LEDY APOLO THUNDERBIRDS AND FIREBALL XL5 EXCAVATOR SET

As you know I love old Thunderbirds and SWORD knockoffs and here's a great one. I stumbled across it on the net at the huge Gasoline Alley Antiques site. Called SERIE APOLO (ELECTRONICA EXCAVADOR LUNA), it's by a Mexican company called LEDY and is clearly a mix of TB2 pod vehicles and Fireball XL5 figures and scooter. The excellent box art shows three pod vehicles so could we speculate that there are sets containing the other two besides the Excavator shown here? These pod vehicles were also made by BANDAI and have been blogged previously. I just don't know what the silver egg-box is? Anyone?

AIRFIX ATTACK FORCE TRUCK

One of the Airfix readymade ATTACK FORCE range from the 1960's, I used to absolutely love filling this truck with plastic soldiers and blasting the whole lot with the Angel Interceptor's huge missile! Sadly I don't have the truck anymore - it was battered! - and can't find a bigger image anywhere.

MOON McDARE AND SPACE MUTT

Blog reader Philosophic Toad has sent throught these great shots of Gilbert's brilliant Moon Mcdare and his ever-faithful Space Mutt (US and Far East versions). Like Johnny Apollo too, it's not a toy I had as a kid, being nudged out by Major Matt Mason and Colourforms Outer Space Men. Anyone have McDare memories?

FIREBALL XL5 TAIL-FINS

Seeing Ferryman's fabulous Submarine Aircraft Carrier restoration I couldn't help noticing the similarity of the Sub's rear tailfins with those of the Fireball XL5 as seen above. Fireball, designed by Derek Meddings for it's TV debut in 1962, is older than the Stingray Sub so I suppose it's possible that Ron Embleton may have been influenced by it when he created the Sub for TV21 in 1965. It's a shame that Jack Rosenthal never fancied a crack at making an XL5 toy. We'd be able to compare it directly with the Century 21 Sub. The Quercetti, Kitmaster and MPC toys and kits will just have to do!

Sub Carrier Restored!

Ferrymans patience and hard work has resulted in the enigmatic Submarine Aircraft Carrier being almost fully restored to pristine condition. Ferryman will be revisiting the restored conning towers at a later date for some fine tuning, but to an enthusiast such as me, it looks fabulous! Sit back and enjoy...

JC PENNEYS AND SEARS SPACE TOYS

What a difference a decade makes! The lower picture is from the 1958 SEARS catalogue showing just a few space-related toys including a very cool rocket transporter a la Spacex! But just look at the bumper selection on offer 12 years later in the 1970 JC PENNEYS catalogue! One year earlier Man had landed on the Moon and doesn't it show. There's MARX scouts, rockets and that All-Terrain wedge-shaped climber is just great! Anyone got one? These pages are courtesy of those fabulous guys over at Wishbook, where you can search dozens of American Christmas catalogues! Not much Project SWORD though as far as I can see, although Darth posted a pic of a Tarheel (I assume) Glider and Moonbus last year from Wards catalogue (year?) with the Marx scouts and stilted Delta appearing once again . Nothing in colour though. Boo.

JETEX: DYNA SOAR AND MORE BY PAUL VREEDE

'JETEX DYNA SOAR, WHAT YEAR WAS IT?' (originally in side-bar)

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In response to this question Blog reader Paul Vreede recently posted this in the Project Sword Forum. There's a lot of good stuff in here so I thought I'd post it on the main blog.

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Found it I think, Paul.

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http://jetex.org/scripts/register-plans.asp has it listed as a Paul Del Gatto design from July 1962. Del Gatto designs were marketed by a number of US kit manufacturers incl Telasco, who also published his book:

http://rocketsciencebooks.home.att.net/allabout.html

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Here's a bit on the man himself:

http://jetex.org/history/hall_of_fame/del_gatto.html

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Came across other fascinating stuff too. American Telasco Ltd was founded during WW2 by one Wallis Rigby, a British paper aircraft modelmaker. See under "rubber-band powered paper models" here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_plane

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Telasco became the official US importer for Jetex in 1950, and made many models to fit these engines. Found some more on page 8 of this pdf:

http://www.trentonrcflyers.com/pattern/articles/orion.pdf

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The Jetex story itself makes nice reading: http://jetex.org/history/history.html

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And here's a piece on the Jetex propellants:
http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/About-JETEX-and-JET-X-rocket-engine-propellants_W0QQugidZ10000000002108639

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Best --Paul

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Nice one Paul. What a great 'toy' history!

ROCKET GARDEN

Just imagine, a garden filled with rockets! Well, that's what they've got at the Kennedy Space Centre! Wow! I've just got to go!