Century 21 Submarine Aircraft Carrier and Fairylite Fireball XL5 Rear Fins: Are They The Same?

Seeing the Stingray Submarine Aircraft Carrier again reminded me of a hunch I had a while back. Are the rear fins of the rare Century 21 Submarine Aircraft Carrier toy the same as those on the even rarer Fairylite Fireball XL5 toy?  I've blogged it before but it needed better pictures, which you see above. I guess these prove one and for all they're not the same toy part. BTW do rear fins like this have a technical NASA-esque name?

Pictures blogged previously: Aircraft Carrier - MrThunder, XL5 - Jim Lewis

NUCLEAR FERRY AND SUBMARINE AIRCRAFT CARRIER TV21 ART BY WOTAN

Following on from Grif's comment in the last post about the large rocket in the first TV21 Fireball Xl5 strip, I though it would be timely to re-post this bloglet by WOTAN first posted in April 2009 [text in italics added today by Woodsy].

From WOTAN: Going through early TV21s, I spotted an early appearance of the Nuclear Ferry in Fireball XL5 (top), almost certainly based on Bob McCalls artwork, details of which are inserted at either corner in small boxes for comparison. What are those two antennae at the top? telecommunications?

Also in the very first issue (bottom), Ron Embleton gives us the beautifully sleek Submarine Aircraft Carrier [made into a super cool toy by JR21].

You can read an in-depth look at this first XL5 strip on the definitive guide to Anderson comics, GACCH, by Shaqui Le Vesconte and Kim Stevens [our very own Philosophic Toad]

Got Wheels

Like many Sixties anklebiters I spent hours with mates and on my Jack perfecting my Corgi Rockets tracks. No chair or bookcase in the family home was safe from bright orange tracks being clamped to them to form the high starting line of the Preston Grand Prix! But it was those American 'usurpers', muscling their way in with their exposed engines and sleek lines, that went to the top of the automotive tree. Yes, I'm talking about Mattel's HotWheels. I just loved everything about them - the red lined wheels, the bubble cards and the cool thin metal badge!

One of my all-time fave HotWheels was the Beatnik Bandit [pictured on the badge above]. Straight out of Big Daddy Ed Roth's mental garage, Beatnik had the looks and the speed. Thrills were guaranteed when pitted against the Rockets Todd Sweeney! It also looked like the Spacex Cricket too!

So I was amazed when I saw a plastic version of the Beatnik car by none other than Durham, they of the One-Off Green SWORD Space Glider and neighbours of Tarheel in North Carolina. Bootiful!

Ebay US

Monkeying Around

I always thought that the SPC and the Monkeemobile were similar. Could they have been swapped in the two TV programmes without much trouble?

Agent 21 Mystery 7: JR21 Fireball XL5?

21 here. Saturday's usually a low key affair at the Moon Bureau. Luckilly the Big Boss likes to take Lady Penelope out to some swish Venutian joint in his Drab 1 [Parket get's the night off]. Just when I thought I'd get forty winks he chucked a folder on my desk. " Full report by O Eight Hundred 21!". Dratoids and craters, more work! Said folder was marked 'Level X' and 'Read It and Weep'. The only contents were one poor Xerox and a Boss post-it saying 'XL5 - JR21?'. I sent an urgent alert to all active field agents so I could get back to my well-earned snooze!

Agent Steve of Vintage Thunderbird Toys reported back in double time:

Rosenthal were only the uk licencees for these. They were made by a Italian firm, Quercetti of Torino. Steve Out.

Agent Jim Lewis added:

as I understand it in th early days of JR21 Toys they often issued foreign made toys and sold them as their own or contracted outside parties to produce on their behalf and that I think is the case here. Bob Bailey and Chris King both confirm there are no markings on either the box or toy other than "Quercetti Made In Italy". No reference to JR21 or Rosenthal at all. These reference was only made in the ads in TV21. Jim Out.

Agent Steve handily [for me] tracked down a colour Rosenthal TV21 ad online, as it appeared in TV21 no.1 page 8, on Andersonalia Guru Dennis Nicholson's wonderful TV21 Ads site [with a different address for J. Rosenthal toys! - very slippery that Jack! -  just how many did they have?]

When I hand my promotion-guaranteeing report back to BB, the icing on the cake is this fab resume of TV21 Issue 1 by ace blogger Lew Stringer on his Blimey blog. Done. My snoozing chair beckons! 21 out.

Agent Jim and his Dinky SPV

Supposedly one of the biggest selling die-cast toys of the 1960s, along with the Corgi Batmobile and James Bond Aston Martin, the Dinky SPV was a mainstay of my childhood play times particularly when I was in 'Anderson' mode. Although susceptible to paint loss like all of the toys made in this style the overall construction is sturdy and solid and as with the entire line from Dinky replicates almost exactly what kids were seeing on-screen. Dinky were known for applying the most bizarre livery to their toys but pretty much nailed the Meddings-designed SPV on the nose. !

Joe Fowlman who was a leading toy designer incorporated many ingenious gadgets into this toy largely without the use of obvious and ugly buttons. Clever suspension tricked off the front launching missile and the 'shark fin' on top was depressed to open the door and allow the drop down seat to lower a tiny Scarlet to the ground exactly as he would have done on telly. Again I am fortunate to own an un-played with version of this toy and this is how a kid would have received one in 1968. A favourite of mine as a kid and as a middle-aged kid too!

Jim Lewis.

Moon Cave Ferry

Couldn't resist!

Check out the original Sea of Tranquility moon craters here.

The stuff of dreams.

Quote Quiz

Who said this Swordheads?

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die."