SWORD PLAY

A recent trip to the Royal Armouries in Leeds [England] revealed lots of plastic toy swords, helmets, breastplates and shields for sale in the shop. It took me right back!

 

 

I loved plastic toy swords and armour as a kid. Absolutely loved them. Battles were fought with my bruvvers and mates, inside in the winter and in the garden in summer. It was all year round!

 

 

Holidays were a great time to pick up a new sword or helmet. Seaside and resort kiosks were choc full of them, the swords in big tubs like umbrella stands and the shields slung on hooks. Occasionally a cool roman or knight's helmet would turn up , which I'd pester my poor Parents for, often at Butlins during the 1960's.

 

 

One sword I particularly loved was a sort of Spanish Toledo [not sure of its name] with an ornate grip, jewelled pommel and plastic scabbard, a bit like these.

 

 

Were toy swords and helmets big in your house?

BUSTER ROBOTS

An article I came across in the Buster Summer Special 1969.

Noodle

 

 

Noodle

Heavi Hauler

MASUDAYA ROBOTICS

Two notable holdovers from my robot collecting frenzy of the late eighties, Masudayas four inch clockwork versions of Robby and the Lost in Space YM-3. Why the difference in name? Anyone know?

ROBOT B-9

The Trendmasters Robot B-9 from the classic TV series ’Lost In Space’.

This robust toy looks fairly accurate to me and it does have one or two features.

Press the buttons on it‘s chest and it exclaims, “Danger Will Robinson!” , or, “My sensors  indicate an intruder is present!” .

Lights flash in it’s chest and it’s body twists and it’s head  moves up and down.

Press a button on it’s back and it’s arms spring out. It’s ‘hands’ can grip.

It has a fold down door covering it’s soil sampler.

It also has a pull back and go feature.

Finally, it can be set in  sentry  mode which means set the green side button to ‘A’ , shine a light at a sensor in it’s chest and it lights up shouting “Danger Will Robinson!”.

Marvellous!

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

Bright summer days are an open invitation to chill in the garden.its been a long time since i've been able to do it properly, so ive been taking full advantage. The natural accopaniment are a few choice toys, so I selected some of the smallest and recorded the moments.

HOLIDAY SPECIALS

Woodsy's post about  ice cream and reminiscences about summer got me thinking about comic summer specials which I always loved as a kid, usually picking them up while on holiday.

As we know TV Century 21 had several holiday specials and they were always packed with features and  complete stories.

Although there's better ones packed with many more Century 21 features my favourite special, simply for nostalgic reasons is the Stingray Special which appeared in 1965.

A high point for me is a Stingray strip drawn by Ron Turner with two pages in full colour.

I did pick up other specials. I loved Valiant comic which featured one of my favourite comic book characters, The Steel Claw.

One aspect of Summer Specials was that some of the characters were on holiday just like me.

While I was happiest with the adventure Holiday Specials, I did occasionally get the odd cartoon
 publication.

Although Buster comic started out as an Adventure comic with one or two cartoon character thrown in, in later years it became totally cartoony.  The above picture shows Freddie 'Parrot Face' Davies, a popular real life comic in his day enjoying a day at the beach!

For Gerry Anderson fans like ourselves Countdown comic as well as it's own special  gave us a  Thunderbird Holiday Extra in 1971.

The following year the TV Action featured a interesting cutaway of the Moonbase in UFO.

And let's not forget the female fans of Gerry Anderson's shows.

The summer - Sun, Sand and Holiday Specials!

  

JEEPERS CREEPERS: THE JR21 JEEP

Being a fan of JR21 toys I'm intrigued by the Thunderbird 2 jeep, which came inside the pod. I haven't owned one since childhood but I understand that it simply says Made In Hong Kong on the jeep base.

My question is: did JR21 get the toy jeep from another toy company? My only evidence for this theory is the fact that so many different coloured versions seem to have been available. Here's the red one sans windshield. The wheels are black.

 

 

 

Here's a green version.

 

 

 

Here's a beige one with red wheels, which came as part of Molto Thunderbird 2 from Spain.

 

 

 

Molto also provided a grey version also with red wheels.

 

 

 

I've had a good look round for a similar vintage toy jeep unconnected to Thunderbird but with no joy. The cool toy blog Geoff's Toys features a slightly similar jeep pictured with a Thunderbird 2 but he makes it clear its not JR21. It's not the same though. The JR21 jeep is quite boxy.

 

 

What do you think readers? Seen any similar jeeps?