SAMHAIN SATURDAY

Heres to the future and respect to the departed. The marketing boys have made a big thing of Halloween these days, so my pagan soul always likes to rember its celtic roots!

COMANSI: THUNDERBIRDS ARE AMIGOS

I first came across COMANSI of Spain when I started to see bundles of simple plastic one-colour Thunderbirds figures in clear plastic bags with beautiful header cards. Individual vehicles were bagged in the same way. The one I remember seeing the most often at Toy Fairs was TB5. These toys have a long heritage that goes way back to 1966. There was even a Tracy Island.

The TB5 I remember can be seen clearly in the lower right corner of this sealed box of Comansi -style Thunderbirds figures by NOVOLINEA of Spain. There's TB4 at the top too. The title reads "1/2 Kilo of Space" - sounds like dark matter! I spotted this today set on Ebay Spain.

And here's the actual TB4 (x2) and 5 by COMANSI themselves (funny how they are fixated with 4 & 5!), along with Jeff, Brains and co. Beautiful box art entitled UFO I think (Los Ovnis). From the description I believe this is from the 1960's. Also seen today on Ebay Spain.

And finally on Ebay Spain today is the same box art as above set in a stunning frame of TB vehicles. I can't see the name COMANSI but it's clearly their house style. Amazing that its survived like this since 1965. It has lost all its contents though! Anyone else like Comansi? Were they sold outside Spain in the 1960's?

THUNDEBIRD 2 CLONES: SPACE PATROL, RAY-GUARD X-2 AND SPACE WARSHIP 2

Above is another TB2 knockoff called SPACE PATROL by ASC, pictured previously on the blog. I love the box art - those other spacecraft look sort of familiar or?

..and here's one of those images, which you just can't get out of your head and you look everywhere for the toys for years on end but no joy. I first saw this picture way back in the mid-1990's on the cover of Dennis Nicholson's superb but out-of-print book The Gerry Anderson Memorabilia Guide and it's stayed with me principally because I've simply never seen these TB knockoffs anywhere else. I've mentioned the one on the right earlier this week in the THUNDERCOP bloglet - the awesome RAY-GUARD SPACE SHIP X-2, which, as explained by Dennis was operated by a strong torch beam. There's an X-3 as well, which presumably is a TB3 in the same style? The fabulous SPACE WARSHIP boxes shown on the left are by old Thunderbird pro's LINCOLN INTERNATIONAL, who made the famous line of TB kits in the 60's. According to Dennis's book these are Seventies incarnations of TB's 1,2,3 and 4 and have lost any written connection to Thunderbirds, which I find amazing! Did kids not watch repeats of Thunderbirds somewhere in the world back then? Maybe not.

In all my many years of collecting I have never seen any of the above TB knockoffs. Have you?

Top picture: general internet, Bottom picture - The Gerry Anderson Memorabilia Guide - front cover -1994 by Dennis Nicholson.

STAZIONE SPAZIALE: ITALIAN THUNDERBIRDS KNOCKOFF SET

As you know I'm a great fan of Anderson knockoffs, which are often more interesting than the real thing! The other day I mentioned the wonderful THUNDERCOP. Well look at this that's currently on Ebay US - completely new to me and the blog - an Italian TB knockoff carded set called STAZIONE SPAZIALE or Space Station. We have a TB2 with white pod (what's inside?), an even larger TB4 (!) and best of all an unidentified jet, which is very SWORDY/ SPACEXY! I love it. There's 7 of them too! Wonder what the year of manufacture was?

BOOSTER ROCKET EXHAUST AND TB3 HEAT SHIELD: THE SAME?

I've noticed a similarity between the red finned exhaust of the Project sword BOOSTER ROCKET and the grey finned heat shield (?) in the centre of the JR21 THUNDERBIRD 3 as ringed in red above. Did JR21/ Century 21 simply re-use/re-tool this part? If anyone has the TB3 and the Booster Rocket and can send a piccy of them stood together we could see if the two finned features are the same size and shape.

Pictures: Woodsy and unknown Internet.

MOON DOME MYSTERY 2: CHEQUERED BANDING

Those Takeuchi/T in a Circle Moon Domes (top) have thrown up another mystery: just where did that chequered 'Finish Line' -type banding come from? Above you can see it on the nose of PROBE FORCE 1 and simililarly on three small tank missiles. There are many more examples.Can anyone help?

BOX ART MYSTERY: MOON DOMES

Over the last year I have noticed a few toy boxes with a peculiar and recurring image, a white moon dome with red and chequered trims. I first noticed them on the backing card of the awesome TAKEUCHI Project Sword 'UFO' rubbers (or erasers in some quarters!), completely new to me and the blog and kindly donated to the blog cabinet by WOTAN (check out the MEV-2 grabber too!):

During the bloggiversary I noticed these strange lunar domes again on the box of the magnificent T in a Circle Moonbus-relative, the SPACE VEHICLE newly discovered by Ferryman:

To make comparison easier here they are in close-up:

Top - Takeuchi rubbers

Bottom - T in a Circle Space Vehicle

So, as is the way of all Swordheads I got to wondering about the origin of these moon domes. And I think I may just have it. Check out the fabulous painting 'MARS COLONY' by the iconic US NASA Space Artist Robert McCall (copyrighted image so please look on the McCall Studios website). You can see the lettering K-17 clearly as appears on the Takeuchi card and I would say that the T in a Circle box art is almost a straight lift of McCall's dome image complete with astronauts! It's undated but I'm assuming it's the '60's (anyone confirm the date?). So, like his Earth to Moon Shuttle/ Nuclear Ferry painting, Mr. McCall has influenced even more space toy box art. Any more domes anyone?

NOVA ON THE BLACK CORRIDOR FROM DARTH

Last year I found this great old German novel by Lothar Streblow in a Berlin bargain book box - Scramble Bug art to die for. I only mention this, as I have done before on't blog, because....

blog reader and space author Darth has found this cool Michael Moorcock book, BLACK CORRIDOR - check out that SPACEX/ GOLDEN ASTRONAUT NOVA on the cover! Hee hee, faaaantastic! But what have they stuck to it? The good news is you may be lucky and get one on Amazon! So now we have two novels with SWORD/SPACEX covers. But is this the ONLY one which actually uses a real toy?

I would like to thank Darth for sending this picture, which is completely new to me and the blog.

ALIENS AND THE MILKY WAY

PAUL VREEDE writes : "My brother and self went to a train show in Holland last Saturday, where he was much amused to spot a UFO in a cornfield on somebody's layout (see pic). What puzzled him was that there's a milk truck parked right next to it. He didn't ask the layout's owners, but I could explain it to him later: it's a reference to a famous 1980s Dutch advertising campaign for milk entitled "Milk - the white motor". This featured portraits of "atypical milk drinkers" and included a nice variation with a slogan I'd translate as "Gnirk - the white gnotor" still visible at GNERK

TOYS I'VED WALKED PAST: THUNDERCOP

In the early 1990's I re-started my 1970's Preston teenage tradition of going 'up town' on Saturdays, albeit my young family in tow rather than my hairy mates! Back in the early '90's, Wakefield was a treasure trove of discount stores and charity shops (as it is now really 'cept I've stopped going) and not many people seemed to looking for the stuff I was after - vintage toys and cheap sci fi stuff. I remember one particular discount toy shop above a Fish and Chip restaurant. You walked up stairs to be greeted by tons of boxed toys, mostly unlicensed, stacked neatly on shelves and in piles. I bought lots of stuff there but I can't remember what apart from a carded red-eyed werewolf from a monster line called Howlers. What I do remember are the toys I didn't buy and looking back I could kick myself as they have become disproportionately important in my overly-nostalgic world! One toy was a rubbery monster in a large box. I think there were several types. They looked great or at least that's what I think now! Another one, which I remember clearly being on the floor in a neat stack was the unlicensed Thunderbird 2 knockoff THUNDERCOP. There was something aesthetically attractive about the translucent cockpit window and the gold rotation base-plate. There were at least 50 of them and I didn't buy one, not a sausage! Much later I realised that it's see-through cockpit had been seen before on the much older TB2 clone, the 1968 RAY-GUIDED X-2 SPACE SHIP as featured in Dennis Nicholson's Gerry Anderson Memorabilia Guide ( anyone got a pic of the X-2 or its sister ship, the X-3?). Anyone got a Thundercop?

Unit Seventy Four

I've since found a battered example of a Thundercop at a boot sale but it didn't make me feel any better! Has anyone else walked past toys you now wished you'd bought?

PS. Keen-eyed reader Paul Vreede spotted this black version of TCOP on Ebay November 2009 - above.