Spooky Mulder

After seeing Wote's colouring book on the blog Arto sent me this great bloglet:

Hi Paul, here's my favourite colouring book from Finland. In the beginning of the Sixties, a Dutch printing company Mulder produced a small run of children's books for the Finnish market. I believe they were printed jointly for several countries, so this Askartelukirja (Activity Book) may well be familiar also elsewhere. Apart from one colour-it-yourself rocket, there are virtually no space-themed illustrations inside. But for me the upbeat cover makes up for everything, with two young astronauts sending off a rocket (to the SWORD Moonbase, no doubt).

The book has no year of publication (which is around 1964), but bears a product number 2812 C and "Printed in Holland". I have not come across another copy, neither used nor unused as this one is. As Wotan noted, vintage examples of colouring / activity books are scarce, an unused one even more so.

Arto"

SWORD ODYSSEY FLEET

Keeping the 2001 thread going a while longer here's a couple of shots of the ultra-cool 2001 Space Odyssey trio of plastic spacecraft made in the 1960's by an unknown manufacturer to tie-in with the launch of Kubrick's movie opus. There's plenty for SWORD fans here I feel. We all know of the link made to Space Odyssey in the 1969 SWORD Annual. Then there's the promotion of SWORD toys during the opening season of the film at venues like Hatchett's night Club. For me though the most SWORDesque elements the totally futuristic look of the toys, the use of the same sort of bluey plastic as the SWORD Nuclear Ferry and Zero-X and last but not least the blister card art is the classic clipper-space station painting by the late great Robert McCall no less. You'll remember that he also painted two key SWORD box art origins, Roll-Out on the Cape Kennedy set and Earth-to-Moon Shuttle on the Nuclear Ferry. If ever there was another fleet worthy of the SWORD emblem it's this I reckon. What do you think?

 Credits: This blog is sort of re-run of a bloglet by Wote in Summer 2009.

Reader's Mail

"Greetings, Just a long overdue thank you from a longtime visitor at Project SWORD-Moonbase Central, the sheer effort to keep things fresh and ever so interesting boggles the mind.     I've 'refreshed' so many childhood memories of lost toys and faded recollections of such by way of your posts about Golden Astronaut-Triang and Giant toys, recalling those glory days means much to me.I could say keep up the good work but it's a given that quality will never fail, again my genuine appreciation for the dedication to what many will agree as the greatest decade of toys ! Michael I carry the dust of a journey that cannot be shaken away....."

Thanks Michael, it's greatly appreciated! Woodsy and Wotan

Andersonic 11 Out Now

The UK's Andersonic 11 fanzine out now. Check out the Andersonic website.

Star Base Zeus

Browsing for more about those strange Tootsie Toy space buses, I came across what is probably their home, the Star Base Zeus pictured below. This set appears to be one of four playsets as you can see. A similar pair of moon buses surface in the Flash Gordon set and there's a single carded 'Star Ship' too. Distinctly 1970's in style they seem to be a mish-mash of other toys and space adventures: Flash, 2001 Space Odyssey, Star Wars, The Bionic Man and even Major Matt's tall friend Captain Lazer! I particularly like the small plastic painted figures in these sets and would love to see them pictured up close. Can anyone help with them or indeed any of the vehicles?

Two at Once

I keep coming across these TootsieToy space toys. I can't help thinking that the two vehicles were influenced by the Moon Bus in Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey. Anyone know if I'm right?

Unidentified Floating Objects

No.59 of the Anglo Confectionary Card series from Andy B. A top class UFO boat worthy of inclusion in the Annual's Sea SWORD flotilla part if which appears below:

Who was the artist who illustrated the Anglo UFO card? Anyone know?

Colour Me Happy

 

John Sissons amazing blog Dreams of Space is two years young already. Absolutely required reading for anyone interested in space books and a trip down memory lane into the heady days of childhood. John has an uparalleled collection of childrens books on display including this fab colouring book from 1969. In a previous comment, I recalled owning a similar colouring book that had a picture of a Sword Moon Crawler in it. Johns book shown here has illustrations taken from Ed Valigurskys paintings of a Moon Base as featured in Arthur C Clarkes 'Man in Space'. 

Colouring books and painting by numbers are mong the most ephemeral of childrens publications, because once a child had finished drawing and painting in it, it would invariably head for the bin! The book I had was comparatively unused but was unfortunately left behind in a cupboard with a similar Thunderbirds colouring book when I moved house in 1970.