And here they are! 1960's plastic battery-operated Flying Saucers a la JR21 style by BROHM of West Germany 'NASA WELTRAUM ERKUNDER' and a poster of their space range 1969 (both top) and the 'NEW FLYING SAUCER' by T in T Box (bottom). Are there anymore of these?
And here it is, the JR21 New Flying Saucer! Just as I thought - it's the same as the Polyplast one. This also proves that JR21 used the same basic base design on the Prospector and the Flying Saucer with a few slight changes. There's also BROHM and NASA versions. It's incestuous! These JR21 pics are courtesy of Chris King on the brilliant Space 1999 Eagle Transporter Forum, where Chris observes:This is the JR21 `New Flying Saucer` which I picked up for a song off Ebay recently. Its remarkably similar in design and box art to the JR21 TB5, but much smaller, approx 6" diameter. Interestingly, the bottom of the saucer clearly has the Tarheel `T` moulded on it. I`m guessing this is
from 1966, so we have an indication of the two companies `mould
swapping` way back.
NUOVA AMERICA PENCILS: I love this great little box currently on Ebay UK - there's a few of them at a nice price. The thin jet remings me of the Spacex Needle Probe.
Hi Paul,dunno what that thing on the spinning top might be, but probably
somebody's idea of an unmanned moon landing probe or just possibly a
LEM-like thing. LBZ stands for Lorenz Bolz Zirndorf, well-known tin- toy
manufacturers located in Zirndorf a couple miles west of Nuremberg (where
most of the historic German toy producers have been established since the
early days).Best--Paul
PS2. Another manufacturer of West German space-related spinning tops is BALLEIS.
Newsflash from Darth: Tom Hanks is doing a Major Matt Mason movie. Written by Graham Yost who worked with him on From the Earth to the Moon.
Darth's fabulous TARHEEL Project Sword collection, which was blogged last September, got me thinking. Did a TARHEEL-branded SCOUT 1,2 and 3 come out too? I suppose it's also worth contemplating the existence of a TARHEEL Booster Rocket, Nuclear Ferry and Zero-X! Dream on I reckon!
Lovely set of 1960's TB, Captain Scarlet and space cereal freebies currently on Ebay as part of a bigger group of JR21 toys. The blue space station and the 2 apollo capsules have been on the blog before and are part of the Kellogs range, which included a MOLAB.
I have found most of these toys on the wonderful Alphadrome Database. The Radiation Tester is from Vintage Space Toys. If you haven't had a look then do it now. Unfortunately the smaller pictures don't enlarge and I can't find anymore anywhere. Nevertheless, my thesis is simple. This SWORD- like series by Bandai are easilly the best looking space toys ever made. They ooze with a minimal futuristic style that is simply beautiful. The boxes' tasteful split graphic of a wonderful painting and a starkly simple nameplate is so pleasing to look at its untrue. I'd love to post bigger pictures. I think they were SEARS exclusives. There is also a much smaller set of one-colour die-cast lookalikes by Marx Line Mar.
Mentioned earlier on the blog, I couldn't resist posting this fabulous set of pics from Philosophic Toad / WOTAN. They show all 3 prototype Thunderbird 6's made by Brains in the film of the same name. The sleek silver one makes me think of an Angel Interceptor. The middle one is very Matt Mason. As I've talked about before, the bottom red one is a deadringer for the Tarheel NOVA III toy rocket. They all got trashed in the film. Wonder of any more of them were made and survived? We know what Thunderbird 7 is - no such drama - the Project Sword Beetle or Snow Train. But did it ever actually appear in Thunderbirds?
Seeing a good bandwagon, i jumped on! Sword Moonbase Module - heres an
imaginary toy from the 'What if ?' Sword Factory. Supposing the Moon Base was
sold separately as individual modules, four in the set like the Probe Force,
Task Force or Scout series. As the Moonbase model was clearly based on existing
NASA designs, i've used the Nasa concept for the Lunar Tug as the basis of the
box art. Its not too close to the 'actual' toy as the box art so often promised
much and delivered something else with Hong Kong toys, but near enough to be
recognisable. For the toy, I've used the Spacex LEM as the basis and
photoshopped-in various odds and sods from other pictures! A little fun for
an otherwise dull Friday afternoon!I'm standing on the shoulders of Giants! A fable comes to life before our very eyes! Woodster
Struggling to concentrate on anything on the box, even the highly- acclaimed series set in my home county, Red Riding, burbling currently in the background, I find myself once again doodling around in the Sword Dream Shop! Tonight's Toy That Never Was is the cute TAXI 2 as seen in the 1968 PROJECT SWORD ANNUAL. I have used this original artwork on the box. The blue toy underneath is the nearest I can find to anything resembling the taxi, the Whomobile, a CORGI concept car featured earlier on the blog. A vague resemblence I know but it does the job!
Continuing the blog's Kellogs thread WOTAN writes: Kelloggs Molabs - heres a pic of my collection, showing my original green Molab straight out of the cereal bowl circa 1970, covered in glue, endlessly repaired and painted. Next to it are three recent models from Australia and a picture of the Convair Space Station that the green model is based on. Astronit informs me that the 'Molab' was referred to as a shuttle at R & L (makers of the cerial premiums) and was a custom design, loosely based on NASA imagery.
Pictures as they appeared on Ebay in 2005. I've only recently acquired my first few Apollo Exploring pieces - described by the seller as cake decorations ( which is an interesting link in itself - to be explored later!). There's a blue apollo capsule on Ebay at the mo but it's a bit steep. Got my copy of Playset Magazine #17 last week - it's great to see colour pics of these toys in a glossy magazine. There's a super article about Marx Man From Uncle guns/playsets too. A real steal at $6 plus postage. The price will shoot up to $20 soon, if not already, so hurry if you want one! (see Blog Exclusive 4 in the side panel). Anyone actually got this beautiful boxed set in the pics?
I recently wrote to the fabulous SpaceX space exploration company about the similarity of their logo and that of Spacex toys. I got a reply!Hi Paul, Thank you for your note and interest in SpaceX. Yes,
I've seen the old "SpaceX" toys around here on people's walls. I don't know if
there is a connection or not. Lots of "X" in the New Space world - X Prize, X
cor. Stay tuned. It is going to be another busy year for us!Sincerely,Roger G. Gilbertson Media Coordinator SpaceX -
Space Exploration Technologies1 Rocket Road,Hawthorne CA 90250Main 310.363.6000 Desk
310.363.6446 Fax 310.363.6001
Hey Paul, attached are two pics from my Dyna-Soar book of something very similar to what Wotan and Paul Vreede posted earlier on the blog. One is an animated mock-up of a winged re-entry vehicle built by Martin and put on display at the New Worlds Fair in New York in 1964. It looks to be half way between the X-20 and the X-24. Apparently is was seen to fly back and forth docking with the cylindrical space station. The other pic is a mockup proposed by Goodyear for an inflatable re-entry vehicle.
