Post Dated

Well 2011 is nearly over and we've had another fabulous year on Planet SWORD. Blog readers have done us proud with utterly fab contributions. Co-blogger Wote has also excelled with some truly great posts.

As it's about the top of the year it's apt to reflect on our favourite posts. My own, one of Wote's, was his look at the 007 Moon Buggy. The Ken Adams concept, looking like the Spacex MEV, was a revelation!

for fun, the most popular over the last 3 years are listed in the left hand side-bar about half way down [created as part of the blogger stats package].

What has been your favourite this year or over the last few?

Good Models

Here's our friend the Scramble Bug in miniature die-cast form from Imai's Good Model series. It also included the yellow Submarine 707, which I understand may have been a TV show. Both are on Ebay USA [ mach-5-racing]. I've got the Bug but does anyone collect the whole range?

Christmas 2069 Style!

Well here we are on the slippery slide towards Xmas! Its raining, a dull and generally an ordinary day in Liverpool and its hard to imagine that this is that magic, wonderful period from my childhood, when I was counting down the 'sleeps' before the big fella came down the chimney with a sack of toys for me and my sisters. Gone forever is that incipient sense of wonder as I opened my eyes to find a stuffed stocking on the end of my bed and a carpet covered with gifts and annuals and selection boxes under the tree. That sudden rush of excitement when I tore open the wrapping paper to see the black starry background of a Spacex card or the familiar red and blue of a SWORD toy box is sadly missing these days as socks and tins of deodorant and sensible jumpers really don't elicit the same kind of response.

Or so i thought… I got home last night from a seriously tedious day at work to find an expertly wrapped package waiting for me from my very good friend and Wotan Archive benefactor Terry. After releasing the box from its wrapping, I found a small parcel inside wrapped in xmas paper. Never having had a lot of patience or a deal of common sense, I tore open the xmas paper too - rather than wait another three days - and lo and behold, I was instantly transported back to 1969 and was a small excited child once more. That fabulously magical feeling that had long since been missing for many an xmas grabbed me and lifted me out of my pre-xmas humbug and flew me round the room with excitement! My 14 year old daughter looked at me like i'd lost the plot as I pulled back the paper to reveal…. Zero X!

So in short, thank you for a very Terry Christmas!

Oh My It's Imai!

Fancy a Zero X for Xmas? Here's a cool series of TV ads from Japan courtesy of ak1go on You Tube. The OX appears towards the end.

Enjoy!

Stranger Than Friction

This cool little plastic friction drive Missile Car recently featured on fleabay. A new one on me, it sort of reminded me of the sleek lines of the LP Moon Explorer pictured below.

I suspect though that the Missile Car is related to Nitto's early 1960's Fileder 2, which appears on the superb Japan Super Fantastic Models online site.

More pictures of the Missile Car to follow in the future.

Christmas Birds

 

Hello Woodsy,

Seeing as I’m going through a bit of a Thunderbirds kick I thought I’d dig out a few adapted Xmas ads for the Thunderbird JR21 toys which might cheer you up as well as put us all in a nostalgic mood for the upcoming festivities.

 

Thunderbird 1 appeared in TV21 issue 98 (December 3rd 2066). I got the friction drive version for Christmas. Looking back I don’t remember thinking how bad it was, those awful wheels, the soft plastic nose cone and the’ look at them and they fall off’ tail fins. still, I liked it at the time.

 

Mike B

 

Woodsy says: Cheers Mike and very festive too! I'll post one of Mike's ads each day. Alas, I'm having ongoing problems with image size on blogger. It forces me to seriously reduce them in size. I need to solve this but for now my apologies for the loss of detail.

Sub Force 2

More from that cool Imai book listed on Ebay. This 1967 Japanese Navy submarine reminds me a lot of an underwater version of the SWORD Task Force 2 from the same year. It even has a cockpit blister, albeit in a different place. Both can be seen together below. Anyone got this kit?

Selection Process

Selections boxes like this one were a HUGE part of our family Crimbo when I was a wee lad in the Sixties and early Seventies. My Mum scattered them about the living room in and between the prezzies like first aid. They were never wrapped apart from when Uncles and Aunts had given one to us as a present. Like a mini-larder they were always available for a quick snack in between the main meals. I'm sure that there was always one particular bar left till last because no-one wanted it. Caramac maybe? It's equivalent in a box of chocolates was the unpopular coffee creme [which I love!], left festering until the bitter end. Talking of boxes of chocolates, besides standards like Black Magic, Terry's All Gold, Milk Tray and Just Brazils, I clearly remember much bigger boxes shaped like hearts and squares with pictures of flowers or dogs on the lids. I've never seen anything like them since. You?

My ideal Selection Box would now include: Topic, Lion, Picnic, Wispa, Double Decker, Marathon [Ok, Snickers] and Twix. If I could dip into the chocolate past I'd also grab a Waifa, Bar Six, Aztec and Amaizin Raisin! Ummm, yum!

What would your select Selection box be?