LEMS ON THE BRAIN

LEM's are on my mind at the mo. I'm struggling with what to do about my moonbase LEM so I've sought inspiration. Here we have my own Spacex LEM APOLLO (bottom 3 pictures) and the beautiful LUNAR CAPTAIN by Nomura (top pic - Mark Bergins Toys, 2nd pic - Vintage Space Toys) . However fabulous these two toys are they are way too small for my moonbase. I'm going to have to switch to looking at kits.

MOONBASE DIARY

Unfortunately this week my modelling efforts have been hindered by pesky sinus headaches making me grouchy and gruff! However, a visit to the docs this morning and a bevvy of new drugs has done the trick and I'm back in the attic!

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The housing module legs - top pic - are painted and the body is ready for finishing touches like sword decals! I just have to decide if the top clear half needs some space 'furniture' or simply illuminating.

The rader dish array is finished and the pedestal is painted - top pic. Not sure what to use for the boxy base. Might just use a box!

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It was always going to be difficult and it has been - the Light Module - middle pic. I have painted up an old tin as the base section. The lamp itself is an old mini table lamp again painted in space cream - bottom pic. K'nex rods and old storage wheels make up the legs. Old model sprues make up the V's, which were really tricky to stick onto the tin but my trusty super glue came good.

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Finally I have painted up an old plastic crane - bottom pic - to use on the top of the 'garage' unit. I've got the crane but no unit yet! I need to be able to cut a 'door/ramp' into it so I'm leaning towards a plastic paint 'tin', which more or less has the right cylindrical shape.

Progress!

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However, I foresee my biggest problem already - the LEM. There's just no way I can make one from scratch! HELP!

MARX AND MULTIPLE TOY MAKERS MOONBASE

I think I'm in love with Operation Moonbase by Marx! The box is how I imagine a Project Sword Moonbase box to look (check out the excellent Time Warp Toys to see these sets). The bottom pic is of a modern re-incarnation of the Marx Moonbase called Star Station Seven. Finally we have the Multiple Toy Makers Space Control Centre ( these 2 pics off Ebay). Where there any other moonbase playsets? British / European ones maybe?

MOONBASE DIARY

Made some progress on the 'dish housing'. Quite chuffed as I picked up a cheap Hawker Hunter Aircraft Reflector dish on Ebay from Jet Art. Fits the bill I reckon. Added a paintbrush handle and a few other bits and its getting there. I even mounted the dish on a small mini desk fan so that it might rotate but it just got too fiddley so I ditched the idea! The tin with the V attached to it is the start of the 'light' module, the V being the first leg mounting. The tea is real and I even forgot to take the bag out! Scruff!

SPACE SAFARI BY MINIFLEX

I've never owned Space Safari by Miniflex but this is such a stunningly good example on Ebay that I had to post it for posterity on the blog. Its Spacex/Moon McDare/Majot Matt Mason all rolled into one, just check out the Crawler! The box art is fabulous too, sort of T Project Sword Painted style. And there's some little cute martians thrown in too! Beautiful. What else did Miniflex do?

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PS. Mark Bergin Toys has some great shots of these toys too in a different box. A great site.

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PS2. Here's another completely different box too!

EBAY USA

Currently on Ebay USA are these two: a beautiful Golden Astronaut Launch Site set and a T Probe Force 1. Not sure I've got that little specification sheet showing the fin attachment. Anyone able to scan one so I can post it up on the blog?

MOONBASE MANUAL ILLUSTRATION ORIGIN?

Hey Paul,

y

Don't forget the original image that the moon base was inspired by. This was basically a version of Boeing's LESA concept from the 60's. Pretty much all of the contractors had versions of this concept including the one attached by Grumman.

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Cheers,

Darth

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Excellent Darth, see what you mean, that Bug/MEV descending the ramp is so similar to the Sword Moonbase illustration! Seems plausible that the Sword Manual illustrator had seen this! Not seen the Countdown pic before - what a great aerial view! Looking at these the modules don't actually have clear domes. It looks clear in the Sword manual illustration.

MOONBASE DIARY

The moonbase model has begun! Having decided that the Housing Module looks a bit like an egg cooker, I attached some K'nex rods and old plastic wheels to said cooker base. Well its a start, the astronauts will have somewhere to live soon and their eggs will only take a minute in space!

FRANKENSTEIN MOD MONSTER

Continuing my gallery of stuff mum chucked out, here's one of my all-time favourite toys, the Frankenstein blushing Mod Monster! What a cheeky devil he is. I remember taking Frankie into little school on the day you could bring your Xmas prezzies in. No-one else had one. I placed it on the teacher's desk and pressed the button and presto, Frankie did his Frankie sway, dropped his kecks and blushed bright red! Talk about a show-stopper! I could never beat that!

SWEET-FILLED JR21 SOMPORTEX THUNDERBIRDS BY STEVE OF THUNDERBIRDSVINTAGETOYS

Hello Paul.

Thanks for the mail & the comments about my thunderbirdsvintagetoys
site.

The sweet filled TB2s - Christies worked a real flanker with
those. They were sealed in 4's - in brown paper.They wouldn't open them for
viewing so it was pot luck as to what was inside & the state of it. All 32
eventually ended up with a friend of mine. I got the best box etc but strangely
he kept the only bag of sweets still in their original 60s state. They were
spiders & bugs etc.

I never knew there was so much SWORD stuff.
I do recall a 2nd hand/junk shop in Nottingham having bucketloads of the stuff
in the late 80s @ 50p each - presumably from clearing old stock- I'd only
just gotten into collecting & wasn't wise enough to buy
it.

Sadly I cannot answer your questions about
SWORD but ......... I have put them & a link to your blog on my
site http://thunderbirdsvintagetoys.co.uk/ExternalLinks.htm

The TB2 you have found is not mine. There are quite a few of them about.
Here's another http://www.solnet.co.uk/metropolis/albumdet.asp?id=1035

The common thing is all the boxes are stained. Very few have sweets in any
state.

Dennis Nicholson loved the "with sweets" story too. The guy that told it to me is sadly long dead. I have no reason to disbelieve it. He worked for JR21 & Lincoln International too apparently.
A lot of the JR21 stuff that's around came from him. He - again apparently - handled shop returns & made good out of bad. And hoarded it. What foresight?

I believe the "Stingray Museum" site is long gone. I did
hear that the stuff was all sold & split up.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Regards,
Steve.

SWEET FILLED JR21 THUNDERBIRDS TOYS: re-printed from thunderbirdsvintagetoys with kind permission from Steve the site owner.

To get a set of JR 21 vehicles is hard enough? What about the RARER ones?

There's a story to tell.............and here's how it was told to me, many, many, many years ago- by an ex-employee of JR 21 Toys. And, of course, it might be a work of total fiction. Here goes..............

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In the mid 1960s JR21 decided to move production of their toys from Hong Kong to England. When manufacturing in England was set up & in production it was discovered that toolings to make parts of the friction motors had not been brought over from Hong Kong. In order not to disrupt production nor reduce sales prices it was decided to compensate for the lack of a friction motor by including a packet of sweets within each box. All mention of a friction motor on the box was covered by a sticker saying "SWEET FILLED" (TB2 top picture)

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So this was done for a limited time.......................

2 batches (as far as I am aware) of Thunderbird 2's containing sweets have turned up & been auctioned through Christies. As, over the years, the sweets had disintegrated & covered the boxes with a sticky mess, it was difficult to find good examples. Most of the boxes were stained.

I also have a Thunderbird 1 with the "SWEET FILLED" stickers on the box (bottom picture). There is no friction inside apart from the metal casing which held the motor. Presumably it was necessary for this to be there to hold the wheel axle.That being the case I can only assume that there were "SWEET FILLED" Thunderbird 3s & FAB 1s done? Anyone know? Anyone have one?

What a fabulous JR21 story Steve! Thanks ever so much for letting me re-use it. If you haven't checked out Steve's TB Toys site then get to it. Highly Recommended! Woodsy