JR21 Thunderbird 3

Here’s the JR21 Thunderbird 3, and at 6/11 eventually reducing to 5/11 it was the cheapest of the Thunderbird toy vehicles.

The toy is a reasonable representation of International Rescue’s spaceship, and has some nice detail.

 

 

Mine is an Empire Made version rather than the less desirable Made in England one which appeared when production moved to Britain.

 

Very much a stocking filler.

 

 

 

Countdown To Christmas: Dinky Toys Advert

I found this festive Dinky Toys advert  on the back of  one of my old Valiant comics dated December 13th 1969.

Looks like Joe 90 was top of the Dinky Christmas tree that year.

Corgi Crime-Busters

To compliment the Corgi Christmas ad I posted earlier here's some photo's I took a while back showing some of Corgi's crime-buster models in action.

 

The fabulous Batmobile - Batteries to power, turbines to speed!

 

Corgi's best selling Bond toy - Scratched but not stirred!

 

The Avengers set - Mrs Peel you're needed (and Steed's umbrellas')!

 

The Saint's Volvo - The first Corgi crime - buster!

 

UNCLE Oldsmobile -Hang on a minute, didn't Mr Solo and Mr Kuryakin use a Piranha Coupe concept car!?

 

 

 

Seasonal Greetings

Not got chance to post much at the mo but I'd like to wish all our readers a warming and festive pre-Christmas week. Santa is getting ready. Have you been good this year?

JR21 THUNDERBIRD 4

The JR21 Thunderbird 4 is certainly a great looking and highly collectable toy.

Although Thunderbird 4 didn’t feature in too many episodes of the series that didn’t stop JR21 from producing a superb plastic toy of the craft.

Battery operated and capable of working in water, this remarkably accurate representation of International Rescue’s submarine was a big, expensive toy. But it’s got to be said, any child receiving this little beauty on Christmas day wouldn’t have been disappointed.

No cheaper friction drive version was released, presumably because JR21 determined it wouldn’t be as popular as TB 1 or TB 2, so they went upmarket and created a more exclusive and desirable toy.

The only major variation I’m aware of is that some toys had black plastic bases rather than yellow, and the rear rudder was dropped.

While the other JR21 Thunderbird toys had dedicated advertising, Thunderbird 4 seemed to miss out. Unless any of you folk know different, I don’t recall seeing any adverts for the toy.

Solo comic carried a competition in issue 27 in which 40 JR21 Thunderbird 4’s could be won. All the reader had to do was find the odd one out among photo’s of the four other Thunderbird craft and a SWORD Booster Rocket !

 

Countdown to Christmas: Corgi Toys Advert

A festive advert from 1966 I found in the December 17th  issue of TV21. Judging by the front cover of the catalogue Corgi had some great film and TV models that year.

Fondent Fighters

Been looking round for more space Cake Toppers. Alas I haven't uncovered a box of vintage Culpitts or Wiltons spaceships but I have found this neat modern equivalent on Ebay - by Super Cook: two cool space jets ideal for orbiting the Christmas Pud!

JR21 THUNDERBIRD 5

When Jack Rosenthal’s toy company was busy creating and manufacturing their range of Thunderbird craft I imagine there was a bit of head scratching when it came to Thunderbird 5. Unlike some manufacturers of the day, JR 21 quite rightly felt it should be included in the set.

To my mind, the iconic and unique design of the real thing did look like it was hastily cobbled together using bits of plywood and plastic kit parts.

Unlike the other Thunderbirds,  Thunderbird 5 didn't do much except hang around above Earth. The space station shape didn’t much lend itself to a push along friction motor, and the lower pylon projecting from it’s base was a definite no - no!

The end result was a reasonable copy of the docking section of the station joined to an already available bump-n-go flying saucer toy.

Looks nothing like Thunderbird 5 but I still think it’s got great plastic toy appeal.