CENTURY 21 HURDLER - NEW DISCOVERY

Here's the second newly discovered Century 21 toy this month - the Hurdler. I found this at the back of a die-cast stall at Doncaster Toy Fair last week. It perfect nick with an excellent box, just cost me a tenner. Originally it went for 16S6d (on base of box). Basically it's a battery-operated plastic jeep. The C21 logo is clearly visible on the box but not on the toy itself. It reminds me of the Bridge Carrier that Century 21 did too featured earlier on the blog. Wonder if there are more of these military vehicles by JR21/ Century 21?

WATCHING THE WATCHMEN

I went to see the Watchmen last night. I hadn't ever read the graphic novel so I was slightly apprehensive about understanding the plot. I shouldn't have worried. It was simply amazing! Exhilerating and long. I will have to read the comic now! Smiley!

STINGRAY ATOMIC SUBMARINE AIRCRAFT CARRIER - IT DOES EXIST!

comic art courtesy of WOTAN

I've been away for a few days to a Lancastrian family reunion. Having survived said Prestonian revelries I'm back in my West Yorkshire hovel with my own family. Before I left I mentioned two JR21/ Century 21 discoveries. Well, here's the first and it's soooooooo rare it's untrue - the mighty Stingray Atomic Submarine Aircraft Carrier! We've spoken about it before on the blog in the hushed tones befitting the stuff of legend. This fantastically scarce example turned up in a garage recently in a box stuffed full of space toys including some brilliant carded Spacex. The pictures were originally posted on the Space 1999 Eagle Transporter Forum by the lucky garage owner, Mack29, to whom I'm very grateful for letting me show them here. I would also like to thank Gordon O'Byrne of the Stingray Memorabilia Museum, who first made me aware of this iconic toy way back in the early 1990's.

I'll be radio silent for a couple of days folks.

JR21 NEW DISCOVERIES

2 JR21 CENTURY 21 discoveries made! More to follow!

SPACEX CRASH TENDER ORIGIN BY PAUL VREEDE

Hi Paul, I've also been flicking through the pages of TV Century 21 magazines over at the amazing Project 21 archive and just found the Spacex Crash Tender in a Thunderbirds story by Frank Bellamy in issue #108. What a wonder fulresource that archive is! I've been wishing for a stack of magazines to go through for Spacex origins but this is even better. A true labour of love, and wonderful that they've made it all freely available online. Cardback illustration scanned by Wotan. Best--Paul

6

Fab Paul! I love the Crash Tender! Woodsy

SPACEX II NUCLEAR FREIGHTER AND SALVAGE CRAFT - MORE MEMORIES

Hi Paul,

Re: The SX II Nuclear Freighter/ TV21

Although I've only relatively recently been aware of the second series of Space X toys, ( Mainly through the blog), when I saw the drawing of the Freighter on the back of the cards it did seem vaguely familar to me. Thank's to WOTAN, I've twigged. I've had that issue of TV21 for years and always knew it contained the inspiration for the SX tractor but was never aware of it's other 'easter egg'. (Both strangely enough drawn by Eric Eden)

I've scanned the (whole) panel for the blog.

Cheers
Mike

Nice one Mike! There's more revelations to come from Project 21!

NUCLEAR FREIGHTER AND SALVAGE CRAFT ORIGIN BY WOTAN

Eden Revisited!

Mike Burrows pointed out earlier in the blog that Eric Eden had used a Spacex Tractor T5 toy as the basis for one of his illustrations in Tv21 issue 87.

Courtesy of the fabulous Project 21 archives, I nipped in and found the relavant issue, always a good read, I scanned the issue as was amazed to find the Fireball story was headed up by the Spacex II Salvage craft in an illustration which is obviously lifted directly for the card back picture. As no actual toy has ever been discovered, this is only the second time the design has ever been seen and is the definitive origin for this elusive craft.

Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous WOTAN! I love the Salvage Craft, it's such a cosmic shape. Looks like another origin solved! For further musings on the beautiful Salvage Craft - and the WOMBAT, see my posting earlier in the month too. Woodsy.

CAREERS IN SPACEX!

I never thought I would see the question 'would you like a career in Spacex!'. Maybe there are careers in Project Sword too !?@? Location: Moonbase!

CENTURY 21 PROJECT SWORD COMPLETE SERIES INCLUDING THE 2 ROGUES: MOONSHIP AND LUNAR CLIMBER

picture credits:

top two - Darth

bottom - Will Osborne

NB. the absence of the Moonbase is telling and how have they spelt XERO X?

SEARS ROCKET BASE

Well done, Paul in Dark Spaces!

This is a great line of toys. Is it not unusual for a guy in the UK to collect stuff in the box, (what we casually toss off here as "M.I.B.")? I was of the understanding that our friends in the UK did not collect packaging.

Also I noticed an item or two that were released differently here in the US. -- the C21 Apollo Saturn Rocket for one. That came to us as the "Sears Rocket" and it has a reflective base to reflect the fiery lights of takeoff. (Mine needs the parachute). It is about 2 feet tall. How tall is yours? But all of these are really neat toys. The Ferry is awesome. Anyway, glad we could do something on all this and thanks for your order. I am sure Kath will be in touch with you on that shortly.
Best regards
Rusty

Publisher, Playset Magazine729 Crown Ridge DriveColorado Springs, CO 80904(719) 634-7430 http://www.playsetmagazine.com/

SHREDDED WHEAT MOON ROVER CUT-OUT FROM WOTAN

Cut out and Keep Special from WOTAN! In 1960 Shredded Wheat offered a neat little carboard Moon Rover in the box, Philosophic Toad discovered both the original comic ad from the Hotspur and then managed to locate the actual premium itself on Ebay!

He very kindly donated it to the Wotan archive and I have scanned it here for you to share. Notice the extremely SWORD like emblem on the side! Construction is basic and needs an elastic band and a cocktail or matchstick. As the original only has a single sided main fuselage, ive photoshopped a double sided version to get the full effect. Careful with those plastic scissors boys! Enjoy!

That's totally shredded man! Woodsy

SPACEX CRASH TENDER AND ROCKET TRANSPORTER

Picture Credit Will Osborne

picture credit Alphadrome


Picture credit Alphadrome

Picture Credit Alphadrome

Picture Credit Will Osborne

Picture credit Mark Bergin Toys

Picture Credit Alphadome

Picture Credit Alphadrome

There are 4 Spacex toys I've simply never seen. Not sure if anyone has? The Crash Tender and the Rocket Transporter (both pictured above as seen on Spacex backing cards), the Nuclear Freighter and Salvage Craft (which I mused over last week on the blog) and last but not least the fabled the Soyuz spacecraft. I've been searching around for toys similar to the tender and Transporter and have here posted my meagre findings so far. The murky nature of the Spacex pictures doesn't help the search, but I don't think that there are any others except maybe black and white drawings in some comic adverts. The crash tender feels as if its from a Thunderbirds episode, one of those vehicles seen dashing down to the runway to a plane in flames!

I can't help thinking if these 4 mysterious Spacex vehicles ever made it into the US Golden Astronaut design shop at all?

One of the pleasures of searching is occasionally stumbling across great sites. Here's just such a one, Aplhadrome's Space Toys database. Oddly enough I have a long connection with this site, as my original SWORD Toys checklist first appeared on the web here way back in 1998 thanks to Brian Hayes, site proprietor and robot guru. It's still there!

GOLDEN ASTRONAUT CLUB AND BADGE

Hi Paul,answer to your question: you sent off a quarter to Golden Astronauts, andyou got the badge! As advertised on the back of GA cards.

Best--Paul Vreede

Cheers Paul ! Were any readers in this club? There wasn't an equivalent UK or European Spacex club was there or was I asleep during my childhood?

SPACEX MAJOR IN TOYS INTERNATIONAL 1969

courtesy of Will Osborne

Is anyone aware of any other references to Spacex 'Major' anywhere? This term seems highly unusual!

GOLDEN ASTRONAUT BADGE AND CERTIFICATE

Continuing WOTAN's excellent badges theme, here's a snap I grabbed offa Ebay some years back. It appears to be a badge and certificate for the US Golden Astronaut toy line. Could a reader from the States confirm this?

SPACEX AND SWORD BY WOTAN

Towards the end of the Spacex era, the second series of the toys were released. Unfortunately for us collectors, Tri-ang were in difficulties at the time and it must have affected production on this less prominent line of toys. A series of four adverts went out in kids comics during the run up to Xmas 1970, showing Spacex models old and new as well as the offer of a new addition to the line - a badge. I saw the adverts at the time of release, probably in Buster or one of the similar weeklies and promptly became so excited at the prospect of new Spacex toys, that i couldnt sleep for weeks. However, it would be another three years before I discovered any of them, quite by chance while visiting my mother in hospital, in a small discount store in Liverpool.

I never found any of the toys in a high street store. Woolworths always had huge amounts of the first series and all the major department stores had displays and playsets, but the second run were nowhere to be found. Apart from being exclusively new models, the few i found in the few weeks following that initial discovery, the chief difference alongside the radically different cards - was the badge. Not all models carried one, the Booster Rocket and Lunar Orbiter came with one and several of the larger models like te Molab, ATS and LAMA may have had one, but the nuclear ferry and NASA Glider - similar size to the Booster, did not.

Tri-ang had obviously decided that the SWORD badges some time earlier had been a big selling point and 'borrowed' the idea. As far as I know, all Spacex Commander badges were a uniform red with silver plate letters. Sword badges had, i believe, four ranks - Astronaut, Captain, Commander and the elusive Supremo. As you can see from the photo, the similarities are obvious and the two types of badges work well together. Ive never seen a Supremo badge, let alone own one as it would only have come with the premium models such as Zero-X or the large Apollo set - has anyone got a picture of one ? Wotan.

Brilliant article. Woodsy

ZZROBOT COLLECTION

Hello Paul, i am a advanced spacetoy/robot collector across the pond. I , too, collect project, 21th ect. toys. I assume you access your fellow countryman's web site , alphadrome.com . They now have a database of pictures of hundreds of space toys. Here is a link to old pictures of some of my collection, I have more in storage and have obtain more since these pictures were taken. Paul, yes, please post my message and link, my good friend Larry Waldman of Cybertoyz and I do collect most any space toys, including project sword/golden/apollo, in particular the Hong Kong made toys. cheers....stan.

Wow! Great collection Stan!

Woodsy

BLOG EXCLUSIVE 4 - PLAYSET MAGAZINE AT A DISCOUNTED RATE FOR BLOG READERS

Here's a Blog Exclusive you'll not want to miss! I've negotiated a special price of $6 (+ shipping worldwide) for blog readers directly with Playset Magazine for Issue 17 from 2004 (Zeroids Cover) - for a limited period only ( always wanted to say that!). This issue is currently retailing at $20 on the Playset Magazine Website! The Magazine Editor has kindly agreed to this price of $6 for a short period for which I am grateful.

Specifically of interest to the blog is Issue 17's multi-page colour feature on Apollo Moon Exploration. In their own words the issue covers...

".....the awesome Marx Man From U.N.C.L.E. Target Gun Set in COLOR on our
centerspread pages with its THRUSH villains VS Napoleon Solo and the repressed,
but violent Illya Kuryakin. We also have some great Rex Mars 60mm figures and a
remarkable, never released store display(courtesy Francis and Jason Turner and
the Official Marx Museum). . .PLUS the wonders of the future in COLOR with the
Apollo Exploration playset. Here you'll feast on Jetsons-like space ships,
flying saucers and space sleds galore! But that's not all -- theres new Japanese
Assassins, New Replicants, a newly revised book on Britains all in review, plus
a New Market Report by the always-thinking Tom Stark. And if that's not enough,
we'll have some great ads, classifieds and news for your Saturday night toy
fest!"

To buy this issue at the special blog price via Paypal:

1. $6 per Issue 17 (SIX US DOLLARS)
2. Add shipping - to UK/EU $5.40, Canada $2.20, US $1.68 per Issue 17
3. Buy Issue 17 direct from Playset Magazine's website via Paypal ( you can opt to pay in US $ easilly)
4. IMPORTANT: Write the codeword "blue" into the message box on your paypal payment and mention this blog
5. The Paypal ID to send the money to is playsetmagazine@aol.com (you'll need to copy and paste this into your Paypal payment)

For a limited time only!

Woodsy

THE SPACEX NUCLEAR FREIGHTER AND THE WOMBAT BY WOODSY

I've often admired the beautiful design of the rare Spacex II Nuclear Freighter and Salvage Craft based on the picture on the backing card (top picture). I can't help noticing the similarity between the Freighter's design and that of the earlier World Air Force Carrier or WOMBAT, which appeared in Thunderbirds and Stingray.

The first appearance of the WOMBAT was on TV in the 23rd Thunderbirds episode 'The Duchess Assignment', which aired February 17th 1966 at 7pm. The vehicle was called the 'Carrier Aircraft' (source: Fanderson - no TV still available)

Just over a week later on the 26th February 1966 the vehicle re-appeared in TV21 issue 58 and on the cover of issue 59 (picture one from the bottom and the one above showing a close-up) as part of the Stingray comic strip story 'The Medallion Mystery'. Whilst transporting the Crown Jewels the World Air Force WOMBAT crashes into the sea.

The second to top picture shows a still of a model WOMBAT being observed by Stingray, a shot that was never used (source: GACCH - more information available at this fabulous site).

The wonderful middle shot is a scratchbiult model of the Carrier Aircraft in the Thunderbirds TV show episode 23 'The Duchess Assignment'. The modelling and photography is by the ultra-talented Keith McNeill and the picture appears with his kind permission.

Intrigueingly there is also a 1960's toy based on the WOMBAT (bottom picture), which appears in the seminal Gerry Anderson Memorabilia Guide by Dennis Nicholson: a 40 - 45mm plastic Air Force Jet, which came with Japanese Guriko chocolate. The picture appears with Dennis's kind permission. This is further verified by Marc Frattassio in his excellent research into Gerry Anderson candy premiums.

It would be just great to see the Spacex Nuclear Freighter in the flesh but I would settle for a gander at the Guriko Air Force Jet! At least we have a photo of it!

NASA SPACE GLIDER - NEW TO THE BLOG - BY TONY PANTHER

Hi Paul,

Here are some pics of yet another different version of the SWORD Space Glider I picked up a couple of years ago.

It's based on the orange version of the Space Glider but has NASA stickers on it and no mention of Project SWORD.

Differences from the SWORD version are:

1. darker blue cockpit "glass"
2. blue switch at rear instead of silver
3. flat cylindrical protrusion on the underside of the nose
4. different stickers, obviously! The "NASA" stickers under the cockpit are placed over the line of small blue windows
5. different wheel housings - the NASA version has "open" housings with exposed metal axles, while the SWORD version has "closed" housings which fully enclose the axles
6. no nose antenna - instead the antenna's mounting holes have been filled in with mysterious "space jewels", with the holes re-shaped to accommodate them... One less thing to lose I suppose.

Best of all - it still works - I popped a couple of batteries in tonight and, surprise, surprise, it made a dreadful howl (which I assume was the "jet sound effects" referred to on the box of the SWORD version!), the wheels underneath spun around and the light in the nose flashed away merrily illuminating the "space jewels" brilliantly. I doubt that any self-respecting astronaut would have failed to find his way back to it.

In contrast my SWORD version didn't give a peep when I tried to switch it on... So much for saving the world...

Have fun!

Cheers

Tony Panther

Australia

Brilliant Tony! One I've not seen before. Love this detailed comparison and especially the nose jewels. Remind me of the Day Fran glider version. Woodsy

KELLOGGS SPACE-AGE MOLAB

Scouring through my picture archive I've found this shot of the Kellogg's 'moon vehicle' - as usual missing it's aerial - featured in an earlier posting. As discussed before it's virtually a deadringer for the Spacex II MOLAB. (Picture: Ebay 2008)