us this time round but it was in with the cutlery and out of the way of our kids.

We had fun with torches back in the day and this time round too. Great fun at night avoiding the tent ropes - if that's possible - and exploring the river beaches in the dark.

I never mastered the compass though. I owned compasses as a kid - even having one in my shoes at one point - but despite loving OS Maps I never really got to grips with this bit of kit. 

Talking about all these things brings back a memory of a wonderful adventure/ camping kit I had as a kid by Thomas Salter toys. It had everything you could need for an expedition into the back garden or the local beauty spot. Owning that set was the closest I got to being a Scout.

Do you have fond memories of camping? of climbing? of compasses? of Adventure Kits readers?

THOMAS SALTER SPIN A WIN GAMES

This Thomas Salter Spin A Win football game is related to the Captain Scarlet version of the game!

http://www.oldfootballgames.co.uk/index.asp?pageid=652764

This image of all 4 Spin a Win games names is courtesy of the Old Football Games site. Wonder what the Space Flight game box art is like?

The Captain Scarlet version is listed under the games section of this ace Merchandise guide! 

http://lester.demon.nl/superm/scarlet/merchand.html

THE FOUR SPIN A WIN GAMES BY THOMAS SALTER LTD

Thanks to Paul A's eagle eyes I've managed to track down the other Spin a Win board games, which we now know where released by Thomas Salter Ltd.

Here are all four games as listed on the instruction sheet in the scarce Captain Scarlet game. The other three games were much easier to find on Google.

Have you got any of these old games?

eagletransporter.com

Alphadrome

ebay uk

oldfootballgames.co.uk

did you have a pair of toy binoculars?

I saw a pair of plastic toy binoculars the other day. They were in a plastic toy shoulder case. All made to look like grown up binoculars.

I was overcome with a memory of just such a pair as a kid in the Sixties!

They were a toy but actually worked and slid in and out of that case with ease. They might have even had plastic caps over the front plastic lenses!

I adored those binoculars and wore them with pride on walks.

Probably made by someone like Thomas Salter maybe.

Did you have a pair?

we had plastic flasks of pop and toy binoculars

With Spring sunlight pouring onto our lives once more like a nurse my mind is slowly returning to going outdoors for longer than five minutes.

As a kid in the Sixties some toys came with me outside but as with all memories they are hard to get hold of completely.

I can remember an outdoor explorer set I loved. It had a canteen for water, a compass, a belt, a torch and maybe more. I think it was this Thomas Salter set.

I've forgotten the binoculars that were in the set. Plastic ones that really focused. I can feel its strap around my shoulder even now.

I doubt very much there was a pocket knife in this set but I did have some. One that I recall had a curved blade edge, a sort of shiny brown grip and a chrome bulbous top to it. 

It came in a sheath and I think it was called a camping knife or sheath knife, a lot like the one in the picture. Very much out of favour nowadays, here in the UK Sixties Kids played out a lot and I suppose our society wasn't as violent then so we carried things like this when we went camping.

It attached to my belt which was elasticated and the buckle was a curious but clever snake design, where a single snake hooked each side like the one shown or two snakes inserted into each other. These may have been figures of eight rather than snakes.

Plastic rifles were part of my outdoors too. Johnny Seven of course, ping pong ball bazookas, water pistols and proper toy rifles. I know I had a 1930's style Gangster tommy gun with a loud ack-ack sound chamber. 

I'm also pretty sure I had a long army rifle which fired plastic bullets like Johnny Seven. It had a cocking L -shaped handle made of metal with a black plastic cylinder on it for a handle. The whole thing was green and looked like something from World War Two but for the life of me I can't remember what it was called. Can you?

Did you have any outdoor toys?

[pics: Ebay and Amazon]

the green slime rifle and the starcruiser mission toy kit

Whilst browsing for GiFs I saw this one from the movie Green Slime, the movie which included a spaceship which likely inspired the toy SpaceX LT10. When I saw the space gun I thought - I've seen that before! Its clunky shape reminded me of a toy rifle.

This is it, the rifle shown below in this boxed Gerry Anderson's Starcruiser Mission Kit by Thomas Salter Toys. Now I don't have this toy so I can't be certain of its size. Its sort of similar but not quite the same. 

Can anyone do a comparison of the movie rifle and the toy itself if you own one?

*

There's a similar toy water pistol by, the Tommy Gun, by Maks. It was used in the film Barbarella! See the amazing Alphadrome for more information.

THOMAS SALTER STARCRUISER MISSION KIT MYSTERIES

I've blogged about this before.

The Starcruiser Mission Kit by Thomas Salter Toys, 1979.

Although arriving in toy shops over 10 years later than Project SWORD toys I have often wondered whether a SWORD version of this would have worked. Would you have wanted one readers?

The Starcruiser toy itself appears to be a generic Thomas Salter design as they used it again for Buck Rogers [I wonder who the kid is on the Starcruiser box? A Salter?]

I sometimes also compare Starcruiser with SWORD in terms of project evolution over at Century 21. SWORD was a toy range backed up by a comic 'strip'. As far as I know it was never considered as a TV show and certainly not developed as such in any way.

It began and ended as a toy line with associated comics and books. Pure and simple.

Starcruiser appears to be the reverse. Formed as a TV concept, it failed to materialise as a show and only then spawned the toys, models and comic strip. Is this right? Was this a way for Gerry to make at least something out of it? Did it work: were the toy sales driven by the strip?

A final Starcruiser thought is simply one of toy identification

This is the Dinky Space Battle Cruiser.

Is it the same as the Airfix Starcruiser Interceptor readers?

Does the Dinky toy mention Starcruiser on the box? If not, why not?

Anyone got both of them?

THOMAS SALTER STARCRUISER AND BUCK ROGERS MISSION TOYS

Years ago I blogged the cool toy pictured up top - the Starcruiser Mission Kit - by Thomas Salter dated 1979. I was fascinated by it as the maker Thomas Salter had chosen to make a toy for a Gerry Anderson concept that never made it onto the TV. I often wondered what a SWORD Mission Kit would have looked like!

Well, Thomas Salter didn't do a SWORD toy but they did appear to recycle the Starcruiser set a year later for their Buck Rogers Galactic Mission Control Centre in 1980. It looks just the same! To be certain, does anyone have a picture of the contents?

picture: the toycabin

MISSION STARCRUISER

If you caught Bill Everatt's excellent radio interview with Gerry Anderson's son, Jamie, on Friday night you'll have heard a tantalising hint about a possible revival of Starcruiser in some form. Jamie mused about a new model kit even!

I never read Starcruiser in Look-In or at least I don't remember. However, in the blog's first year, 2008, I posted a picture of a toy, which in my mind is a bit of a blog legend now, the Starcruiser Mission Kit by Thomas Salter Toys. As an Anderson toy it seems unique to me as I can't think of any other mission set like this. Has anyone got one?

I've always loved Thomas Salter kits. I had an outdoor adventure set when I was a kid in the 60's, which included a neat water flask, a compass and a torch. The Mission Kit would have been right up my street if it had been around in the 60's.

 

 

I suppose the fact that Starcruiser remained basically a range of toys and comic strips rather than gracing our TV screens it makes it similar to one Project SWORD. So, with a new Starcruiser toy or model possibly on the near horizon I can't help but muse about what might be!

 

 

Picture: Vectis