Fencing Infinity: A SWORD Scale?

A SWORD scale has been discussed before on the blog but no concrete conclusions were reached. I wonder if a group photograph of all the toys would shed any light on the actual scale intended by the writeres and artists of the comic strips in SOLO and TV21? I was interested to see on Wikipedia this fascinating scale comparison of Thunderbirds craft by Nigel Slater seen below. With all the TV episodes to study, even Thunderbirds fans seem to disagree about the size of Thunderbird 3 as you can see below. I personally thought that TB2 was bigger than TB3 but that's simply based on my childhood memories!

Back in February 2010 I blogged this very rudimentary SWORD scale pictured below and there were some fascinating comments from Toad and Grif. My scale was based mostly on gut-feelings that, for instance, the Apollo Saturn V was the biggest vehicle, being bigger than the Zero-X and the Nuclear Ferry perhaps? Thinking about it since I realise that to create a proper SWORD scale you would need a detailed knowledge of  [and access to] the SOLO/ TV21 comic strips and or the Annual [have they even got the same scales?]. Similarly there are some text descriptions of SWORD vehicles as in the 1969 TV21 Annual in the sections called Battle Breakdown, together with those found in the Official Manual, which came with each toy.

One possible starter for ten would be those SWORD vehicles which were based on real NASA designs and craft such as the Moon Prospector, Saturn V, Space Glider [M2F2] and the Dyna-Soar for instance, most of which are well-documented in terms of size. But is this a red herring? Are NASA sizes even relevant in the SWORD strips?

In the end a collage of pictures from SOLO/TV21/SWORD Annual, which clearly show comparisons of vehicles' sizes with clear reference points such as people, will be the only way to nail down a SWORD scale I reckon. Sounds like a project for a the summer using the SOLO strips on this blog maybe? Anyone?



T and the Cruisers

As blogged last week here are a few more snaps of my new T Dolphin Cruiser acquired from Germany. I really love the the box art. The yellow side panels are similar to the blue ones on the T Moon Bus pictured below where the SWORD 'Star Features' have become the Cruiser's 'Additional Features'. Chronologically the Moon Bus, model number 360, came 17 toys before the Cruiser, model number 377.

Fellow T collector Ferryman has observed that he's also spotted another connection: "I had seen evidence of a Telsalda logo on the artwork on the gaskets that I inspected originally. The T branded box you have is actually a Telsalda box with the logos replaced. I have come across a few Telsalda toys over the last few years in Telsalda style boxes with the logos completely removed. it appears that there is a link between Telsalda and T as well."

Anyone got the Telsada box for this Dolphin Cruiser?

...the earth hung overhead like a rotten fruit....

The drawing showed an oblong metal box on four jointed legs. From one end protruded a tiny mushroom-shaped head on a jointed stem and a cluster of arms ending in probes, drills, grapples. "For moon prospecting."He sat down at the drafting table, clipped a sheet of paper to it and with a pencil began to sketch a rendering of the moon-prospector design. When he had blocked in the prospector itself, he began to draw the background of craters. His pencil moved more slowly and stopped; he put it down with a click......

"Too many limbs," said Babcock after a moment. "How would you--"

"With the facial nerves. Plenty of them left over. Or here." Another drawing. "A module plugged into the control system of a spaceship. That's where I belong, in space. Sterile environment, low grav, I can go where a man can't go and do what a man can't do. I can be an asset, not a goddamn billion-dollar liability.....

The prospector was climbing a crater slope with its handling members retracted and its head tilted up. Behind it the distant ringwall and the horizon, the black sky, the pin-point stars. And he was there, and it was not far enough, not yet, for the Earth hung overhead like a rotten fruit, blue with mold, crawling, wrinkling, purulent and alive.

Words: Damon Knight Masks 1968 [Extract from ranprieur site]
Picture: John Schoenherr Moon Crawler 1962 [cover of  Analog]

DISK ASSESSMENT

Through the wonders of the internet, the Lord of Sword himself, Woodmeister has uncovered this cool article about the little UFO gun disks i was writing about earlier!

Check out that gorgeous alien artwork!

And also the gun itself! I want one again!

Space Racer

Seeing this spaceship on the vintage pulp mag cover above reminded me of the X- series Space Racer X-50. I suppose it was a common design in the sci-fi pulp art community of the 1950's. Are there any more examples of it?

Saur Wars

Aurora T.Rex .V. Century 21 Dyna Soar.

What would such a storyline read like?

Scramble Sub

The Japanese G-Bound remote control amphibious car. For when the Scramble Bug is required to cross volcanic seas on a tilting Earth and the angry oceans of new SWORD planets.

Fantastic Elastic

Wote's last cool post reminded me of my old Star Target Pistol, which came free with the groovelicious Fantastic comic. I'll not warble now as I've blogged about it before.

Shoot to Thrill

On an earlier post about the Marx Rocket and Gantry, there were some interesting comments which reminded me of a couple of toys I had as a kid. One memorable one, which Andy B described was a Airplane Catapult Gun. This was a regular favourite of mine and something that usually only got a short shelf life as I always ended up losing the planes! Naturally, I haven't one to show now, but i made a quick sketch from memory:

The gun usually came in a header carded plastic bag and was made of silver grey plastic with two planes that had cardboard wings fitted into a soft plastic body. The handle always had a pair of gas cannisters molded into it and the barrel had various dials and meters along its length. It was always great fun to buy one of these at the seaside and shoot the planes down the beach!

A similar, but simpler toy was the Jesko Gun. Basically a handle shaped like a pistol with an elastic band fitted on it, the gun came with two planes and four saucers to launch around the place. Until recently I still had one of the planes and one of the saucers. The planes were red and yellow with a hollow body and upturned flaps on their delta wings. The surviving saucer as you can see has adjustable flaps and a plane embossed in the centre. These came in orange and lime green.

Finally another favourite of mine was the UFO gun. A plastic pistol shaped like a standard automatic with a vertical cylinder magazine built into it, you could load it up with penny sized plastic discs and blast a succession of little UFOs at your target! Again, this has long gone, but heres a Wotan impression of the saucer!

Flying Toadster

Toad's new Saucer!

Sweet!

[a Japanese character called Keryon?]

picture: Morphy Auctions