Probe Force One - Origin ?

Paul Vreede shed light on the Probe Force One origin -

Seeing the Probe Force 1 kit once again provoked a feeling I'd seen something like it before. Still can't put my finger on where exactly, but one of the American SST designs is what I thought. A google revealed that what I had in mind was the Boeing 2707-300 design, which has that distinctive tail and the four engines in a delta wing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/avi_abrams/506508651/sizes/o/

I then discovered that apparently it was NASA that did a lot of the initial work, using a design called SCAT-15F (Supersonic Commercial Air Transport) which they continued to test until the early 80s. That had a much longer wing (though a smaller tail) again with the four engines in round housings.

http://lisar.larc.nasa.gov/IMAGES/MEDIUM/EL-2001-00400.jpeg

As you can see from the pictures, it's very likely that some depiction of these craft will have inspired the looks of Probe Force 1. If you do a google on "scat 15f" (between quotes to get the exact expression) then there's a lot to read about it. And Dark Roasted Blend has a nice collection of SST pictures.

SPACE SHIP X-5

Ebay Top, Hakes Bottom

Back in the Spring of 1990, still in my 20's, just!(the sound of yearning can be heard) Me, Mrs.Moonbase and the 6 year old mini-martian went to Bali on the coast of Crete. It was our first family holiday in the Med, one which we were to repeat many times during the '90's. Whilst on one of our many days out we went to a quaint coastal town called Rethymnon and stumbled across, of all things, an old toy shop. An Alladin's cave of Greek plastic and boxed tin toys, it was heaven. The old store keeper didn't know what had hit him when I started to pile up boxes on the counter. Dusty stuff from the top shelf! Amongst the booty was a lovely boxed Modern Toys Spaceship X-5 like the one pictured above. Not the rarest of the rare or even that attractive really, I have a soft spot for the X-5, probably because it reminds me of that old cool toy shop on Crete. It's only looking at the box now that I realise that the little jet at the bottom left is a Fireball XL5 of sorts. The name X-5 obviously completes the connection! My own X-5 was one of the first items I ever sold on Ebay in 1999 when it first kicked off in the UK. I remember friends used to say to me "Ebay. what's that then Woodsy you wierdo?"!

DON'T FORCE IT!

I might be onto something here I reckon. My little X-Planes book by Jim Winchester has turned up the HANDLEY PAGE HP115. Anigrand have made it in kit form - below - looking very PF1'ish with its strikingly similar sweeping delta wings this time done as a single triangle of plastic.

And here's a model (wooden?) currently on Ebay by myasainart. If we could add the antenna'd tailfin of the BAC 221 we would have a sort of Probe Force 1 maybe? Just those pesky exhausts to find now!

Ebay myasainart

THE FORCE IS STRONG

Ever since WOTAN and me acquired our Maruman Probe Force 1 model kits (thanks Terry!) I've been feeling the force. With WOTAN's biult up model hitting the PC screen yesterday the force is strong! I've been probing the depths to find any other similar toys or indeed actual aeroplanes. One possible contender is the 1960's XB-70 VALKYRIE, which seems to be quite a popular plane amongst kit biulders and model makers judging by the number available including this rather nice wooden statuette and kit both online.

There are some similarities to the PF1 but too many disimilarities to ignore. So looking further what about the BAC 221/Fairey Delta I hear you ask. There's definately something about mary that tailfin which is like our PF1's for sure.

Wikipeadia

Still, not enough for a match. We need those tubular PF1 wing exhausts ID'ing folks. Get those X-files opened!

To be continued......

PS. There's an interesting article on X-Planes and Century 21 in the latest Andersonic fanzine. Well worth a read and amazing value for money. SWORD even gets a look in!

FEEL THE FORCE

Its shaping up into another great year for SWORD, this time in 2009 we saw the elusive Nuclear Ferry gracing the blog and here we have another scoop from the far east. Courtesy of our resident coolhunter and benefactor Terry, we have the actual kit of the Maruman Probe Force 1.

Previously spotted at auction in a fleeting glimpse last year, Terry managed to lay hands on an actual copy of this super rare kit. Near mint in box, the kit is more accurately described as a buildable toy and mirrors its larger C21 cousin almost exactly. Apart from the different box art and slight cosmetic differences, it is basically a smaller version of the PF1 we all know. Made by Maruman, presumably a company based in Osaka, the kit came bagged complete with glue, decals and friction motor. Its almost impossible to date the kit, as it is pristine. The slightly immature style of packaging is hard to place, but a best guess would place it contemporary with the Century 21 toy - or possibly earlier. This is a definite chicken and egg scenario - did this kit give rise to the toy, or was the toy lifted from the kit ? Another strange clue is the inclusion of stickers with 'SB' on them - does this refer to the Space Bird series of toys ?

Either way, it is a gloriously beautiful toy as you can see from the photos. Simple construction is held in place with slot headed screws and the decals are self adhesive as opposed to waterslide. Even the wheel and moulding arrangement echoes the C21 toy. A thing of wonder.

On the last picture you can see the comparative scale compared to the remains of my very first Project Sword toy, the PF1 itself.

LBZ MYSTERY- HELP!

I need a bit of help. Despite trying I just cannot find out anything about my LBZ space spinning top - pictured below. I think its from the late 60's or early 70's. Inside is a silver Thunderbird 2 and a moon landscape.

I posted lots of pics of it last year (more here) and since then I've had an occasional search for any details about it but to no avail. The top was made by LBZ (Lorenz Bolz of Zirndorf), a German manufacturer famous for tinplate and plastic tops. LBZ made plain tops and very ornate ones like mine. Other ornate examples include trains, fairy tales and planes. They were very often boxed as in the example below and more here.

You can clearly see the initials LBZ, together with the name of the toy and its number, in this case 36. I would be really chuffed if anyone, who has links to the German toy scene or knows about tops, could maybe point me in the right direction to finding out the name, number and box art for my own space top. Thanks for listening!

Strange, A Tractor

Anyone who collects Spacex, Apollo Moon Exploring or LP space toys will be familiar with the small range of space tractors shown here. They turn up in a multitude of sets, on card, boxed, in blister packs and in the larger gift packs. I first came across these vehicles in the mid sixties in the individual card boxes. The orange body shown on the second photo is all that remains of this first encounter. Recently, I found the yellow version on ebay US advertised as a 'snow tractor', and have previously managed to buy the green set of three vehicles on ebay too. The crane body is a sixties original from the second series, which included a tipper body and a bulldozer version of the bubble canopied tractor.

Apart from their attraction as interesting space vehicles on their own, these little vehicles which were made by Hong Kong based company LP, also have an interesting heritage. The crane and the rocket launcher also found their way onto an LP Rocket Base, but the rocket launcher itself is lifted directly from a contemporary die-cast toy by Lone Star, the Modern Army series of vehicles. This series of trailer based weapons also included a twin machine gun, mortar cannon and radar dish, which were in turn plagiarised for the Hong Kong plastic soldier market.

Continuing the army theme, the tracks on all of the LP tractors are copied from the Roco Minitanks Panzer IV series of models. Shown here is a dilapidated Pz IV Whirlwind anti-aircraft tank. The last photograph shows the catalogue pages for the PzIv and Wirbelwind variants. Its plain to see where the designers at LP got their inspiration from!

Joe 90 Explosives Truck kits by Tamiya

A picture is definitely worth a thousand words here, as this fabulous shot comes from a japanese fan site and english translation is not readily available. Coolhunter Terry came across this little gem recently and it has lots of info and pictures of the U59 and u87 kits by Tamiya. Just wish i could read it, but wish even more so for these awesome toys!

Have a look here - WILDCAT.