New Moon Bus Art by Andy B

Temporary Bus Stop

By reader Andy B.

Cool!

To the Pilots of the Future by Grif

Dear Woodsy,

Here are a couple of things that might be of interest. When reading the SOLO Project SWORD strip, I noticed that their version of Probe Force One has rather more pronounced fins just abaft the nose than the toy. I was reminded of this illustration in "How to Draw Rockets and Spaceships" by Charles Sargeant, published 1958. Did this book inspire whoever designed Probe Force One? I like the dedication in it "TO THE SPACESHIP PILOTS OF THE FUTURE some of whom may be among the readers of this book" ( ! )

The other is an extract from "Space Craft Models" by Ray Malmstrom, published 1963. This book had plans for a number of balsa wood models, including the Dyna-Soar! Adding SWORD insignia should be easy enough!

Grif

Wow! Grif, thanks for sharing. These are such cool models! I love the flying oblong, it reminds me of the Zero X MEV! and the Dyna Soar Plans are just FAB! And the Probe Force 1 at the top -1958! - love it! Woodsy

Sad News Swordies

You may remember that during the Summer of SWORD this year we had Glenn Flemming guesting with his fabulous post about the Gerry Anderson content of CRIKEY!, the comics mag he jointly published with Tony Ingram. Alas, after three years, CRIKEY! has folded in late August this year. You can read a little more on the BLIMEY! blog. I'm sure that you will join me in wishing Glen and Tony all the best for any new ventures in the future.

Dyna Vader

Reader and fellow blogger John Sisson flagged up this super cool painting of our pal the X-20 Dyna Soar. Wow! Alas, the artist is unknown but I'm sure I've seen this before?* Anyone recognise the style? I love the Darth Vader Mask- like- feel of this - quite menacing! * eh voila, you can see it here in the 1960's Look and Learn children's comic. Artist still unknown.

Check out John's latest space treasures on his superlative Dreams of Space blog.

Never Turn Your Back on A Budgie

It's Sunday night. My family are rotting their brains watching the X-Factor so I'm rockin' my brains listening to heavy rock in the other room! Above, my rockin' friends, is the iconic album cover to Never Turn Your Back on a Friend [I'll shorten it to NTYBOAF hereon in] by those ace welsh rockers Budgie. The cover art, on a beautiful gatefold LP sleeve, was by Roger Dean in his fantastic style made famous on Yes albums like Tales from Topographic Oceans and Relayer. Made in 1973 NTYBOAF was quite simply a heavy metal milestone from a band at the height of their powers, but who never received the fame they so richly deserved. I adored Budgie as a youngster from about the age of 12 and tried my best to look like the long-haired lead singer/bassist Burke Shelley for years, which I probably succeeded with around 1976 when I was in the 'fifth year': all long hair, velvet jacket, flared jeans and desert boots! Yes, back then we could wear what we wanted in the final year of secondary comprehensive education! Us 'hairies' would congregate in the hall at lunchtime to listen to Budgie, Rush, Free, Montrose, Purple, Sabbath and Quo. Lively discussions ensued such as who was the best rock drummer in the world, Neil Peart [Rush], Pete Boot [Budgie on In for the Kill] or Simon Kirke [Free]. Like any sub-culture worth it's salt we had our own secret lingo: 'mighty' was only ever conferred on the greatest of riffs, tracks or albums and 'soft' described only the heaviest or hardest! Many other words have faded from memory but I can clearly recollect the feeling of being part of something larger and infinitely more interesting than other music styles like Disco or Soul [well we would think so wouldn't we!]. Oddly enough I think Heavy Rock was absorbed into Punk Rock as this mid-Seventies upstart laid waste to all before it and obliterated 'Prog' for two decades!

Should you wish to sample the fineries of Budgie and NTYBOAF here's my favourite track, Parents, one which would become very important in my life. If you like it then listen to the rest and support Budgie in their dotage by buying the album, one of many in their masterly back catalogue!

Carded Tarheel Task Force 3: New to the Blog

These fabulous pictures come courtesy of reader and SWORD super fan Arto. His carded American Tarheel Task Force 3 is a first for the blog! We have seen it before but only ever loose. This one is carded and sealed safely under the bubble for posterity. The two shots below the top one are detailing on the card - the model number 5917 [the same for all three Tarheel Task Forces] and the Tarheel 'T' with kids logo. Interestingly beneath the logo it says 'Tarheel Industries INC. Made in Hong Kong'. I'd always assumed that Tarheel made these toys at their plastics plant in Tarboro, North Carolina, USA and not Hong Kong. Was it common for US toys to be made in HK?

On the left is Arto's beautifully carded yellow Tarheel Task Force 3. Both toy rockets have a 'racing trim' line along the nose [missing on my own loose TF2!] and the backing cards are finished with what is probably the most appealing feature for me, a fabulously day-glo bow-wave beneath each toy, which scream the Nineteen Seventies! The different colour blends are very bright and attractive. Tarheel really were masters at using brightly coloured plastic and packaging.

As we've never seen a packaged version of the third toy in this Tarheel range, the Task Force 1, I can only assume that it's also similarly carded with an equally colourful bow wave. So to bring this bloglet to a hopeful close and remind us what it looks like here are pictures of the Tarheel Task Force 1 in both red and the rarer blue forms from reader and super collector Astronit.

Anyone got a carded one?

Catch a Moon Bus to The Red Planet

I love this old Pan paperback 1960 cover of the Red Planet. The story is by Charles Chilton and the cover, complete with Moon Bus and Task Force 2 - like vehicles, is by Glenn Stewart. Cool! This, Journey Into Space or Jet Morgan isn't a BBC series/character that I know but there's a modern graphical version of it online with the header shown below. Spot the blue Stingray lookalike and another Moon Busish vehicle! Anyone know the series? Is it radio?

Picture credit: BBC

Thunderbirds Are a Go Go

Speaking of Rock Snakes ..... here's reader Darth's classic Spanish Thunderbirds are Go movie poster. Great artwork. Anyone know who the artists was?