Lunar Module Darth 1

Hey Paul,

Here ya go - this is my LM that I made a few years ago! It is 1/12th scale so it also works for Major Matt Mason. The action figures you see here are the Bandai figures of Pete Conrad and Alan Bean that came out about ten years ago. As you can see I indulged myself and made an MMM package for it! The LM itself is made of styrene, brass, modeling clay, mylar, car body filler and acrylic and various appendages are made from plumbing supplies, electrical supplies, two flower pots and a yo-yo!

It stands about two feet high and 30 inches wide at the base. It has a full model aircraft lighting rig in it that makes the docking strobe flash and the navigation lights work. The two stages separate. It needs work now as it is about 11 years old and getting dusty.

Hope you like it.

Cheers

Darth

Hoover Up

Like the T Moon Bus, the notion of an earlier version of the SWORD Space Glider, a 'Northrop' version, is an exciting prospect! I got my, albeit incomplete, Glider fleet out last night and had a look for any of the tell-tale signs: 'Northrop', 'NASA' and '803'.

The version which ticks at least two of the three is the Hoover Space Glider, pictured below [courtesy of Arto]. It carries NASA livery, although different to that in the SWORD Manual or Project MOON ad. More interesting is the use of the number 803 as it's model number, appearing both on the box and the base of the toy. Coincidence? Northrop would clinch it. If you have the Tarheel, Durham or Mego versions have a look! In the meantime the search continues!

Using model numbers related to an actual vehicle or a film isn't restricted to 803. It can be seen in that other Space Glider, the remote-controlled NASA 2001 version. This carries the model number 2001 on the box.

The NORTHROP SWORD Space Glider

From top to bottom:

Trade article, TV21 ad, Manual, box,

Project Moon ad

Recently I was lucky enough to get hold of an original Joe 90 & TV21 comic containing a Project Moon ad. I've posted the ad previously courtesy of the Philosophis Toad but it's only when I studied the original that I noticed something new. The Space Glider pictured doesn't have the normal SWORD livery. In fact it doesn't say SWORD at all but NASA on the wings and most interest of all, NORTHROP along the sides [ringed in red and highlighted by me]. It also uses the number 803 we've seen before in the Official Manual illustration.

I've mapped out the illustrations I know of above, in chronological order, with the earliest at the top. Strangely there are more pictures with 803 than not, beginning and ending with them. Advertising also began with NASA and NORTHROP in the trade press in 1967 and ended with them as well as part of the de-SWORDed PROJECT MOON 1969.

This raises the fascinating question of whether a pre-SWORD Glider existed with the 803, NASA and NORTHTROP markings? I've most of the Glider variants but have never seen anything remotely like it -but is one out there? Is it only a matter of time?

Tanks for Everything

Back in the day - that being about '69 - in between stuffing my fat 8 year old face with Orbit lollies, Zooms and Skyrays, frequent trips to the corner shop were always punctuated with a peep over the counter to see what goodies sat waiting to be impulsively bought with the weekly shop. Jars of penny sweets and counter-top boxes of goodies were rolled out on a regular basis and each week when I snuck in to spend my threepenny bit, there was always something new and fascinating to buy.

Gum cards, sweet cigarettes, rubber jigglers and on one memorable occasion I discovered some tiny plastic tanks with a slice of tasty bubblegum inside. As far as I recall, there were two different turret types and three colours, a reddish pink, metallic green and steel blue. I bought dozens of them and hooked them together with their integral tow hooks. The top of the tank popped off, making a neat little treaded unit, not dissimilar to a Matt Mason Uni-Tred, so they fitted nicely in with the Spacex 00/HO spacemen too!

I gave up hope of ever seeing these tanks again, until I was cruising Mavericks cool blog: http://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/  and spotted one! Alongside it were other fabulous mini tanks from the sixties too. Maverick kindly donated these fabulous little pieces of nostalgia to the Wotan Archive and filled another niche in the collection!

Super Models

I know a lot of Dinky and Corgi cars were used in Anderson shows but did those crafty Slough boys and girls use plastic vehicles as well, bought down the local toy shop? Come to think of it did they use any of their own plastic toys from Century 21 on the TV programmes?

Ed's Mantis

Mantis

1970 Hot Wheels Redline 

For Ed!

Box Tops

All box pictures blogged previously

Century 21 Submarine Aircraft Carrier and Fairylite Fireball XL5 Rear Fins: Are They The Same?

Seeing the Stingray Submarine Aircraft Carrier again reminded me of a hunch I had a while back. Are the rear fins of the rare Century 21 Submarine Aircraft Carrier toy the same as those on the even rarer Fairylite Fireball XL5 toy?  I've blogged it before but it needed better pictures, which you see above. I guess these prove one and for all they're not the same toy part. BTW do rear fins like this have a technical NASA-esque name?

Pictures blogged previously: Aircraft Carrier - MrThunder, XL5 - Jim Lewis

NUCLEAR FERRY AND SUBMARINE AIRCRAFT CARRIER TV21 ART BY WOTAN

Following on from Grif's comment in the last post about the large rocket in the first TV21 Fireball Xl5 strip, I though it would be timely to re-post this bloglet by WOTAN first posted in April 2009 [text in italics added today by Woodsy].

From WOTAN: Going through early TV21s, I spotted an early appearance of the Nuclear Ferry in Fireball XL5 (top), almost certainly based on Bob McCalls artwork, details of which are inserted at either corner in small boxes for comparison. What are those two antennae at the top? telecommunications?

Also in the very first issue (bottom), Ron Embleton gives us the beautifully sleek Submarine Aircraft Carrier [made into a super cool toy by JR21].

You can read an in-depth look at this first XL5 strip on the definitive guide to Anderson comics, GACCH, by Shaqui Le Vesconte and Kim Stevens [our very own Philosophic Toad]

Got Wheels

Like many Sixties anklebiters I spent hours with mates and on my Jack perfecting my Corgi Rockets tracks. No chair or bookcase in the family home was safe from bright orange tracks being clamped to them to form the high starting line of the Preston Grand Prix! But it was those American 'usurpers', muscling their way in with their exposed engines and sleek lines, that went to the top of the automotive tree. Yes, I'm talking about Mattel's HotWheels. I just loved everything about them - the red lined wheels, the bubble cards and the cool thin metal badge!

One of my all-time fave HotWheels was the Beatnik Bandit [pictured on the badge above]. Straight out of Big Daddy Ed Roth's mental garage, Beatnik had the looks and the speed. Thrills were guaranteed when pitted against the Rockets Todd Sweeney! It also looked like the Spacex Cricket too!

So I was amazed when I saw a plastic version of the Beatnik car by none other than Durham, they of the One-Off Green SWORD Space Glider and neighbours of Tarheel in North Carolina. Bootiful!

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