Spies Like Us

Running seamlessly alongside the 1960's Space and Monster crazes, like a shady man in a trench coat, was spy mania. Films and shows like James Bond, the Avengers, In Like Flint, The Odessa File, Man in a Suitcase and Man from Uncle enthralled adults and Kids alike and we all became briefcase-carrying spies and spooks.

Over the Autumn I'll take a look at the spy craze in toys. Contributions welcomed but only in invisible ink . This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds.

Planet of the Dolls

Top to bottom, left to right:

Space Camp Barbie, Space Academy Doll [I like this so put it in], vintage Ad,

Enesco doll, Kozmic Kiddles martian, Jane Apollo,

Mini Martians ad.

[piccies: Ebay/ Hakes]

PS. More space ladies to follow Toadia!

Chrome Dome Comes Home

Back in the 1990's when I was fumbling around with my first SWORD checklist, I was in touch with Kelly Lannan, the friendly and approachable editor of the TV Century 21 website back then. At the time Kelly very kindly sent me scanned pictures of this fabulous and rare metallic gold Task Force 3. Unable to be included in the original checklist I have blogged it here before and Anderson Meastro Dennis Nicholson kindly re-sent me the pics in 2008. 

Sadly Kelly's spaceship didn't have a cockpit blister so  seeing WOTE's beautiful Tarheel customisation this week   I thought I'd ask him if he might create a photoshopped one. And hey presto, fifteen years from first seeing it here it is pictured below complete with it's imagineered pilot and dome! Thanks Wote!

P.S. I've often surmised that this scarce gold TF3 is a stablemate of the equally rare blue TF1 shown on this blog before with the kind permission of it's owner, Astronit. Although the current locations of these toys maybe to the contrary i.e Australia and USA, I sort of think that they are either Tarheel colour variants or perhaps even a wholly 'new' range of SWORD clones. I don't think that they are by SL as we know that the SL TF3 is white [pictured below] and it's unlikely that they would have invested in a gold variant as well. Or?

Above

Top: C21 Task Force 1 and 3

Middle: Blue TF1 and Green Tarheel NOVA [Astronit]

Bottom: Tarheel Task Force 1,2 and 3 [Astronit]

Above

SL boxed Task Force 3

Suction Crew: A Second Lick

Further to my Etsy find last month of cute rubber LP - style astronauts, here's another larger batch of those vending suckers. This crew are over on Ebay US [not long to go!] and include WOTAN and his robo-buddies. Unsure who the final yellow fellow is though. Most have the same squirt of paint on them as the Etsy ones, which appears to be peculiar to old vending machines.

The Further Adventures of Space Girl

Picking up on the ladies in space thread, here's an old space girl doll currently on fleabay. I imagine that the head comes off in the helmet! It's very cheap looking but I kinda like her. Her sister on fleabay has a blue dress. There must be some 'named' girl doll space toys like MMM or Billy Blastoff. Or?

Moon Base Calling

Memories of the Moon Base I cobbled together a couple of years ago. The egg-cooker Housing Unit always makes me chuckle!

SWORD WARS

WOOKTAN

If the SWORD fleet were in Star Wars what would they have been? Again scale is a problem but I'll throw in a starter for ten: Zero-X would equate to the Millennium Falcon. Fair? What comparisons would you make to Tie Fighters, Death Star, Landspeeder and so on?

SALACIOUS CRUMB

A Pizza the Action

Well at least Woodsy will eat well! http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/209074/20110906/domino-s-plans-to-be-first-fast-food-chain-on-the-moon-photos-space-international-space-station-astr.htm

The Rise of The Mechanoids by Andy B

Dear Woodsy,

As one of the newer visitors to the site feedback had not seen Mechanoids from Dr Who, I'm enclosng this in case of use.

Mechanoids appeared in the eary adventures of Dr Who, from the Hartnell era. As I recall they were robots sent from earth to help prepare a landing area for humans (quite how they could do this I have no idea - like the daleks, they seem badly adapted for any practical work!). When the humans never arrived, they built their own civilisation, including a city on stilts. I beleive the episodes are lost, but what may survive is one of the TV21 records which featured a recording of this adventure. The climax was a battle between Daleks and Mechanoids - Mechanoids being armed with a sort of flame-thrower.

The Mechanoids featured in the "Dalek World" annual, circa 1965, when they became an alien race encountered during the Daleks' exploration of space. A copy of the first black and white frames included. I think the small half-oval creatures with them were some sort of maintenance robots.

An alternative origin of Mechanoids was given in The Daleks strip in TV21. Once again, this is an alien race which comes across the Daleks. One of Ron Turner's dramatic frames enclosed of this.

In both cases, the strips elaborated slightly on the simple "geodesic dome" shape of the original TV Mechanoids.

All the best,

Andy B.

Man from Planet Ouch

The Outer Space Men largely passed me by as a kid and it was only recently that I came across any trace of them. When I bought the little yellow space cruiser in a job lot on ebay (see Mystery Inc) I found to my surprise that someone had prised it open and crammed inside a passenger. When I cracked it open after what must have been a fair few years, I discovered a tiny 2.5 " bendy version of Electron - the man from Pluto!

Electron himself is clearly a derivation of the fifties film star, the 'Man From Planet X' Its hardly surprising either of them look happy, one probably has a bad back and the other definitely had a bad film!