Grippidee Swordidee

Rails and space go together like fish and chips. I never really got into them as a kid but there were lots to choose from like Spaceniks, Mighty Mike [over at Sam's Toybox] and Grippidee Gravidee. The Grippidee Gravidee Deluxe Set pictured above included a cool looking space jet, which had a sort of Probe force 2 look to it [bottom right in the box]. The whole set looks huge!

Even better was the Zero-X MEV-like space cab that featured in the Tomy version pictured below. From around 1969 the set came in both single and double cab sets. The cab, called the Space Express, is amazingly like the Century 21 toy and I can't help thinking that Derek Medding's design likely influenced it.

Below's a close-up of the plastic C21 MEV [right], the Imai die-cast MEV [left] [thanks Jim] and the Tomy Grippidee Space Express.

There's a a cool slide-show of the Double cab version on You Tube and an ever cooler image of it on a 1969 catalogue page stuffed with space toys over on the gigantic Alphadrome.

Project Vectis

For Swordies who wish to plug the odd gap in their collections then have a gander at the goodies on offer in the upcoming Vectis auction.

Toys, Camera, Action!

As a welcome change from my hurried, static photos of various models taken in the kitchen, Mike B has supplied me with some dynamic shots of his Corgi collection. Master modeller Mike has set up some classic TV related models in special dioramas to show them to great effect!

Smokestack Lightnin'

 Once more the great beast ebay has tempted me to part with my hard earned cash and this time for something completely non-space. A couple of years ago, I blogged about a range of Lincoln International toys called Mini Wind Up which I began to collect as a boy on holiday in Wales. The first was a small tank and followed the following year by a neat Moon Buggy. Since the the collection has expanded and just today I received the latest in the range, a neat clockwork Locomotive. A few turns of the key and it chugs off, sparks flying brightly from the smokestack courtesy of a small flint and grindwheel arrangement inside. A simple, but charming little toy. I wonder how many others were in the range ?

Xciting Xploratrons

Fresh from the Corgi catalogue archives is another set of purely fantasy vehicles, the X-ploratrons. Again possibly spurred on by the 1980s sci-fi resurgence, Corgi prepared a bit of a mixed bag of four different vehicles, all completely newly designed.

The resourceful Toad discovered this neat full page ad for the models, drawn by comic maestro Frank Langford. Each model had a special feature, such as a gun and compass on Rocketron, Magnet and sliding cab on Magnetron, laser dish on Lasertron and cutting blades on Scannertron. I was especially impressed with the swordesque Scannertron and bought it at retail, picked off the awful stickers and added a lick of paint on the cutters. Since then ive picked up cheap used versions of two of the others and am looking for the fourth.

Houston, We Have a Tiny Problem

As already established, I love miniatures. I especially love miniature SWORD lookalikes so I was amazed to find that Takara of Japan have made a small snap-together version of our friend the Cape Kennedy set or for non- Swordies, the Saturn V launchpad [above left]. They have also produced a small model of the rocket blasting off [above right and very top picture - aka 'Rocket Summer']. Both models are around 4 or 5 inches all [re. the 'coin' scale, I can't tell what the coin is! - picture from Ebay]. I assume that both models are plastic and pre-painted and they would look cool next to the proper Japanese SWORD miniatures unearthed so far.

Yet further mini revelations await the Saturn V enthusiast as the UK firm Highworth Mountford have created what appears to be a beautiful cast metal model. It comes unpainted but has lots of decals and is just 4 inches tall! [picture Ebay]. For more detailed pictures see here. I can't decide if the Takara version above is the more SWORD toy-like. You?

Finally, here are three lovely 'weathered' Imai SWORD miniatures recently seen on fleabay. I had a pop at then but as usual missed out. Still I have archived the picture for posterity. What colour scheme would you have used on them?

Howzat! Continuing the Cricket Match

 The Spacex Base Patrol Cricket P1 is one of the most enduring models and seemingly one of the most often copied. The chicken and egg scenario rolls on though as a definitive origin still hasn't been established. Previous incarnations of the Cricket have been blogged already, but Mike Burrows was lucky enough to acquire a fine boxed version of the large Codeg model.

"It’s a lovely big toy and the big soft nosed rocket , reminiscent of a Zoom lolly takes off like an Exocet .  I reckon if  ‘Health & Safety’ had been as active  in the sixties  the Rocket Car would have been withdrawn quicker than you can say ‘it’ll have your eye out’!

 

I really love the unrestraint gaudy colours on the box, too. It seems to remind me of far off days as a kid on holiday in Morecambe or Blackpool as I’m sure these type of toys were only ever found in the windows of little back street newsagents or seaside souvenir shops.

       

I did have the smaller Rocket Launcher MkII toy as a kid and was chuffed at having a larger version of the ‘Cricket’.  I remember wondering at the time if other larger versions of Spacex vehicles were out there, but I never found any. I concluded that the manufacturer had simply ripped off Tri-ang. I never realised that it appears to be the other way round."

Catalogue, lost. Answers to the name 'Lucky'

While I was in the catalogue archive - sounds posh and organised, but its actually an old cracker box in my garage - I found a few odd catalogues shoved in with the more mainstream ones. Some of them, i've seen countless times and paid no attention to them as A) they weren't space toys and B) I didn't recognise the maker. Ill scan them and flag them up from time to time, but one such small single sheet is this rarity. Lucky Toys Catalogue, N0.1. My recent experience with Lucky Toys was the racing car I found on Ebay and this little sheet focusses on Grand Prix racers. Lucky have made the odd space toy too such as this wonderful rocket.