1966 ARTWORK BY ERIC EDEN IN TV21 SUMMER EXTRA

Thanks to Shaqui Le Vesconte's excellent research, the Philosophic Toad has sent me these fabulous pages of 1966 TV21 artwork for the timeline. They are so totally fab I had to post them up proper. Way before SWORD and SPACEX toys emerged we have brilliant concept art for SWORD Hover Tank, Sand Flea and Snow Train( AKA The Beetle/ Thunderbird 7) and SPACEX Nuclear Pulse and Needleprobe. The other designs would have made great toys too!

If you want to see more great TV21 artwork like this then I recommend a visit to the amazing Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History - details at the top of the blog.

Nuclear Ferry Blues and the Dyna-Soar by Darth

Darth got in touch:

Well Paul I cried myself to sleep. I got knocked out of the Nuclear Ferry thing
in the last thirty seconds. I sure hope that at the very least it went to one of
the people who frequent your site and not just some dealer somewhere. If I had
won it I was going to send it to Bob McCall and have him sign it. Anyway,
attached are some pics for you. This is a Dyna-Soar model cast at the Boeing
machine shop in Seattle from the original final design from 1963. As you can see
it has been rather nicely stuck on an oak stand that looks exactly like the
stand used when they rolled out the real full size prototype in Las Vegas back
in the early 60s. It's also signed by a Dyna Soar test pilot.

I cried too Darth! Love the Dyna Soar model. A similar one, unsigned, ended on Ebay US recently.

CENTURY 21 NUCLEAR FERRY PICTURES

Well like most of you I'm in a post- Nuclear state. The Ebay Nuclear Ferry made a staggering price - £580 ($810). Someone will be very happy. Bidding bloggers have told me that bidding was very very tight and it all went to the dogs in the last few seconds! Let's hope the lucky owner is a true swordhead and puts the Ferry in pride of place at the head of the fleet. Pekoday, the Hong Kong seller, very kindly sent me a couple of extra pictures, which didn't appear on the listing (those that did are all here) - the two at the top of the group. The third pic from the top (with the ruler) is for comparison and is from a different auction, Yahoo Japan, in 2008. The picture of the box below it is odd - it would appear that a side of the box is just blank brownish card or the lid has a whole side missing? Still it would be like owning a Picasso!

MISSING THE FERRY

FROM WOTAN: Collision in Deep Space! As the Century 21 Project Sword Nuclear Ferry disappears past the event horizon on Ebay once more, it leaves us with more answers than questions for a change! Besides some excellent photographs of the ship herself, there are one or two (not as good) pics of the box. Besides being radically different from the general Sword packaging and showing a much more modern style, the main focus is the box illustration. A superb piece of artwork in itself, as are most of the graphics on the Sword boxes, but its plainly apparent as to where the inspiration and actual illustration came from.

Earlier in the blog I posted an article showing Robert McCalls beautiful painting of his design for the ferry, with cut away sections and smaller pic of the ferrys cargo section separating from the booster in the background. The NF box art has blatantly copied this artwork, rebadging the hull to Sword insignia and making the cutaway shuttle into a glass canopied (and wholly impractical!) viewport. Everything else, even the distribution of the craters on the surface has been slavishly copied, the jetstreams from the engine, detailing and shading are all direct lifts from Mr McCalls painting. The only way it differs slightly is the top half of the lunar landscape has been foreshortened to accomodate a new 'planet' which appears to be the origin of the second ferry.

I wonder if any further details will emerge when the lucky winner scrtutinises the model after auction ends ...

BLUE BOX SPACE SHUTTLES

These BLUE BOX SPACE SHUTTLES are interesting- on Ebay USA. I really like this set. I used to have a slightly different Blue Box set - in bags with header cards.

There is also a set of Blue Box boxed vehicles too ( thanks WOTAN).

The crossover with the world of SPACEX and SWORD is tenuous but fine! Its the chunky wedge - shaped space shuttle - the same design appears in the:

• Apollo Exploration Set (thanks rayyorkie),
• Exploring the Moon (thanks mark bergin toys),
• 21 Century (Argentinian/ Ebay US)

and others where in some cases replicas of SPACEX toys appear.

NUCLEAR FERRY ON EBAY

The PROJECT SWORD collecting world is buzzing with the current auction of the scarce Century 21 Nuclear Ferry. Bloggers have been on touch all week, like Graeme:

Hey Paul:I doubt this is news but I found this Ebay auction last night. I wonder
what it will fetch at the end? VINTAGE 21 CENTURY HONG
KONG TOYS NUCLEAR FERRY SPACE Too
bad most of the photos are blurry but what a toy eh? Cheers, Graeme

I agree Graeme, what a toy! Beyond most of our simple means but we can still dream of having this fabulous spaceship on our display shelf!

DYNA SOARS: MARTIN AND GOODYEAR BY DARTH

Darth has sent me this:

Hey Paul, attached are two pics from my Dyna-Soar book of something very similar
to what Wotan has been showing. One is an animated mock-up of a winged reentry
vehicle built by Martin and put on display at the New Worlds Fair in New York
in 1964. It looks to be half way between the X-20 and the X-24. Apparently it was
seen to fly back and forth docking with the cylindrical space station. The other
pic is a mock-up proposed by Goodyear for an inflatable re-entry vehicle. BTW did
you get the pics I sent to you several weeks ago of the Hover Moon car? It
looked exactly like a Sword toy. Regards, Rob

Cheers Rob. Hover Moon Car pics to be posted ASAP.

Schwimmwagen Bugs

Paul Vreede, Spacex fan and blog reader writes:

the "action man amphibious bug" you found somewhere is better known
as a Schwimmwagen. Describing it as a bug is somewhat premature, in
that the Schwimmwagen existed a couple decades before the VW Beetle
on which it was based became used as a platform for buggies of any kind.

Schwimmwagen on YouTube

The Schwimmwagen Registry

btw: the Sindi bug already reminded me of the Schwimmwagen in general proportions and outline, but
not to the point that I felt compelled to bring it to your attention and
get even further off-topic too. But since you put one up on your blog I
now feel safe to digress! ;-D

Best--Paul

MORE MEGO SPACE TRACT GLIDER PICTURES

T'other week I posted pic sof this 'newly discovered' and strange MEGO SPACE TRACT space glider variant. the Ebayer who sold the item ( alas not to me I hasten to add) was kind enough to send me extra photographs of the MEGO box before sending it off to its new owner. I had half-expected that the yellow band at the base of the lid would contain the expanded SWORD wording found on Century 21 and Tarheel boxes. But now I can see that the yellow stripe has a description of the bump n go action etc. The battery insertion illustrations look the same as on the SPACE GLIDER box though - I'll check. All in all I'm thrilled with this find and grateful to Carlos for sending me these great pictures. I wonder if MEGO made more space toys besides this one?