MOONBASE DIARY

Things are going well on the Moonbase. The Lighting Unit is nearly complete - top pic. I've added Letraset numbers to the modules, a good idea from the mighty WOTAN, plus the odd small black vent. Need to print some SWORD decals too. That leaves the LEM to complete, locate a Lunar Roving Vehicle at Spacex scale, find some plastic astronauts - still unsure about the scale - and last but not least, make the lunar surface for it all to stand on!

LOST TOY

When I was a kid in the 1960's I was, like many kids, crazy about Dinosaurs! One of my favourite Xmas prezzies was a boxed fossil hunting set. It had a small hammer, a magnifying glass, a fossil ID guide, a sharks tooth fossil and other stuff I can't remember. The box cover was reddish I think with a picture of a T Rex fossilised skeleton - I think! Anyone know what I'm talking about?

MOONBASE DIARY

Ever since getting back from the Boot sales this morning, it's been chuckin' it down! So, in between buying my mate's son's toy collection off him and playing with Blue the Doggy (bottom pic - looking sad!) I have made some progress on the Moonbase model in my rather cramped but snug attic den! - pic 5. That old Liberty chair is so comfy you wouldn't believe! And with my stereo record player still in action I've been modelling to the sweet riffs of Wishbone Ash and Rory Gallagher!

So, I've tested the battery-powered lights on the Housing and Light Modules - top 3 pics; more or less finished the Garage Module, complete with crane and ramp (looks quite good!) and the base unit of the Light Module, looking like a square cake with 4 legs at the mo! - pic 4.

As predicted the LEM has proven the most difficult. I couldn't find a Panettone box anywhere - think it must be a Xmas thing - so I've opted for a stack of 3 small boxes to create the effect. Not finished yet so the jury's still out!

Need to decide whether any extra livery or decals are required over and above the SWORD logo?

CAR BOOT DIARY: STARBLAZER, MANTA FORCE AND TV21

Well, it's been another eazy Sunday morning here at Moonbase Central. The girls have gone to Appleby Fair and the dog and me are lazily looking through this morning's car boot booty, which I have to say, despite some red-herrings, is a fine haul. I thought the plastic ray gun was from the obscure Gerry Anderson STARCRUISER Mission Control Set by Thomas Salter but alas its not. Its actually STARBLAZER, which has its own fanbase and website! The Decimal Board Game, bought in a hurry at the end, wasn't the Century 21 Decimal Dominoes set I thought it was, as featured in Chris King's collection on the Eagle Transporter Forum. But its complete and in great shape - someone obviously never decimalised! The two small plastic action figures I can't identify but I like them. Adventure People?

I also picked up 3 Manta Force boxed vehicles for Ebay, which were a sod to get to the car, together with a staple for my collection, a nice boxed spy pistol, plus some 70's/80's Star Wars toys leaflets and a couple of old games and cars.

By far the best catch of the day was the Century 21 books lot. Toy Tony, the best dealer at the boot sale, had really dropped on the week before when he bought about 100 Annuals and Comics for £20 at the local Hospital fleamarket, in amongst, which, were loads of Century 21 Annuals, which he's now selling to his own regulars like me and making a handsome profit to boot! I took the opportunity to leaf through most of his C21 Annuals, probably for the first time since I was a kid in the 60's. It became clear that the Project SWORD format and style had been tried many times before in the Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet Annuals - the classic 2-page cutaways and the day-glo-colour strips focusing on one fabulous machine or other. I was amazed! A Eureka moment! It made me realise how easy it must have been for PROJECT SWORD to have been created in what was obviously a seething hotbed of art and futurism over at Century and TV21. Spoilt for choice, I settled on a TV21 Summer Special and a TV21 Annual to bring home and fondle. Non- Anderson books got a look in too with a Space Adventure annual by Atlas and a Golden Token Space Patrol book.

If I sell a few bits on Ebay I'll be back again next week!

Whilst tapping this bloglet out I watched an AMAZING repeated 30 minute Channel 5 TV show called MEAN MACHINES about amphibious vehicles like the ARKTOS. Brilliant! There's more to come - Space Transporters 10th June 7.30pm, Loggers 13th June 10.30am and Trucks 17th June, 7.30pm. Wow!

CENTURY 21 SUBMARINE AIRCRAFT CARRIER - NEW PICTURES

The seller, MrThunder, of the current Ebay auction of the superb Century 2 SUBMARINE AIRCRAFT CARRIER has kindly sent the blog more great shots of this superlative toy for posterity:

From Top to Bottom:

1. Full view as can be seen cuurently on Ebay

2. Box ends - both the same

3. One long side of the box lid

4. The other long side of the box lid showing instructions

5. Top of hull with deck flap open

6. Detail close-up of the two firing mechanisms for the 'airplanes'

7. Underside of hull showing friction-drive motor and wheel assembly which slots into the black area of the hull recess. This is removed and the red propeller assembly then clips onto the small black holder halfway down the length of the hull

8. Most of the "detachable" parts available for the toy in the Ebay auction including both rear 'wings', part of the propeller assembly, the two 'chrome' parts to the conning towers, the under-hull steering wheel and the four launchable 'airplanes'

Thanks MrThunder - Just faaaaaaaaaaaaabulous!

COMIC ONLY MACHINERY : GROUP ONE JET

The Group One Operational Force appears at the top of page 22 in the 1969 PROJECT SWORD ANNUAL as part of the 'Moon Crawler' story. It is scrambled to fly over the Pennines to evacuate 'Sword Citizens' Protection Camps Alpha and Beta' threatened by volcanic eruption! There are two things about the Group One Jets - the unusual lead jet and the four T1's. The lead yellow craft is not based on a SWORD toy, looking more like a private jet than anything. It's obvious closest relatives are the Task Force jets, which are represented here by the four T1's. These are, however, as first noted on the GACCH Sword Annual website in 2006, completely different to the Task Force 1 toy plane that we are all familair with. They have much stubbier wings like fighter planes, whereas the toy is virtually a 3-winged arrowhead only rarely seen in few other toys such as this tinplate one. Oddly enough the correct T1 toy design does appear in the 3031 story on page 58. I'm unsure where the artist got his ideas from for Group One but I do like them and as I live not too far from the Pennines I often peer up when I hear the roar of jet engines!

Photonic Space Station Men Into Space Board Game 1961

Had to post the cool little illustration of the Photonic Propulsion Space Station on the inside box of the Milton Bradley MEN INTO SPACE Board Game 1961. It's a deadringer for later Spacex version seen in the black and white ad above. Pity Milton Bradley didn't do a little plastic version if it on the game. The pieces look like tiny replicas of the rocket in the same box illustration. Anyone got a close-up of this box inside?

HOVER LUNAR ADVENTURE 2

Like T, Tarheel and Day Fran, Hover made SWORD replica toys. They also made the brilliant Lunar Adventure 2 toy - middle pic. It always fascinates me how space toys were generally rife with knock-offs and variants and Lunar Adventure is no exception having found at leat 2 other different versions - pictures 1 and 3. Anyone got any others?