Ex Libris Wotan

The internet is a massively powerful resource and an apparently unending source of knowledge, but for me, you cant beat a good book. Seeing Mr Woods' earlier article about the book 'Frontiers of Space' reminded me that I have it myself, courtesy of a 13th birthday prezzy way back in 1974. Since then, ive sought out its companion volumes, Manned Spacecraft, Rockets and Missiles and Robot Explorers. Kenneth Gatland was a great influence on my early explorations of space and along with tv correspondant Peter Fairley, paved the way for a consuming interest in space books that still obsesses me today.

Another good read is John W.R Taylors 'Rockets and Missiles' by Hamlyn. All these books have some very early designs for shuttles, lifting bodies and launch vehicles as well as Molabs and lunar crawlers galore. I'd advise anyone with an interest in vintage space to track them down.

Meanwhile, for a much more immediate fix of space book goodness, check out John Sissons stunning blog 'Dreams of Space'. A fabulous taster of all those childrens space books which fed our imaginations in the past.

CHRISTMAS PAST: PAINT WHEELS AND MIST-O-MATIC

Christmas always gets me reminiscing about those fabulous toys I had as an anklebiter back in the swingin' Sixties. One of the many themes of games and toys that Santa (or could it have been my Mum and Dad?) sprinkled a little of his magic over was paint. I loved drawing as a nipper and painting stuff was a natural extension. I have a vivid memory of painting a big red fire engine at Primary School during one of the class's countless 'topics'. I also remember clearly drawing loads of redline HotWheels cars whilst laid up ill in bed. I can still see the lined graph paper I used for these drawings (why?), done with a classic fat multi-colour biro - it had about 20 colours! Of the many artistic toys that I had I can now only bring one clearly to mind - the wonderful PAINT WHEELS by Denys Fisher, a sort of wheel on a stick that painted shapes in lines. I loved it! Pictured below in all its glory in that beautiful style so typical of Sixties and Seventies box art.

Now the second paint toy that I had was called something like MIST-O-PAINT or MIST-O-MATIC? It came in a huge box and basically you dribbled coloured paint into a rotating drum and when it stopped you had amazing paintings worthy of Jackson Pollock! I absolutely loved this toy and was lucky enough to find another one at a boot sale some years ago, but where it's hiding in my bulging loft is anybody's guess. I can't be sure of its name so I've not found anything on the net, except for a sample of the sort of masterpeices possible as shown below.

I will just have to find this toy in my attic to prove I'm not going nuts.

PROJECT SWORD SCOUT 3 LOCKHEED ORIGIN

I must have been a good boy last year, Santa SWORD stayed a while at Moonbase leaving a pile of goodies under the Whitby tree. One of them was this fabulous little 1969 book 'Frontiers of Space'. In mint condition with its original dustjacket it's crammed with tons of beautiful paintings and photographs of space flight.

Amongst its many pictures is an amazing concept drawing of a LOCKHEED two-man lifting body with swing wings - below. It has an amazing similarity to the Project SWORD SCOUT 3, pictured below it for comparison. Besides the obvious wedge shape the other similar feature is the rear tailfin and its mounting. Okay there are no swing wings on Scout 3 (they do appear on Scout 2) but there's enough here for me to be satisfied that this Lockheed is the inspiration beghind it. It's entirely plausible that Century 21 toy designers had access to this design just as they did with the Dyna-Soar and Space Glider.

Beyond the single picture in my book I've not been able to find any other reference to this particular Lockheed online other than a general drawing of various lifting body designs pictured below. The concept labelled 'FDL 5 Late variant' appears to be similar. If anyone has any further information I would be only too happy to post it on the blog for other readers.

Courtesy of Media Photobucket

STRANGE CHANGE: SADLY I NEVER DID!

I always wanted one of these cool American STRANGE CHANGE toys by Mattel back in the 60's. My nephew Andrew had one after one of his family visited the States back then. I remember it had the US 2 pin plug, which somehow they managed to get working here in 3 pin UK! You can see from the You Tube commercial that it basically heated up blocks of gloop and turned them into monsters and the like in a small oven! Wow! Like a lab in your own bedroom! I was so envious I can almost taste it even now. I remember clearly the T.Rex on the box - pictured below. I WANTED THAT T.REX SO BADLY! The closest I got to strange changing was a toy that allowed you to solidify plastic insects and monsters in clear and coloured plastics. The name of the toy escapes me but I'd rather have strange changed! Anyone out there had one or got one still?

COMMANDER BIG - THE GERMAN BILLY BLASTOFF

Hi Paul,

Billy Blastoff is hard to get in Germany. I´m glad I found one a while back, but without its german box. Billy Blastoff was distributed by BIG. BIG and JEAN were the trademarks of Jean Höfler, well known for Wild West and medieval toy figures in the 1960s & 70s. Billy was sold under the name Commander BIG. Perhaps they changed the name because in German "blastoff" sounds a little bit silly. Back in early 1970s I can remember that Commander Big was sold beneath the togglers toys, unlike the Matt Mason stuff beside the "big boys toys". The toy shop I´ve visited often at that time had for about one year or longer three sets of Commander Big and hadn't sold them. One day all three had dissapeared. Here is a copy from a german catalogue in 1969 (more info here too).

Best Regards

Klaus
Blechroboter.de

Image courtesy of blechroboter.de

Excellent Klaus. Thanks for sharing this great information with us. Commander BIG rocks! Paul

OLD LP COLLECTION PLAYED AGAIN

This red LP Space Rocket recently appeared on Ebay UK. In nice shape it's complete with it's nose antenna and spacewalking astronaut. What's interesting, as spotted by Ferryman, is that's its a colour reversal of his own version posted last year (below).

Now I can see the nose antenna on the red rocket it's clear it's the same one used on the head of LP's unusual Astronaut (courtesy of Ferryman). But just what are those pistols he's brandishing? flare guns?

And looking again I see that the Astronaut's biro top-like back retro's are the same as those on JR21's X-50 Space Racer below (courtesy of Ferryman).

Stop Press! the unstoppable WOTAN has spotted that the same silver antenna also appears on the white cruiser rocket in the Apollo Moon Exploring series (pictured above). Did LP and Imperial share parts/moulds or is coincidence?

The LP Moon Explorer Car below is one of my favourite SWORD lookalikes (Moonbus) and was one of the first space toys I came across on the net back in the early 1990's, whilst searching the encyclopeadic Gasoline Alley Antiques. This one below belongs to Ferryman and I can't help noticing that the spaceman clinging to the lunar surface is of the same type as that pictured in the Kellogg's Rice Krispies offer pictured below and kindly supplied by the Philosophic Toad last year.

THE OTHER SWORD ANNUAL: TV21 1969

The weather outside is frightful! Snow everywhere. In '67 I'd have strapped skis onto my Arctic Commando Action Man and sent him zooming down the sloped drive. I can taste the fun I had! I've been reading something Santa Sword brought me, the TV21 1969 Annual pictured below. Having never seen it before I was amazed at the amount of SWORD stuff in there! There's enough in there for this to be easilly considered part of the 'official' Project SWORD world. For readers' interest I have photographed all the SWORD pages and posted them here. I do hope that you can read the text.

COVER

THE LOYAL AND THE DEAD:

BATTLE BREAKDOWN PHASE ONE

(Hover Tank pictured)

BATTLE BREAKDOWN PHASE THREE:

If anyone knows of any other references to PROJECT SWORD in any other annuals please do email the blog (address at base of the blog).

The Loyal and The Dead

Had the pleasure of reading the 1969 Project Sword story 'The Loyal and the Dead' last night. Wonderfully bleak. Chaos on a dying Earth. I can't imagine that it was popular in 1969? I certainly don't remember reading it then. More to follow!

APOLLO MOON EXPLORING - THEY REALLY WORK!

Although I don't have the pleasure of owning any carded sets, only a few loose items, APOLLO MOON EXPLORING is one of my favourite SWORD/SPACEX knockoffs. In fact 'knockoff' is unfair as they stand up as great space toys in there own right. Made by the Imperial Toy Corporation of Los Angekes in 1970, the series comprised of 12 carded sets all appearing on a blister card with beautiful lunar artwork backgrounds. Each one came with a golden astronaut as seen in earlier GOLDEN ASTRONAUT sets by Multiple Toymakers of New York (SPACEX in the UK). Sold as 'Authentic Mechanical Replicas', they were most likely displayed in toy shops on racks. Retailing for 39cents in the US they carried the cute caption ' THEY REALLY WORK'! Some of the sets also contain miniatures of much larger MAJOR MATT MASON toys. These have been detailed by blog contributer Paul Vreede and colleague John Eaton on the excellent 'Where The Wild Toys Are' website. This month 11 of the 12 sets of Apollo Moon Exploring appeared on Ebay and offered those of us, who sadly don't possess these wonderful space toys, a chance to see the card fronts up close and personal (anyone know which set is missing?)

This last carded set containing the unmistakeable MOON PROSPECTOR links the series to the earlier PROJECT SWORD range we know and love!

Have many blog readers got these toys, carded or loose, in there collection?

FLIGHT FANTASTIC?

With Virgin Galactic now open for business space travel for ordinary folks like you and me is a small step closer. On the one hand I'm completely thrilled by the idea of regular flights to our stratosphere, the moon or even further afield but I'm also very apprehensive about the state we'll leave other celestial bodies in and the space in between. We're making a right ball's up of looking after Earth! Am I being unreasonably pessimistic?

WHAT IF THERE WAS A PROJECT SWORD BOARD GAME?

I've often mused whilst devouring a quarter pound bag of bonfire toffee that Century 21 should have at least given us a Project SWORD board game to complete the collection. They made comics, 2 paper models books, 2 and a bit annuals (more on this later!) and of course the wunderbar fleet of toys. But what would such a game have been like? The playing pieces would of been easy - miniatures of the spacecraft. And the playing pieces? LP spacemen of course! But what of the game's 'story'? Greater brains than mine will have to ponder that one (ideas welcomed!). Other games of the time, which might hint at such a SWORD game, can be found in the vast pile that makes up the Gerry Anderson games pile - Supercar, Captain Scarlet, Thunderbirds and so on. My own suggestions as to likely influences awould be the Italian UFO 'Destroy Moon Base' 1974 by Salani below.

But probably top of my list of possible 'futures' for a SWORD game is Parker Brothers UNIVERSE based on Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey, which features heavilly in the 1969 SWORD annual and was jointly promoted with SWORD toys during its cinema release. For more information about this game visit Board Game Geek. Wonder why they didn't call it 2001 A Space Odyssey?

Any other similar games you can think of readers?

OPERATION SWORD ANYONE?

I have often heard mention of 'Operation Sword' in relation to the Captain Scarlet 1968 episode SHADOW OF FEAR. Even more intriguingly an online video database actually refers to it is as 'Project Sword' in its synopsis of the episode:

Captains Scarlet and Blue travel to the Himalayas to supervise and administrate Spectrum's new phase to monitor signals from a space satellite that has been launched into the orbit surrounding Mars, and to snap-shot high resolution detailed pictures of the planet, which will be relayed and received by the large mountain satellite station that the probe was launched from. The second satellite, with the first acting as a decoy, successfully lands on Mars, and sets to have Spectrum successfully completing the code-named ""Project Sword"" operation, but the whole carefully-planned out arrangement is placed under threat when one of the participating technicians ostensibly falls dead and is brought back to life by the Mysterons, with one instruction: to sabotage the observatory and to interrupt the satellites' transmission, before Earth comes to learn every single detail about the force, and prevent them from continuing the war of nerves and retaliation against the planet.

Which is correct? Operation or Project? Can anyone point to footage of this actually being spoken online? I have searched You Tube but no joy. There is also mention of the episode being merged into the 1981 film 'Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars'. Is Operation/Project Sword mentioned here too? Does anyone actually think there might be a connection to the Project SWORD we know and love?

A BANG, NOT A WHIMPER!

One other good thing about Xmas is the cracker - pulling the cracker over dinner and smelling the whiff of cordite from the snap inside always takes me back to my childhood and having the little plastic rockets and bombs to throw about loaded with paper caps to make a fine bang! Guest blogger Hugh has sent along some rare examples of such fab toys and takes up the story here:

"bomb1 - A selection of cap-firing bombs, most given away at kids parties. The large yellow one is the Triang Railways Bomb-carrier load and does not fire. Bottom right are various bits which may or may not be parts of cap-bombs?

bomb2 - On the right is the Uniplast moon rocket we've looked at already this month, while to the left a slight (and very un-PC) variation; pull the plunger, push hard and take your sisters eye out with the war-head! (Good to see Ed Valigurskys Nova Rocket art being put to use here on the Cohete Lunar card! Wotan)

bomb3 - A selection of metal cap-firers, the one on the left is contemporary, the top row are from left to right; Dinky Stuka bomb, Unknown hammer or anvil for a cap firer and the Britains Howitzer shell. Below them a selection of the commoner designs of my childhood, the ?SUPERB is missing it's fins and the head to the left currently has no body!

bomb4 - Variations on a theme, left we see a PC 'cap-bomb' it sticks to your eye-ball rather than penetrating! On the right is a rocket I'd like to identify further, the cap mechanisem is in the blue base cap, so the detonation seems to have ocured on launch rather than landing...What did the launcher look like? Who made it?

BILLY BLASTOFF LUNAR SCOUT AND HIS TV THUNDERBIRD RAY GUIDED X-2

I love this Billy Blastoff knockoff called LUNAR SCOUT, which I've blogged before. It includes a Thunderbirds EXCAVATOR and it's currently on Ebay. What I hadn't noticed last time is the picture on the little Billy TV screen - its Thunderbird 2! Not only that but the picture is lifted from the box art of the Ray-O-Matic ray Guided X2 Space Ship (below), which we've blogged before courtesy of our man in Finland, Arto.

I can't believe that this LUNAR SCOUT set manufacturer made the plastic Excavator themselves from scratch. Where did they get it from? All the other items are straight lifts/copies of ELDON/SCALECRAFT Billy Blastoff toys. Anyone know?

THE END OF TIME

I've had a bit of a Dr. Who evening tonight. First I listened to the Lost Episodes radio programme and was amazed to learn that 108 TV episodes are still missing even after the BBC and fans have scoured the world! Incredibly all the episodes' audio were taped by fans at the time using reel-to-reel recorders and microphones. The pictures are lost and it would seem forever. Or?

At 6.40 pm tonight UK Television history was made by Dr.Who in this series' final episode 'the End of Time'. The 10th Doctor 'died' and regenerated into the 11th! BBC1 pulled out all the stops to make it an unforgettable episode and the end of David Tennant's tenure will stay with me for a long time. Great Sci Fi is always an strong alloy of grief and glory and this was no exception - he really didn't want to go.  I have to honest and admit that I've been a fairweather Who fan, dipping in and out since I was old enough to watch it in the early 1960's. It's been a constant companion but there were many series I haven't seen at all over the last 40 odd years and the show's merchandise didn't feature much at all under my childhood Christmas trees and I'm unsure why really. The Doctors I remember most vividly are the John Pertwee and Tom Baker incarnations. Two stand-out storylines were the Curse of Peladon and the Sea Devils. In fact I watched the Peladon episodes just the other week as I have them on VHS. The Boar-God monster Peladon has haunted my dreams since the day I clapped eyes on him stalking the passages of his vast mountain stronghold in the early 1970's. I have a faint memory of the Paul McGann 1996 Christmas special but it was its revival in 2005 (was it really a 16 year gap?) that got me hooked again. Although I haven't seen every episode since by a long chalk, I've been an ardent fan and Dr. Who remains one of only two TV programmes since 1990 to keep me in and plan around. The other were the early series of the X-Files (Tooms, Gargoyles etc).

The Who re-birth began with a brilliant new writer/producer Russell T. Davies, a Ninth Doctor played by the charismatic northern actor Christoper Eccleston (I'm from the North of England so it struck a chord immediately) and in a stroke of genius petit national babe Billy Piper was cast as the new gorgeous assistant Billy. I loved Ecclestone's brash northern Who and Davies' storylines were inspired Sci Fi. If Ecclestone was brilliant, David Tennant's 10th Doctor from series 2 was genius. His relationship with Billy was fascinating and emotional and the inevitable final parting for them, with the Doctor and Billy seperated forever, was profoundly moving. Other masterstrokes have included casting megastar Kylie Minogue and national treasure Bernard Cribbins. The show's nadir were the John Barrowman and Catherine Tate episodes but these were minor blips in an otherwise highpoint for modern British TV over the past 5 years. I'm already excited about Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor and can't wait for it to start this Spring. It's what we pay the UK TV Licence for!

Ed's Redbox II

"Hi Paul,

Great pic (I sent Ed). Here's a few more Redbox pics I found. The one boxed isn't mine, I keep getting outbid. This version is Action Man scale. Redbox stuff is tricky because it can be 8 inch scale or 12 inch scale. With 8 inch scale the only moving parts are the head and arms. Redbox was a prolific toy company with knock off type items back in 60s-70s Redbox there are many soldiers, sailors, Tommys and Spacemen. Redbox is still around producing childrens toys today no action figures though. The UK seems to have had better distribution of Redbox toys than in USA. No telling what else they produced. The 1960s Fairlylite (sp) Thunderbird 1/6th scale figures look very much like Redbox figures. I wonder if there is any connection? Have a great NEW YEAR!

Ed"

Cheers Ed. RedBox did some cool spy stuff too. I have a few bits. Sean commented on BLUE BOX in the last post. Did they do toy figures too? Pics anyone? Bluebox, Redbox, Spy stuff? Woodsy

NEW YEAR POSTBAG 2010

"I'm seeing this a few days late myself, but it may be of interest: http://trueslant.com/milesobrien/2009/12/21/the-commercial-space-race-heats-up/

Best wishes to you and yours for the New Year!

RAB"

Nice one RAB. Have an intergalactic year! Woodsy

****

"Woodsy, A Happy New Year to you and yours from Cloudbase and having greatly enjoyed your article on 'Marooned' a movie I'm very fond of, I thought I'd keep things going with the poster for the film. By the way I think you were thinking of 'Longstreet' who was played by the Late James Franciscus. I also have the novel of the film by Martin Cadin who was the Creator of the 'Six Million Dollar Man' and if I can dig it out, I'll scan it and send an Image. Only 10 minutes left, Gotta Go! Happy New Years Swordheads, Steven Boyes"

Fabulous Steven, Happy New Year from Moonbase to Cloudbase! And I can also see on the poster David Janssen, who used to star in the FUGITIVE, compulsory viewing for me and my Dad back in the early 70's. Whenever I think of the Fugitive I also think of The Invaders too. Don't know why. Must be my Sixties-Seventies radar getting snowed-up! And yes, LONGSTREET, I'd forgotten about that but how could I when the late great BRUCE LEE appears in it too teaching Mr. Franciscus his Jeet Kune Do! I measure my childhood by the 3 craze's at the time - first came Monsters, then Space and then Kung Fu! That's it, my tender years in a nutshell and the very fabric of who I am today. I've never lost my passion for all three, although my martial arts are restricted to armchair studies these days! Here's a clip of Brucey on Longstreet (he popped up allover the place back then) courtesy of the the modern miracle that is You Tube.

CARRY ON 2010

Well its here, ten years into the new Millenium. Like many we watched fireworks exploding in the Yorkshire sky until the wee hours of the New Year. A new phenomenon are Sky Lanterns, a sort of hot air paper balloon. I was transfixed as they glided high into the clouds, far higher than I'd expected. I couldn't help thinking if they might cause problems for aircraft or whether they would take the weight of an Action Man or Major Matt Mason! The sort of thing I'd have definately experimented with as a kid but not now, I know how much they're worth! Now we're all up and looking forward to the promise of a new twelve months. Mrs. Moonbase is walking Blue the mutt. The guinea pig, Pig, is chomping on fresh lettuce and I'm drinking coffee watching one of my all-time favourite comedy monster movies, Carry On Screaming, with hilarious characters like Valeria, Bung, Sockett, Slowbottom and Oddbod! I've just discovered there's even a Carry on Screaming Royal Mail stamp!

As its one of the last lazy days of the holiday I intend to watch my new 2001 Space Oddysey VHS at some point. I was interested to read of the sequels by Arther C.Clarke including 2010! Here's a resume of it -

Nine years after the disastrous Discovery mission to Jupiter in 2001, a joint U.S.-Soviet expedition sets out to rendezvous with the derelict spacecraft *to search the memory banks of the mutinous computer HAL 9000 for clues to what went wrong . . . and what became of Commander Dave Bowman. Without warning, a Chinese expedition targets the same objective, turning the recovery mission into a frenzied race for the precious information Discovery may hold about the enigmatic monolith that orbits Jupiter. Meanwhile, the being that was once Dave Bowman *the only human to unlock the mystery of the monolith *streaks toward Earth on a vital mission of its own . . . 

Was it made into a film I wonder?

HAPPY NEW YEAR READERS