Moonbase Sighting!

I have wanted to post something like this for a very long time. In fact, like me, all SWORD fans will be thrilled at this. You'll all know that the Century 21 Project SWORD Moonbase Set is the stuff of myth, tantalisingly described in the SWORD Official Manual above but to this day never seen. Until Now! This is the first detailed account of anyone actually seeing the set as, amazingly, blog reader Andy B remembers the fabled toy! I'll let him take up the story in his own words:

"OK, well here's what I remember about the moonbase set. Please remember its a long while ago, so this is from memory.What I mainly remember is thinking at the time, "well, I'd never seen that before", because I think I had suspected it had never been released. I had a number of the SWORD toys, probably when they came out (1967?), and by the time I saw the moonbase, I had become more interested in plastic models, planes, tanks etc. So it was probably towards the end of the 1960s, even c.1970.

I saw the box, unopened in a department store which hed a toy dept. I think it was during a visit to Swindon with my family, and I don't know what the shop was called.

It may be me embroiderering the memory, but I think it was a large rectangular carboard box, white with perhaps two colours of printing on the sides. I think it may not have had the highly coloured box lid as per the smaller toys, but this is only from a suspect memory. What I rmember more than anything is the recognition that it had actually been produced, as it was one I had very much wanted when I had the SWORD toys. nb. I once had the SPACEX moonbase too!

Andy B."

So, there you have it. The SWORD Moonbase really did exist! If Andy B saw it in the Sixties then other people must have too. Is it only a matter of time before one turns up in the flesh?

Cheers excitedly,

Woodsy

Artists' impression of the SWORD Moonbase 2009:

Models by Woodsy

Graphics by WOTAN

Random Snaps from the Geek Machine

    

 

A cabinet of cool covers. 'Thrilling Science Fiction' A Message in Secret portrait two rows up is by none other than SWORDfather Ed Valigursky. He was great at painting faces. And the S-17 deltoid glider [larger snap], which is SO like the SWORD Scout 3, is by t'other SWORDfather Robert McCall. I love the NASA Tours 'Moon Bus'! My favourite though is Willy Ley's Satellites Rockets and Outer Space cover with a Dyna-Soar type glider parked up next to a Force 2.

Jack of Diamonds: More Rosenthal Toys

Over the last few months I've been researching toys with the diamond brand [pictured below] commonly associated with J.Rosenthal Toys, who later became JR21/ Century 21 Toys. The brand initials are often described as MB or MR but I prefer to think of them as JR as in Jack Rosenthal. Some were also co-branded with the equally mysterious mark ]$[   [blogged about before] often written as HS or SH in toy descriptions [Addendum: HS now identified as Hsi Associated Ltd - see #315 below]. The following JR toys are all new to the blog and have all been tracked down online this year, a few of which now reside in the Moonbase collection. I have double-checked the model numbers from a number of sources. 

I personally consider these toys to be pre-JR21 i.e. before the merger with Century 21 in 1965, hence my use of the moniker JR.

I have also recieved some information from the UK National Archives that I had hoped would have categorically linked the diamond JR brand and also the X-Series to Jack Rosenthal Toys, but alas it hasn't. However it is still interesting and does link the toys to UK solicitors/ desigm agents. You can see this information typed-out  below under model numbers 232 and 315. 

A second list appears mid-way down entitled 'Possible JR Toys'. I don't have enough picture evidence to prove that these actually are JR despite very similar packaging and design. Any help with pictures and model numbers would be greatly appreciated and of course credited. This research adds to the JR21 and Century 21 toys and model numbers already described, with the help of many readers, on this blog and many other Anderson-based sites like Steve's Vintage Thunderbird Toys.

JR Toys:

232 Space Rocket X-40

National Archives information:

UK Registered Design number 919800

Registered 18th January 1965 as a toy rocket ship

By Lee Wai Po, Of Chinese Nationality, Trading as Ming Tat Plastics Factory, No.8, Sui Lun Street, To Kwa Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong

C/O Gill, Jennings & Every, 51-52 Chancery Lane, London, WC2

Copyright expired December 1969

301 Motorcycle Combo

[close-ups of the box new to the blog courtesy of ebayer knucklepanshovle07]

302 Hitch Hiking Bunny

303 Motorbike [it has the same look as 301 and 304

but there is no JR diamond on it's base. Box unknown. JR or not ?]

304 Racing Cyclist

311 Fiat Abarth

315 Comicars

3 variations pictured on one box

[bottom headless 'duck' car unconfirmed as JR. Could be Marx?]

]$[ brand identified below as Hsi:

UK National Archive information:

UK Registered Design number 914614

• Registered 31st January 1964 as a toy car
• By Hsi Associated Limited, a Company Incorporated in Hong Kong under the Companies Ordinance, Continental Mansion, 3rd Floor, Flat C, 294 King’s Road, North Point, Hong Kong
• C/O Stevens, Langner, Parry & Rollinson, 5-9 Quality Court, Chancery Lane, London, WC2
• Copyright expired December 1968

401 Diligent Porgies

402 Rocking Neddy

courtesy of Bennyinkwell

Rocking Neddy has diamond with JR and HSI logo on box and toy as well as No.402 on box.

406 Piggy Chariot

courtesy of Bennyinkwell

Piggy Chariot has diamond with JR on box and toy as well as No.406 on box.

409 Bunny Family [real name unkown, box unknown]

810 Lotus [box unknown]

Possible JR Toys ?

? rabbit [# 457]

? Animated Bears on Sled

Donkey Cart

courtesy of Bennyinkwell

Addendum: Not JR - Donkey Cart has MM and HSI logo on box and toy, as well as No.42 on box. Reg.Design no.912410. Thanks Bennyinkwell! [NB. MM is Merehall]

? Drummer Dog

? Pup Drummer [courtesy of Bennyinkwell]

? Feasting Pussy

[I used to have this and sold it years ago without knowing it was probably JR!]

? Good Housewife

? Lambcart

? Skiing Clown - unlikely but perhaps

? Squirrel and Rolling Nut

Any further information on any of these or any other toys with the JR [or MB] diamond brand would be greatly appreciated and credited on the blog. Eventually I will merge this information with the other JR21/ Century 21 Model and X-Series numbers checklist currently a work in progress on the blog.

Sources: Ebay, Vectis, Bennyinkwell Flickr, Gasoline Alley Antiques, ICollectables and Ferryman

Galaxies Like Grains of Sand

I dunno, I just liked this old book cover. Like a simple Nuclear Ferry body and a Probe Force head. Anyone read the book?

Just finished Biccentennial Man by Asimov. Very sad.