SATURN V - THE BIGGEST MACHINE IN THE WORLD

Above - The real Saturn V at Cape Kennedy

Golden Astronaut MLP

Spacex MLP courtesy of Mike Burrows
Century 21 Project Sword Cape Kennedy Set
Century 21 Project Sword Cape Kennedy
Set box

Whilst nursing one of my pesky migraines today I surfaced from my cranial gloom well enough to catch 2 excellent space-based TV programmes on BBC2 tonight: NASA ( part 1) and James May's 20th Century. Amid a whole welter of cosmic facts and revelations, several things stood out for me. The 1960's Apollo 8 and the iconic Apollo 11 missions utilised the SATURN v rocket, the biggest machine ever biult. It was assembled in the largest biulding at the time, the VAB, Vehicle Assembly Biulding and it, along with the gantry, was transported to the launchpad on the largest road vehicle, a huge crawler on tracked wheels.

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Whilst watching I was struck by the bright colour scheme of red, white and blue of the rocket, gantry and crawler shining majestically in the Cape sunshine. Of all the mobile launch pad- based toys it's appropriately the US Golden Astronaut Launch Site MLP that is the truest replica of the actual colours. A close second is the Project SWORD Cape Kennedy Set, which has the closest colour match of the crawler and gantry's blue and red, only let down by the pale blue of the Saturn V itself (rectified in the Project Sword Apollo Saturn, which was white). The SWORD set even pictures the VAB biulding on the box - what a great 'toy' addition that would have made!

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The least-true colouring was on the UK Spacex MLP, opting for a yellow tower and green rocket. The silver command module on top of the rocket is one of my favourite spacex craft so I will let those toy boys at Tri-ang off! Besides, I know of at least one other colour variation for this set - a green crawler - so nI suppose it's possible that a blue, red and white Spacex combination might be ready to launch out there somewhere. Or?

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One other thing occurred to me as well. I can well imagine that sales for the Cape Kennedy Set and it's Spacex/ Golden Astronaut cousins shot up after the Moon Landing in July 1969, 40 years ago. As no sales figures exist it's pure supposition on my part.

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Part 2 of the NASA story is on BBC2 Wednesday 1st July at 9pm in the UK.

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Per ardua ad astra!

WOTAN IS NOW A CO-AUTHOR

pic courtesy of astronit

WOTAN's jumping for joy round Moonbase Central! He's been promoted! His stint last week looking after the blog whilst I was away on my hols went so well that I've asked him to be an author on the blog like me. I'm still the administrator so he best not get too cocky! Seriously though, WOTAN's eclectic toy knowledge and easy writing style is a real asset to the blog and I'm sure that you'll join me in welcoming him on board proper. Nice one WOTAN!

DYNA SOAR ! PHWOAR!

Okay, so just how did they get it out of the box?

MYTHS OF THE 21ST CENTURY by WOTAN

The Marie Celeste of the SWORD fleet has always been the wonderful Nuclear Ferry. Until recently, this was assumed to be a mythical beast, never to have been produced and only gracing the pages of the manual and Tv21. However, a chance encounter on a japanese auction site led to the first ever sighting of the toy, some 18 months ago. Assumed lost again as the auction closed, the SWORD community breathed a sigh of disappointment as the mysterious ferry dropped below the event horizon once more. But like Apollo 11 coming out of the radio shadow of the lunar darkside, the ferry emerged once more during the xmas holidays of 2008 and this time, it was snapped up. In an amazing incidence of sychronicity, or perhaps because the ferry had appeared at auction for the first time and stirred the memory of foreign dealers, a second model popped up on Ebay US, at the same time that the first one was winging its way across the Pacific to England. A beautiful and rare thing, especially since it arrived boxed and with Commanders badge, the ferry must have been one of the last creations of the SWORD designers. Compared to some of the other toys such as the Probe Force series or the scramble bug, the toy is a clumsy and unwieldy beast and must have had limited playability for a child. The remote control gives forward movement and tiny pea bulbs in the transparent red engine are whirled around on a small turntable, to give a fabulous 'reactor' effect. The large passenger section holds a full crew and the makers also saw fit to pose the tiny astronauts in positions where two have actually left their seats and are making a crew transfer into the cargo module. This mirrors Robert McCalls famous painting for which he was originally credited as being the originator of the design, but recently, David Portree - a space archive manager, a planetary map librarian and author of www.beyondapollo.blogspot.com/ and www.robotexplorers.blogspot.com/ - cast an eye over the blog at my behest, to see if he could identify any of the designs shown here. Almost immediately, he identified the Nuclear Ferry as being a concept vehicle proposed by Ling Tenco Vought, an aerospace engineering company, as a lunar transport ship. This bore out C21's claims that it worked out the toy designs based on plans straight from the NASA drawing boards. One other major problem I found with the SWORD ferry was the spring loaded cargo module. The Passenger section slips easily from the steel rods either side of the main hull, but the cargo module was designed to blast off in realistic launching fashion, by the touch of a button. Engaging the spring launched mechanism by pushing the module into place revealed two flaws - the docking collar beneath the cargo module didn't line up with the airlock on the passenger section. Also, because of the age of the age of the mechanism - the latch was prone to releasing itself at will, blasting the cargo pod across the room! Having seen this happen once too often and luckily having been deft enough to catch it without damaging the fragile antennae either side, I decided that my even more fragile heart could no longer bear the strain. As the motor needed a little attention to urge it back to life, I took the drastic step of taking the massive spring launcher out of the body while I had the toy in pieces. Now the cargo module sits correctly in place and I can display the toy safely without having the worry that an unscheduled launch would leave me with a small pile of blue plastic shards near the wall. The ferry has appeared twice in toy form, once by Project SWORD and again, later by Triang Spacex. The unusual shape and distinctive form of the ferry has always obsessed me since childhood and along with the Booster Rocket has been a firm favourite. Before finally being lucky enough to find and own both models of the ferry, I was driven to try and make my own version from old kit parts, a tennis ball container and a Matchbox X-33 shuttle toy! Since the inception of the moonbase blog, we have seen two nuclear ferries emerge, the even rarer Submarine Aircraft Carrier and countless other unusual models - can our luck hold out and reveal the Project Sword Moonbase anytime soon, I wonder....

ROCKETS RED GLARE by WOTAN

In all my years of collecting SWORD and space toys, ive never been able to pin down a C21 Zero X toy. Its still on my hitlist and especially so after seeing Ferrymans beautiful work on the new box for the toy. However, japanese model and toy maker Aoshima came to my aid a couple of years ago by producing a die-cast version of this flagship of the Sword fleet. Because O.X has appeared in several guises, in the SWORD annual, Thunderbirds are Go! movie and the opening episode of Captain Scarlet, the company made two slightly different versions of the craft. I was lucky enough to get the Thunderbirds version, courtesy of my good friend Terry, a capain scarlet specialist. Differences between the two models aren't massive, but the level of detail in each model is astounding.

The model is about 18" long and is as exacting as any fan of the ship could want. The MEV (Martian Excursion Vehicle) alone is packed with features, and this is only about 2" long itself! It has a flip open cannon on the roof, an ejecting escape capsule and retractable rubber caterpillar tracks underneath fold down flaps. The only thing it is realistically missing are the twin whip aerials from the back, but given the scale of the model, these would have to be almost as fine as human hair to fit the model. The MEV joins the main body magnetically and is shrouded by the chromed aerofoil nosecone in flight. Lifting Body 1 and 2 clip to the body of the ship with simple attachments and the whole model is robust and heavy. The individual sets of landing gear are all present, from the drop down nose wheel on Body 2 to the retractable wing tips on Body 1 with opening doors and pop out wheels. Its an amazing model, whichever version you opt for and although expensive at £70 + depending where you find it, its a real keeper. Also included with this version is a tiny Martian Rock Snake! Awesome

MINIFLEX - SAFARI, SO GOOD! by WOTAN

Another virtually unknown (at least by me) company, Miniflex brought forth an outstanding toy set in 1970. Clearly taking a cue from the Major Matt Mason Space Crawler and possibly with a nod to the Star Trek episode, the 'Menagerie' - the Space Safari set is a classic toy. A large box would have greeted children on a bleary xmas morning, chock full of surprises and well made toys. The main vehicle is a leggy crawler similar to the Billy Blastoff/Matt Mason lines, with the distinctive spoked wheels for all terrain access. This version has a pressurised cabin and sports a removeable power pack with flashing light and rotating scanner. This can be taken off and used to power the main tractor vehicle, again with pressurised cab and astronaut pilot. This in turn tows two trailers, one with a pair of sealed globes for transporting alien fauna and another unidentifiable unit with some kind of shield or ray projector attached - perhaps to generate a containment field to capture the hapless aliens en route. Alos included in the set are two standalone bubble containers to house the captured specimens in their own environmental conditions. The set is well built, although the paint job on the aliens does leave a bit to be desired! The box has had a lot of attantion lavished on it and shows the actual toy trundling across a mock lunar or alien terrain. I recall the toy being advertised in a UK catalogue alongside the big Apollo Moon Exploring deluxe set, but sadly, Santa must have mislaid my letter that year as he forgot to bring me either toy - and if your listening fat, boy - im still waiting for the Apollo set!

SPACE BRAIN by WOTAN

Japanese toy and model maker Masudaya found a use for the emergent silicone chip technology and the abundance of simple programmable units by including it in a rather nice moon buggy. Similar to MB Games Big Trak, but looking a lot more like its just rolled off the set of a Gerry Anderson show like Joe 90 or Space 1999, the oddly named 'Brain' is a caterpillar tracked vehicle with a tiny cpu inside. Like its american cousin, there is a small keypad on the rear to facilitate simple programming. The usual stunts can be performed, left, right, forward and reverse by setting a path into the limited memory. Consequently, this unusual toy has spent the intervening years since its manufacture terrorising household pets under kitchen tables and roaming the endless plains of polyester carpet instead of ranging the valleys of a distant world.

BIG WHEEL KEEPS ON TURNING by WOTAN

Spanish toy maker Clim has made some seriously unusual toys in its Serie Galactic Range and this massive machine is no exception. With more than a passing resemblance to the Project Sword Survey Vehicle (AKA Sand Flea) from the Annual and Make a Model book, this is as close as we ever got to a toy incarnation of the craft. With two large internal balloon tyres and a small dolly wheel at the front, the Explorex is large enough to seat two GI Joe scale figures and is controlled by a two stick remote on a large wire. As it chugs along, there are two flashing lights on a wire stem between the wheels and twin rocket launchers at the ready on the front. Clearly intended as a war machine as opposed to an exploration vehicle, it originally came with two figures of pilots copied from an action figure range, but cast in a much inferior rubbery plastic.