GAZE UP

Sunday morning and the Space Shuttle Endeavor is on the launchpad ready for countdown in a few minutes. There's even a Yorkshire-born astronaut on board, Dr. Nicholas Patrick who hails from Saltburn, where we were at Christmas! Small world. It's the last night-time adventure for this shuttle and for me a symbol of a waning space programme and it's fading from modern life and popular culture. A friend of mine says we should look inward to Earth rather than outward in space. Barack Obama must feel the same as he puts the space programme in the attic. Maybe its human nature to look down when we are under the economic kosh. Perhaps the Space Race was after all a glorious fluke, the white-hot child of superpowers embraced in a cold war. The pundit on the TV says it's down to the Chinese now, which is ironic considering that virtually all our baby boomer space toys were made in Hong Kong anyway!

I for one am looking up and still humming Bowie's seventies song that starts 'It's a God-awful small affair, for the girl with the mousey hair.......'

PS. Endeavor launch cancelled until Monday!

SPACE SETS VIDEO CLIP OF SEARS ROCKET BASE

Check out the SPACE SETS VIDEO TRAILER from the folks who produce Playset Magazine in the US. Watch out for snaps of the Sears Rocket Base toy and box art, a US variation of the SWORD Apollo Saturn Rocket and Cape Kennedy Set combined. Issue 37 of the magazine covers it too. Nifty!

THANK YOUR LUCKY CARS IT'S CENTURY 21!

As you know I'm a great fan of all Century 21 and JR21 toys, no matter how non -Sci Fi they might be. Last summer I invested in a boxed Century 21 Aston Martin DB6 in near mint condition and posted pics at the time. My Aston is white with a red racing stripe. Recently I found myself in a mini-bidding skirmish on Ebay for another one, this time unboxed. The listing did not mention Century 21 but simply stated the model number, 203, which is the same as my own hence my interest. The most interesting thing about this latest model is that it was blue as pictured below. I didn't win. I would be very interested to know if any readers have any other coloured #203's in any other box besides Century 21 (pictured below). Anyone?

   

   

Similarly, last summer, in the same Aston posting, I looked at the Century 21 Vauxhall Cresta. As discussed back then this Ebay model was actually a Lucky toy model #3009 simply sold in a Century 21 box as pictured below.

Interestingly there is an orange version of #3009 on Ebay currently, pictured below. This is in its Lucky Toys box, which if compared with the C21 version above, wording aside, is basically the same window box.

A footnote to the Lucky Century 21 thread is the possibilty of other Lucky toys having been boxed up by the boys in Slough as Century 21. One possible contender is the Lucky Rover P6 model #3008 pictured below and on Ebay. Pure supposition on my part. I suppose the same goes for Lucky model #3010, a yellow Ford Cortina (no picture found). Anyone know?

To finish here is another fine example of Lucky cross-branding, this time with our old friends TELSALDA. This is a red Corsair Lucky model #149 and is clearly marked up with both Companies' names (source: ETNL Die Cast).

RE-ENTRY TASK FORCE 1 ORIGIN - SPIRAL 50 50

Taking a cue from the latest terrific issue 9 of the fanzine ANDERSONIC, which includes an excellent article on X-Planes and Century 21 by Vincent Law, I have taken a very close look at one of the X-Planes mentioned: the Russian SPIRAL, a direct response to our good friend and SWORD stalwart, the X-20 Dyna Soar. What specifically caught my eye is the 50 50 mothership designed to carry the Spiral into space. It bears a remarkabloe resemblance to the as yet unidentified SWORD Re-Entry Task Force 1. Both are pictured below for comparison (TF1 is the Tarheel version courtesy of Astronit)

The similarities from the tip to the bubble canopy are clear particularly the ridged pointed nose, the front landing gear and the location of the bubble. Now admittedly the Spiral 50 50 has a different wing form and is carrying a combined fuel tank and small Spiral glider on its back , where Century 21 have installed a dorsal wing, but these aside I think it's a likely source. It was a contemporary of the X-20 Dyna Soar and C21 toy designers will have seen both in the aviation press they were no doubt browsing through for ideas over coffee. Here are some more pictures of the Spiral 50 50 mothership.

Spiral pictures c/o Wikipeadia, and Aerospaceguide.net

And You Tube come up trumps again

And finally, again signposted by the highly recommended Andersonic fanzine, here is a 50 50 model flying and crashing in the Captain Scarlet episode TREBLE CROSS around 6.30 minutes coutesy of You Tube

Monogram SST Kit

The brilliant model site Plastic Fantastic has a wealth of classic plastic kits on display and includes this 1967 Monogram kit of the SST. Unusually this version sports the nose mounted canard wings for extra stability and an even greater similarity to the C21 PF1.

DAIYA SST

Now in total SST mode I've found this fabulous DAIYA tinplate version on Ebay. A pretty penny too. Note the distinctive tubular  engines, the triangular box again and that cool box art, very reminiscent of Probe Force 1 box art especially the engine plumes! But when did DAIYA make this? Nothing in the listing. Anyone know?

And for a bit of fun here's a cool clear-bodied plastic toy CONCORDE seen on Ebay, the Fireflash of our generation.

HOVER AND TARHEEL PROBE FORCE 1

Now I've got up off the floor after collapsing when I saw WOTAN's SST by Hover, I thought I'd join the party and post its cousin the Hover PF1 (bottom), along with a whole bevvy of Darth's American SWORD again including the similarly triangular boxed Tarheel Space Glider (originally posted in the blog's first month).

Super Sonic Toys

From the desk of Paul Vreede:
Since the SST is now more on topic, I've taken some quick iPhone snaps to show the two Boeing 2707-100 toys I have. The large one is a really lovely craft, some 25cm/10in long, and bearing the "USA Supersonic" livery seen in contemporary illustrations. It has friction drive and variable-geometry wings (linked inside so they move together). It doesn't carry any markings at all, but comes in a box from our old friends Hover. The box side has a Salco trademark however (and the nr 319), so presumably Salco is the real manufacturer in Hong Kong.

The smaller diecast SST is from Zylmex and is some 11cm (4in and a bit) long. It's in Panam livery (though the fuselage stickers have gone) and is clearly marked underneath with aircraft type and manufacturer. The wings can be folded out separately, which has resulted in paint flaking off and it's also lost its landing gear. Neither of these toys connects with any other range of toys I'm interested in, but the 2707-100 is a lovely design (sad it never flew for real) and the large Salco/Hover toy is such a beauty that I just couldn't leave it be. :)