NUCLEAR FERRY ON EBAY

The PROJECT SWORD collecting world is buzzing with the current auction of the scarce Century 21 Nuclear Ferry. Bloggers have been on touch all week, like Graeme:

Hey Paul:I doubt this is news but I found this Ebay auction last night. I wonder
what it will fetch at the end? VINTAGE 21 CENTURY HONG
KONG TOYS NUCLEAR FERRY SPACE Too
bad most of the photos are blurry but what a toy eh? Cheers, Graeme

I agree Graeme, what a toy! Beyond most of our simple means but we can still dream of having this fabulous spaceship on our display shelf!

DYNA SOARS: MARTIN AND GOODYEAR BY DARTH

Darth has sent me this:

Hey Paul, attached are two pics from my Dyna-Soar book of something very similar
to what Wotan has been showing. One is an animated mock-up of a winged reentry
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 it was
seen to fly back and forth docking with the cylindrical space station. The other
pic is a mock-up proposed by Goodyear for an inflatable re-entry vehicle. BTW did
you get the pics I sent to you several weeks ago of the Hover Moon car? It
looked exactly like a Sword toy. Regards, Rob

Cheers Rob. Hover Moon Car pics to be posted ASAP.

Schwimmwagen Bugs

Paul Vreede, Spacex fan and blog reader writes:

the "action man amphibious bug" you found somewhere is better known
as a Schwimmwagen. Describing it as a bug is somewhat premature, in
that the Schwimmwagen existed a couple decades before the VW Beetle
on which it was based became used as a platform for buggies of any kind.

Schwimmwagen on YouTube

The Schwimmwagen Registry

btw: the Sindi bug already reminded me of the Schwimmwagen in general proportions and outline, but
not to the point that I felt compelled to bring it to your attention and
get even further off-topic too. But since you put one up on your blog I
now feel safe to digress! ;-D

Best--Paul

MORE MEGO SPACE TRACT GLIDER PICTURES

T'other week I posted pic sof this 'newly discovered' and strange MEGO SPACE TRACT space glider variant. the Ebayer who sold the item ( alas not to me I hasten to add) was kind enough to send me extra photographs of the MEGO box before sending it off to its new owner. I had half-expected that the yellow band at the base of the lid would contain the expanded SWORD wording found on Century 21 and Tarheel boxes. But now I can see that the yellow stripe has a description of the bump n go action etc. The battery insertion illustrations look the same as on the SPACE GLIDER box though - I'll check. All in all I'm thrilled with this find and grateful to Carlos for sending me these great pictures. I wonder if MEGO made more space toys besides this one?

THE FUTURE IN COLOUR! LOOK AND LEARN by WOTAN

The Future in Colour! From Look and Learn Magazine in the late
sixties and a fabulous book, 'The World of Tomorrow' comes this collection of
colour images from the Futurama exhibit. Although the bulk of the Moon Buggy
photography shows a white machine, some press shots show them in yellow and
again with the 'Crablogger' machine, happily chopping down the rainforest, a
yellow colour scheme is evident. See also the 'laser' glowing red at the front
of the craft, this would flash brightly and the mechanised arm would appear to
be removing the tree trunk as the convoy trundled along.

The larger road paving machine had lots of moving features, such as rolling
racks and conveyors inside. Also shown is part of the Antarctic diorama, showing
a modular base unit and a large ice drilling machine and snobuggy.

The earth orbit space station shows small supply ships akin to the Sword
Booster Rocket leaving for the moon base. If you look carefully at the larger
Moon Buggy pic shown earlier, you can make out the astronaut figures are clearly
taken from the sixties Marx Toys Operation Moon Base set, the guy on the left of
the picture is the astronaut figure bouncing on a small moon rock! Check out the
fabulous Space Glider that came with that wonderful set too! (pic courtesy of
Timewarp toys).

Nice one Wotan!

ROXY PROSPECTOR & M5 BY MIKE BURROWS

Hi Paul,

Done a couple more lunar 'spacex' pics, although one
of the Prospectors' is a Roxy variation, as is the M5 (top pic). I've had the Roxy ones
since the early seventies, and until I recently got back into collecting Spacex
stuff, I'd never realised they where actually different versions of the Spacex
line. I do wonder how many Spacex 'hybrids' Roxy released, and
what alterations they made. No doubt one or two of the blog readers will
know.

Cheers
Mike

Excellent Mike! Woodsy

NEW YORK WORLDS FAIR 1964 by WOTAN

Moon Buggy at GM workshop (4-5 feet long)

Left - Jungle Cutter Animatronic on display

Right - Road Laying Machine on Bench ( approx. 15 feet long!)

Pictures courtesy of General Motors

From WOTAN, correspondent in space:
I Have Seen The Future.....

The sixties was a big time for space and everything futuristic. All the major toy lines centered on space travel and popular programming too. In 1964 the New York Worlds Fair looked forward to a brighter tomorrow with the space race well advanced and new technologies appearing almost monthly, the show was a huge success.

Chief among the exhibits was the General Motors Futurama II pavilion which expanded and developed upon themes shown by Norman Bel Geddes in the 1939 World Fair , showing how the world might be living in 2024. GMs Futurama Pavilion covered superhighways, life under the sea, in space and on the moon and had a moving trainride through huge dioramas showing animated models.

Looking at some of the radical designs shown by GM for the futuristic transport solutions, I wonder if perhaps any of the Century 21 designers maybe stopped by for a visit ? The similarities between the Jungle Cutter slashing its way through the rainforests to be followed by the road building machine and the Crablogger from Thunderbirds and the Moon Buggies and the Scramble Bug seem a little too coincidental..

See: nywf64.com and futurama 2 for more.

BUGS GLORIOUS BUGS - PLACO & DURHAM

WOTAN has sent in more bugs - and what great ones too! Placo Toys and Durham Industries. I love the Super Scrambler box! It'd be great to see a colour picture! Anyone help?