YKESSA SUMMER COLLECTION

The SWORD of Summer shines on! After the revelations of WOTAN/ Terry's miniature plastic Taskforces and the Randy Rayder record, I didn't think I could get excited again. But get out the Tizer and give us a sherbet dip, one of the biggest SWORD/ LP collections I've ever seen up for auction is being ebayed as we speak! You'll need deep pockets but it's well worth a look. The seller is long-standing US Ebayer YKESSA, whom I contacted about posting some of his pics, to which he kindly agreed [some items now sold]:

"Hi Paul, Thank you. It took some time to amass and I will be listing more, including saucers and more SWORD items. I have seen your site in the past and enjoyed it and yes, you can use the photos you need. Thanks for asking and for the link to the auctions. Best. Ykessa"

 

Boost Your Italian this Summer

Last year blog reader Arto discovered and blogged the amazing HOVER 'Project NASA' version of the SWORD Booster Rocket. Since then at least two further examples have surfaced in Italy as well. All have the 'E & M. CONSORTI' importer's [?] label pictured above [as appeared on the 'Italian' remote controlled Hover Probe Force 3 as well]. I contacted the latest Italian seller lunigianantica about the provenence of his toys and he kindly wrote back:

"found this toys one months ago ( 2 units. The first was sold on ebay 20 days ago) this is the last one I have . I don't think this kind of toys were only from a particular chain of shops.... I bought this from a seller that closed his little little little shop ( not a toy shop but sell any kind of things!!!!) I hope this can help you and thanks for your mention!!!!!!"

Anybody know anything about the 'Consorti' label?

Predators

Went to see Predators last night, the so-called sequel to Predator, the 80's b-movie that gave us a new iconic alien, the multi-mandibled 'Predator'. First up, I love the 80's original so the sequel was up against it when I sat down. It didn't dissappoint and was completely awful. At least Arnie's wooden 'Dutch' had comic character and his band of loyal troops were very likeable. The new gang are without any personality and acted as such. It would have been better if they had all had cloaking devices and vanished at once. If your'e a Predator fan watch this film for the sake of staying up to date but nothing more!

Re-Lexx

Years ago I used to watch Lexx after coming in late on Friday nights. Such a wierd space series. Floating heads and strange ships. Anyone else see it?

Good Mornin' Campers!

Well with rheumy eyes I've dug out a few snaps from the Woodsy family album to see what I was doing during the real summers of the Mid-Sixties! All of these shots, as far as I can remember, are at Butlins, my late great parents' favourite summer residence back then [never got to Pontins]! Either Pwhelli or Minehead or Weston Super Mare [?]. I loved all that Butlins stuff - the Redcoats, the Monorail, the Retro lights, the fountains and the chalets! Naff? Yes, probably but back then it was what working class families did from Lancashire and us kids lapped it up! Like all good parents wanting to shut theit little monsters up, mine provided me with all my favourite holiday toys - cap rifles [top photo - dated September 1967 and stamped Kodak!], my plastic silver Knight's helmet and sword - next one down - I had a breastplate too and I think I'm holding onto a string from a boat! 1966?] and most important of all, a whole flotilla of cheap plastic boats for setting sail on the various pools and lakes scattered about Butlins! [bottom four pics. 1966?]. I'll never forget the wonderful smell of roast potatoes in the canteen for the 'happy campers' and everyone got a pot of tea and a bread roll and butter with their meals [pic below with baby Woodsy 1961]! No idea where my Woodsy brothers and sisters are - probably dressed as Pirates ambushing the Redcoats! Ahh, happy happy days.

So very much in honour of all those cheap plastic boats my Folks bought me at Butlins, I treated myself to the modern equivalent, a car ferry, whilst enjoying the Baltic seaside this July! Grand!

Anyone want to send in pics of their Sixties and I'll gladly post them!

WOTAN SAYS:
Well, funny you should mention that Woodsy!
Heres me circa 1973 sat on a boat with my dad in Devon. Im the monster my dad created and its thanks to him that I have such a massive collection of catalogues, toy cars and varying degrees of compulsive behaviours and obsession. It would have been his birthday this month, so its quite apt.

And this rather sullen child has appeared previously, complete with his collection of Teachers Pets and other rubber monsters, plus a small plastic train! This would have been around 1968 and is prior to my discovery of my rubber namesake Wotan, so him and his rubber alien buddies don't appear on my tabletop display! Oddly enough, ive still got 90% of these!

Top of the Morning

Currently being auctioned on Ebay UK is an old friend from last September, when we had a bloggiversary exclusive with Main Street Toys. Well here it is again, the small Japanese tin top with an image of the Nuclear Ferry front cab on the side [can't be seen on Ebay]. Much cheaper than previously seen it's up for auction here.  The Nuclear Ferry front cab can be seen below on my own example at Moonbase. Very cool!

MYSTERY OF the MISSING SPACE STATION

Way back in the day,when almost every newsagent, supermarket and toyshop had nice neat little boxes of space toys, mostly consisting of a little orange rocket, a couple of melted looking plastic rocks and a little space buggy, I was presented with a large window boxed set of what i now know as Apollo Moon Exploring toys. This was a box with four small windowed sections, each holding two vehicles and a selection of spacemen. Over the following 35 years or so, I've managed to relocate and sometimes own the majority of the little toys from this cabinet of wonders. These included the old favourites such as the chrome LEM, bubble shaped moon buggy and Matt Mason Moon Crawler. The orange rocket - which for my own reference I have named 'Thor' and which is effectively the cockroach of the space toy world, turns up everywhere. There appear to be two main versions, the tall and the short. My favourite was always the short. The only difference ive ever seen in this is an extremely rare blue version, which alas ive only seen in pictures. In the box of goodies that I had, there appeared another rarity - a space station built of parts of the Thor Rocket and the Bubble Buggy. My very earliest communications over the nascent internet with Commander Woods and indeed, Paul Vreede comprised a few strangled emails and a photograph of the (then) remains of my collection of various space toys. One photograph still exists (sort of) from back then and is the only remaining picture I have of the base - its the model numbered '21' on the lower photograph. By the time this photograph was taken (mid nineties), the legs had long gone and had been replaced by spare Spacex Moonbase ones, hastily superglued on. Originally, the base was composed of various parts of the Ap Ex fleet - the legs from the saucer, nose from the Thor Rocket, dashboard from the saucer/buggy and the central hull from the tall Thor rocket. Since that heady day, so long ago, my base has disappeared to pastures new. But despite the prolific nature of Ap Ex toys on ebay, books, collections and in this very blog, ive never seen another one. I'd love to find one and also one of the saucers pictured at the head of this article. Although my Ap Ex fleet is far from complete, the missing base is still a thorn in my collectors side, even after all these years. Given that Ap Ex openly plagiarised the Matt Mason range, copying the crawler, the various equipment and vehicles and the laser cannon etc, this would be the equivalent of the Command Centre. Maybe one of these days one will turn up and 1970 will come flooding back to me!

SUMMER SENSATION: RANDY RAYDER AND HIS BIG PROBE FORCE 1

After WOTAN's mighty posting of Ubercollector Terry's japanese find of mini plastic SWORD yesterday I didn't think anything else could possibley turn up. I was wrong! Doing one of my weekly browses of Ebay US I've come across the above record LP 'Randy Rayder from Outer Space' pictured above [estateroadshow]. Dated 1969 by See-Disc, the B-movie-titled disc holds two treasures for SWORD and space toy fans: firstly and most importantly the amazing and obvious PROBE FORCE 1 lookalike on the cover and secondly the Billy Blastoff face of the boy astronaut. The record woyld originally have come sealed as you can see in the pair below.

But the fun doesn't stop there! The record came with a comic with our friend the PF1 taking centre stage!

I just love the characters of this 'space fantasy' especially the wonderfully named 'Grand Shakoul of Chronus'! Navigator Bill even gets a look-in [that WOTAN, he gets everywhere!].

Now, having discovered this LP I googled it and was amazed to find it's allover the web! Copies are for sale on many Record Dealers' sites. Even better you can see the gatefold comic in it's entirety at STUPID COMICS, where you'll see that PF1 is described by the site's author as a 'giant phallic spaceship' and is called 'ATHENA' [in the comic] [watch out for the language in the author's commentary - it can be choice!].

And as far as I can make out, if you were technically-minded enough [unlike me] you could actually listen to the LP over at the cool Retro Cocktail Hour site. If anyone manages it or actually owns it let us know what it's like!

So, there we have it. SWORD on record. A first!