Archers at the Ready

Dear Woodsy,

I thought you might like to see this: http://www.htspweb.co.uk/fandf/romart/het/fanart.htm

 

 

The Christmas 1953 issue of "Space Times" has a drawing of the Archer spacemen and a "Rocket Bank" that I had as a boy!

Grif

What's your Favourite Sci-Fi Film?

What's the best Sci-Fi film and/or series you've ever seen? For me the film would have to be a toss-up between Alien and Star Wars and the series would be Star Trek, the original series.

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Courtesy of the WOTAN windowsill collection many moons ago.

Woodsy Piccy Archive

"Don't give me that Star Trek crap..

...It's too early in the morning!"

Here is an emerald jewel from 'Product Enterprise' around 2004; the intrepid ship of RED Dwarf crew: Starbug. 

I ordered mine via catalog from a local comic book store (not available on retail shelves here in Canada) and it arrived missing a front leg but still stands firmly as a tripod. The sturdy plastic toy is a good likeness of the Starbug ship with minor scale liberties taken on the interior (ship opens to reveal interior 'sets' of the Starbug) playset. Best of all are 4 mini figures (35 mm tall, similar scale to original Mega-Rig toys) of the crew: Lister, Rimmer, Cat and Kryten. These are exceptionally well sculpted and carefully painted for toys of this scale, portraying each character's 'expression' perfectly. 

There is also an image Holly in the kitchen and by pushing down on the toaster, plays various sound clips of Holly, speaking lines from the show.

 Product Enterprise gave us many nice Doctor WHO toys some time after long standing DAPOL left the scene and branched into other UK properties including RED Dwarf. The Starbug playset is a labor of love and a wonderful souvenir for any RED Dwarf fan. The only smeg-up on this toy was the packaging; an open faced display carton which allowed the broken leg of my Starbug to drift off into space and I cannot imagine retailers enjoying this style of exposed packaging. The nanonots are hard at work replacing the leg but are having some trouble scratch-building me a mini-figure of Kochanski ;)

CS - Our Canadian Correspondant

MARX TSR-2: THE RISE AND FALL OF A SUPERJET BY MIKE B

I recently picked up a reasonable example of a Louis Marx TSR - 2 battery operated toy plane.

It’s an attractive toy based on the ill-fated real aircraft built in the early sixties, with a futuristic design that wouldn’t look out of place in a Gerry Anderson series.

My toy is a light grey colour, although I believe some were available in yellow at the time. Pop the batteries in, flick the on switch and the front wheels drive the plane forward, a bulb at the rear illuminates the engine exhausts - marvellous!

The only downside is the tail fin which once the toy’s out of it’s box, this has to be clipped into the fuselage. Once it’s pushed in, there’s no way you’d get it out without breaking the locating lugs off. I’m not taking a chance so mine won’t be going back into its box.

The box has a nice airbrushed illustration of the plane and working instructions on the box side. There’s no date on the box but I believe it came out around 1964.

 

 

Following the real aircraft’s cancellation in 1965, Marx altered the toy’s title to ’Superjet’ and revamped the box artwork which showed two red TSR-2 aircraft flying over countryside. Some time later Marx converted their toy to a friction drive with a red and yellow colour scheme and repackaged it as a ’ Stratojet’. This time the box artwork showed a TSR-2 taking off. I understand this version continued to be produced up to the mid seventies.

 

 

The real TSR-2 was developed as a Tactical Strike and Reconnaissance aircraft with the capability of speeds up to Mach 2 . It was to incorporate some of the most advanced avionics and design techniques the British Aircraft Corporation had ever produced.

 

 

However, the American company General Dynamics were developing the swing wing F-111 aircraft which was designed to fill a similar role. In Britain a change of government meant the controversial cancellation of the TSR-2 and for General Dynamics no real competition for the F-111.

 

 

Out of the 23 built only one flew.- the XR219. Following the cancellation this historic aircraft was to end up at a test range as target practice along with two others, the XR221 and XR223.

All the other remaining aircraft along with jigs and tooling were ordered to be destroyed by the powers that be ensuring that the project could never be revived.

 

 

However, two did survive. The XR220 and the XR222. Both are sadly incomplete and will never fly.

 

 

The controversy and conspiracy theories still surround the TSR-2, but whatever the truth, I reckon if this sleek advanced aircraft had it been given a chance it is certain it would have been a world beater.

 

 

Mike B.      

The Fellowship of the Fens

Back in 1981 I lived on an RSPB Bird Reserve, the Ouse Washes, in the English Fens. For many reasons it was one of the best years of my life. I had just turned twenty and had left my home town of Preston for good. 'I am The Beat' by the Look was in the charts and The Lord of the Rings was serialised on BBC Radio 4. As Winter gave way to Spring on the Washes, Wednesday nights were, for half an hour, the preserve of Gandalf, Frodo, Balrog and Sauron. It was a truly atmospheric radio series, adapted by Brian Sibley, made all the more 'precious' as there was no TV in the Washes volunteers' hut, which we called Cygnus. For a few bright months, as the Reed Warblers flew, the Ouse Washes was alive with sounds of Middle Earth and the horn of Gondor!

Did anyone else listen to it?

NICHIMO CARBOAT PIONEER FOR SALE

If you would like to buy a peice of pre-SWORD history and, unlike yours truly, have a spare £1200 you could have a pop at this NICHIMO CARBOAT PIONEER dated 1964. Despite having no bulldozer blade, it's clearly the forerunner of the Century 21 SWORD Moon Ranger. With box art by the great Shigeru Komatsuzaki, it's a thing of beauty. Just under two hours to go, have a peek! Big thanks to Captain Terry Scarlet for spotting this!

Imai Moon Crawlers

Imai SWORD model kits are a SWORD sub-genre in their own right and would make a fabulous collection. As with all the outer fringes of SWORD toys and kits they are hard to come by. I've only ever seen pictures of them, which I continue to drool over. Super Scarlet collector and SWORD bloodhound Terry has flagged up this fabulous Imai Moon Crawler kit from the land of the Rising Sun. It's kit number 4 in the UFO Star Base series from 1972 with box art by the Japanese Showa master Komatsuzaki Shigeru. The Moon Crawler takes centre stage in the cover picture and the contents are shown below but I just cannot tell how big it would be biult up. Does anyone know?

Komatsuzaki Shigeru is without doubt the Seventies heir of the Sixties SWORD box art crown. He continued the tradition if fabulous SWORD art on Imai's boxed kits. From one of a number of books about his art, below is a picture of his original art from 1971 for another Moon Crawler study, where the vehicle is again it's centrepeice. The kit itself translates to Space Attack Squadron and the finished box art and contents appear below. Again I just can't make out how big the finished Crawler would be. Are they Spacex sized, C21 SWORD sized or somewhere in between?