Gang of Four

I'm a sucker for a good SWORD knockoff especially when it comes to box art. The above toys [and one record], my Gang of Four, are the clearest and, possibley the only, examples of SWORD box art being lifted wholesale for use on header and backing cards for general 'toys', which have nothing to do with SWORD at all.

From left to right they are: Randy Raider story record, Flying Space Rocket, Space Watch and Pop-Rocket Missile Airplane.

All but the Space Watch Nuclear Ferry image are more or less direct lifts of SWORD images from the original C21 box art, with the Flying Space Rocket and the Pop-Rocket being the clearest. I've included the Nuke Ferry as its similar.

There are no doubt more examples in the SWORDiverse. I can think of at least one box art lift from the Japanese SWORD 'school' of Shigeru Komatsuzaki, in which one of his Imai model kit Moon Crawler images was lifted entirely for a bit part on the unlicensed UFO Missile Tank box.

The issue of whether a toy can be classed as SWORD or not has taxed my grey matter for years. I was fascinated to learn that the Star Wars universe holds a similar conundrum for fans - what is allowed and disallowed from the 'canon' [films, comics etc] as judged by LucasFilm? [I discovered this when reading up on the universally panned 1978 Star Wars TV Holiday Special!.]

When I collated my original SWORD Checklist back in the 1990's I attempted to divide items into 'True' or 'Semi' SWORD. Although clumsy it seemed to capture what I was trying to get at. On reflection such a classification will always throw up lots of grey areas: were Tarheel and T toys really TRUE Sword or can only C21 be? What about the Japanese Imai kits of the 1960's and 70's? This brings us full circle to my 'Gang of Four' - are they TRUE or SEMI SWORD or something even farther from the centre? Hugely subjective I know but inevitable in the world of collecting and archiving, what do you think Swordies?

SWORD Accessories Anyone?

I've often pondered what carded accessories to the SWORD fleet might have looked like. Here's one contender for extra spacemen for the Moonbase. The planes could have been replaced with spare silver jets for the Booster Rocket maybe? Then again, maybe carded accessory packs would have lent themselves better to SpaceX and hung on the racks next to the carded vehicles ? [did they hang?]. What other accessories would have been good?

Picture: mercator online toy store

No Mr Bond, I expect you to buy!

 

1973 saw Corgi release one of my favourite large diecast models - the Moon Buggy from Connerys last official outing as 007, Diamonds are Forever. I remember going to see the film at the cinema and besides being rather taken with Jill St John in the bikini and the balloon wheeled Honda bikes, I was seriously impressed with Blofeldts microsub and the fabulous Moon Buggy that Bond steals from Willard Whytes development centre. The real prop was auctioned at Christies recently and Ken Adams original concept sketch for the buggy shows something very close to the Spacex Moon Buggy and Mev.

That xmas I was lucky enough to get the Corgi Moon Buggy and despite it having a totally different and odd colourscheme,  the model is a brilliant representation of the vehicle.

 My original toy has naturally suffered over the years since then, principally because the model had cool spring powered claws on the moveable arms and when I discovered Micronauts in the eighties, I went on a cannibalistic purge of my old toys and the claws ended up being retrofitted to work with the new toys. The toy had a great twirling radar scanner that moved as you rolled it as well as poseable arms. When you pushed the silver tank behind the cockpit, the dome flicks open and a rather portly, but smiling Bond pops up.

 I recently spotted a re-issue of the Corgi toy on ebay and made a mental note to pick one up at some point. Just recently, I put in a bid on what I thought was the Corgi toy, but when it arrived it turned out to be a 1:43 scale model - spacex scale - of the buggy. It came with a neat card backrop and a brilliant plastic moonscape base inside a plastic box. I rectified my mistake later and found the Corgi toy.

 The Corgi re-issue is cosmetically identical, but painted exactly as the vehicle in the film. All features are present except that Bond isn't painted as well.

 The 1973 catalogue also had the Corgi Comics range in it, a series of cartoon and tv based models in, which brought the fictional Lunar Bug model. This was a neat car carrying transporter in the style of Macs Car with fold out wings and repositional wheels on long arms. Even the engines are a lot like the jet turbines from the Joe 90 flying car.

 Again, the Lunar Bug has suffered over the years, mainly because it was thrown into a box with countless other cars and has had a lot of paint chipped off. But it remains a cool design and gave me loads of fun as a kid, transporting cars up to the moon in my back yard!

Godzilla Caption Comp

OK Swordies, what's Godzilla thinking?

Superior 1

My favourite toy ambulance as a kid was without doubt the Dinky Superior Criterion shown below to the left. The Batmobile looks just blew me away [surely the inspiration for the Ghostbuster's ECTO 1?]. I can't not mention the Dinky Police Van too, pictured on the right, with those fabulous fold-out SLOW signs, which were stored inside the van! Ah, happy days.

Excited by seeing the Superior Criterion again I thought I'd customise a picture in my archive. Here's a SWORDized NFIC plastic custom [done purely for fun].

What were your favourite toy cars as kids?

Captain's Ambulance

Blogger have had lots of problems this week and the whole site has been down. It's just come back up and I can see that the Pleasure Cruiser post I did mid-week has been lost. Whilst I try to recover it from cyberspace here's a bloglet I did whilst doing a shift at Bradford Sub-Base, which continues the ambulance thread with a picture and observations from my erstwhile SWORD supercontact Marc J. Frattasio regarding the cool Captain Scarlet TV ambulance shown above.

This unusually aerodynamic looking eight-wheeled ambulance made brief guest appearances in Winged Assassin and Treble Cross. The Captain Scarlet ambulance appears to have been a one-shot, hand-made deal which was primarily fabricated from wood. Clear acetate plastic sheet was used for the windows. The wheels are the kind of thing used with radio controlled model airplanes. The cab interior was fitted with the bust of a driver made from sculpted and painted plasticine clay.

The model was fitted with operating lighting consisting of interior lights and flashing blue lights mounted over the cab. These lights were battery operated model railroad grain of wheat lamps. The Captain Scarlet ambulance was actually rebuilt from the yellow Crablogger control vehicle seen in the Thunderbirds episode Path of Destruction. Most of the wooden or fiberglass models used in the Supermarionation programs were finished using cellulose automotive paints. Such paints are easy to sand down and repaint. Thus, models finished with cellulose automotive paints were easier for the special effects technicians and modelmakers to repair or rework.

You can see more of Marc's classic Captain Scarlet Trucks research here.

Rock Snakes ? Mysterons ? Phahh..

Fellow blogger and contributor Rocket Punch mailed me the other day to tell me of a rather unsettling event in his home in Arizona..

"I've begun attempting outdoor photography with my models.  Unfortunately, the vegetation in our yard is all cacti.  No matter where I set a model it looks as though it landed on Giant Cactus Planet.  Also, between takes, one of the larger desert squirrels that calls our yard home nearly dashed off with my Aoshima MEV.  I've seen it drag away bags of peanuts, a jewelers screwdriver, and a few pencils, but when he dashed out nabbed my MEV I nearly fainted.  Thankfully, he couldn't move fast enough with it and ended up dropping it before reaching his burrow.  No obvious damage that I could find.  I'll have to be extra careful if I intend to photograph tiny models like that in the future. "

And to think Zero X faced the rock snakes and defeated the Mysterons only to almost be spirited away by a squirrel! What a nightmare!  Will has subsequently decided to christen his thieving furry pal 'Brains'!

Everyones Gone to the Moon

It's now even easier to have a close look at our nearest neighbour thanks to the Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter. The Nearside Spectacular site you can view extremely detailed closeups of the near side of the moon. Got to: http://wms.lroc.asu.edu/lroc_browse/view/wac_nearside

Keen eyed observers will spot the location of Moonbase Central on the edge of the Sea of Rains and some miles distant the ragged scar left by the impact of the early atomic transport during the initial phase of the development of the base. The mass transport vehicle was remotely controlled from Earth Base, but a solar flare interrupted communications on the final approach and landing and the huge craft overshot the landing site and careered into the lunar mountainside. Luckily the nuclear drive wasn't severely damaged, but all the components for the intended moon base modules were destroyed by the impact. The project was set back considerably by this event and all future transports were accompanied by a full flight of Task Force craft, as a precaution.