During the mid sixties my family and I spent a week at a Pontins
holiday camp at Middleton Towers near Morecambe. It was notable for being the
largest camp in the Pontins empire and for having a huge entertainment centre
built in the shape of an ocean liner, named the S.S.
Berengaria.
But for me one of it’s main attractions was a gift shop selling toys.
In the shop one particular item stood out from the rest, a Quercetti
Fireball XL5 spaceship.
Not many XL5 toys or models were available at the time. I was
never aware of the Fairylite version and the plastic kit from Lyons Maid
Zoom was only available mail order. The Quercetti XL5 was extensively advertised
in comics exploiting the colourful box artwork and it looked great.
For a holiday treat I asked my Dad for the spacecraft with the catapult.
That was my mistake, I should have been more specific. I was given the
Quercetti Tor spacecraft. A fun toy, I’m sure you’ll agree - but it isn’t an
XL5.
To make matters worst the spoilt brat in the next chalet to us got a
Fireball, although, after one day of play he did lose it on a chalet roof!
Anyway, from that day on I promised myself that eventually I’d
possess a Quercetti XL5 and fire it into space, avoiding chalet roofs of course!
.
The years passed and life moved on. The next time I came across a
Quercetti XL5 was when I attended the first Fanderson Convention in 1981. During
the charity auction a boxed example was offered. It went for far more than I
could afford. - and dealers had a nice high book price to work with.
Fast forward to the present , and the evils of eBay.
All I wanted was a reasonable example of a toy that is, let’s face
it, nearly fifty years old. I’d seen a few dog eared, well used and
dubious examples of my target toy, but then a decent and apparently unused one
came up. I bid and won it. I probably paid too much for it but what the
heck, I had been waiting for a long, long time.
And what do I think of the toy after my wait?
Well, considering it’s a flying toy it’s a pretty good representation of
it’s TV counterpart. Any deviations are probably there to aid it’s performance
in the air and to accommodate Quercetti’s clever parachute opening system
. The durable yellow Fireball Junior of which there are two versions depending
on the weather, no doubt helps in finding the toy following landing . The
instructions enclosed are very detailed, even giving technical notes about the
working principles of the Fireball. The decals are quite adequate considering
that the odd scratch would be unavoidable. The only real downside is the
Steve Zodiac figure which is simply a generic spaceman.
Much as I‘d like to fit the decals and catapult my Fireball way up to 200ft
in the air, thereby finally fulfilling part of a promise made all those years
ago, obviously that’s not going to happen.
The damn thing is just too precious now.
Still, in spite of that my heart is still a Fireball and it was well worth
the wait.
Mike B (age 6 years & 564 months)
