JR21 Angel Aircraft: A Closer Look by Jim Lewis

Of all the JR21/Century 21 Toys released during the 1960s those for CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE MYSTERONS are amongst the most sought now and are also someof the most authentic too. Although clearly a toy in every sense of the word the ANGEL AIRCRAFT, as it is described on the box art, however displays a great deal more detail and authenticity than one would perhaps expect for a child's plaything. One of the first things even the most casual observer will notice is that the overall sleek, slim dart-like look the original Medding's designed miniature enjoyed is still largely apparent with this toy. A small rounded end doesn't detract from the gorgeous aerodynamic contouring of the design of the toy. However it gives a cursory nod toward child safety regulations which although not as stringent as those enforced today were still clearly to be adhered to back in the 1960s.

Authentic decals and surface detailing again give this the look of a model-kit rather than a toy and this is testament to the vision those at Century 21 Toys had for these things. To give some genuine play value to the toy rather than it just being a pleasing display piece to older kids a removable friction motor was added as a sort of undercarriage. The facility to 'fire' missiles was also there too so again any little boy presented with one of these would have little issue with it being "flown by a lady". 

To the adult collector perhaps the most intriguing and novel aspect of the toy is the ability to remove the pilot figure in the same way as the characters would have in theTV show itself. The control panel displays far more detailing than was ever required and Century 21 even went as far as to make the pilot a very clearly female character too rather than using a standard male pilot likely readily available in a warehouse out in Hong Kong.

The only criticism that can be levelled at the toy is that in the hands of a boisterous child the Angel Aircraft would hardly survive more than a few hours play time. I must admit myself that as a middle-aged bloke I find it difficult not to want to throw this toy around replicating some of the death-defying manoeuvres seen on screen.........but I won't!

Jim Lewis

Scout Camp

We've recently been discussing the Scouts and whether the SWORD Manual came with them. The boxes state clearly that they contain a badge and a Specification Sheet but no mention of the Manual.  I agree with Andy B that these toys came late in the series as they didn't appear on the Manual and I've never seen a TV21 or Joe 90 comic advert for them except one from TV21 #202 November 1968 [below] showing Scout 1. We know that there's a PHASE 2 of SWORD toys, as advertised in TV21, which pictures the Apollo Saturn. The Nuclear Ferry box clearly states 'Phase 2' on it as well. Could the Scouts have been a further phase 3? Just imagine if there were more designs planned!

Strung Up on Keds

Just what is a Keds Space Yo Yo Decoder? http://www.oldstuffonly.com/items/1950s/keds-yoyo-decoder-detail.htm

Saturnalia Again

Sometimes I miss the obvious and have to revisit an item again and again to get the idea. When I found the Tomy Ranger 7 Rocket at auction in Japan recently, I immediately picked up on the fact that it was coloured in a similar fashion to the large Sears version, with a blue nosecone. This and the fact that it states on the box that it has a 'smoking effect' engine led me to assume that it was essentially the same toy, although it did leave me with the usual 'chicken and egg' scenario. Darth, the proud owner of the larger Sears model, reports that there are no Tomy brands on the toy, just a 'Made in Japan' trademark.

When I recently compared the three toys together in pictures - as the Wotan Archive is sadly without any of these amazing toys in reality - its possible to spot other features that the Sears and Tomy toys share. Namely a black ring or collar on the main fuselage and slightly blunter nacelles on the wing tips, compared to the smaller C21 version. The Tomy one would be around 50 cm tall based on the rather blurred ruler seen in the photograph on the auction, but again, not having either of the toys myself I cant check.

 

After drooling over these plastic wonders once more, it occurred to me that the rocket had made another appearance too - in Regent Toys Project Moon press ad from 1969. The rocket shown on their advert shares the same colour scheme as the Tomy one, but does not mention the special 'smoke' effect or evn the SWORD branding. Regent Toys used a Toy Mail Order list and may have been a clearing house for older stock, so perhaps this 'Apollo Rocket' featured in the ad is one of the imported japanese versions rather than the C21 Project Sword toy ?

Keep on Truckin'

I love Lego, always have since I was a kid. I got reacquainted with it again about ten years ago when I bought a large box of loose stuff for a few quid. The great thing about buying loose Lego is that when you come to sort it out and see what youve actually got in the bag or the box, besides all the rare bits and the figures, theres always other stuff as well. Its a bit like having a deep sea trawl net, besides coming up with the fish, theres always something else stuck in the net. Usually its marbles, counters, mega blocks (cheap lego knock offs) or plastic soldiers, but now and then you find something interesting. One such instance was a small wheeled chassis from a toy I didnt recognise, the chassis was studded with tiny pegs like lego, but much smaller. It wasnt till a while later I figured out what it was - Tonka Motorix.

 

 Sometime back in the 90's, after Tonka had been taken over and had moved on from the staple pressed steel cars and trucks, they branched out into plastic toys too. One line was a sort of cross between Lego and Micromachines. The toy had a clip-together capability like bricks and an interchangeability of modular parts of planes, boats and cars. In themselves, they are a mildly interesting toy to pass an hour, but what intruiged me was the similarity to some of my other favourite toys.

 The majority of the truck and car parts all had large rubber ballon tyres like the scramble bug, but some of them had bright orange tyres like the Spacex MEV, Add this to a flexibity and articulation like the scramble bug and a spacex like scale and it almost seemed like there was a definite influence. The simplicity of the design was also reminiscent of the Hover Scramble Bug from the simple playsets too.

Motorix came on a card based package with larger sets in a box with a big vehicle such as the trek-inspired shuttle craft and the orange sea rover.

Gerry Anderson New Year UK Stamps

With the news having been broken at Fanderson's TV21 con, it now comes to the blog: the UK Royal Mail will be launching a series of Gerry Anderson stamps on  January 11th 2011. You can keep up to date at the Royal Mail here and get some background at Fanderson. By Gum, they're Thunderstamped!

Blog Exclusive: Scout ID Sheet To Print and Keep

Blog Exclusive this November: originally posted way back in 2008 by Canadian reader Darth but since buried under two years of blogging, here it is again to print out and keep - the rare Century 21 Ltd SWORD Scout ID A4 sheet, which came folded inside each of the three Scouts boxes. I have marked this as a copy and should be reproduced as such for your own personal 'fan' use.

As regards the history of this ID guide, my assumption is that the SWORD Official Manual was too large to be folded and put inside the small Scout boxes so Century 21 came up with this simple paper ID sheet as a replacement. The Scout boxes didn't include the badges either. I base this theory on my own toys and boxes. Please let me know if you know any different.

King of the Kollectables

Blogging the Mignot War of the Worlds set got me thinking about another pioneer of Fantasy merchandise, the 1933 RKO Pictures KING KONG jigsaw puzzle. Checking my books again I found the reference I was looking for in Sci Fi and Fantasy Collectable by Phil Ellis 2003. It values this amazing item at a minimum of £1000 explaining that there is only one known example complete with it's original envelope packaging. A further complete example turned up on Hakes Americana auction site this year [the puzzle and envelope pictured], where it sold below estimate for $860. Coming just 8 years after Mignot's War of the Worlds play set RKO's puzzle is nevertheless one of the earliest Fantasy movie tie-ins. An antique even?

Paling like an ant on Skull Island, the oldest item in my own meagre KONG collection is the 1976 IDEAL game below, which tied-in with the Dino De Laurentiis film of the same year using the movie poster artwork for the box cover. GRRRRRRR! Any more early Sci Fi / Fantasy Movie/TV collectables out there?