BANDAI STALLION RAID BIKE

The Stallion Raid Bike, Spectrum's high - speed attack motorcycle.

The bike has a pressurized class canopy with wings attached, and is launched from Skybase.

It freefalls, before deploying it's wings enabling it to glide into position. Once it lands the wings and canopy are released and the bike speeds away.

It has twin rear wheels and carries two front mounted machine guns and two racks of missiles.

The Bandai vehicle, mine provided by a generous Wotan, is another large toy, around 20 cm long  and comes with a Captain Blue figure complete with bike helmet.

Although, trying to fit the Captain Blue figure realistically on the bike is a bit of a task.

Noodle

 

Gray and Houseman Skyscraper Mover

Noodle

PROJECT SWORD PHASE 2:22/06/68

KEN HOLT PHOTOS

To compliment Bill’s Swordcast interview with UFO series production manager Ken Holt here’s some additional photos.

Although Ken, having left MGM joined Gerry Anderson’s team at Slough towards the end of the production of Thunderbirds the only publicity photos I’ve managed to unearth of Ken at Century 21 seemed to have all been taken at the time UFO was in production and most are more or less in sequence.

Listening to the interview it’s revealed that Ken had known the late Derek Meddings since childhood and had been reacquainted with Derek professionally when he joined the Slough studio.

All the publicity  photos feature both Ken and Derek, some in the prop store, and some on a UFO model set.

These  pictures come from a UFO Special featured in Sci-Fi & Fantasy FX magazine and Alan Shubrook’s excellent book, Century 21 FX.

I must admit I'm always interested in hearing from the back room boys'  and their unique incite and point of view  into what the days were like during the hey day of the Century 21 studios.

Let’s hope we get a chance to hear some more of Ken’s reminisces about his days at Century 21.  
 

THE CENTURY 21 HURDLER AND ITS VARIATIONS

Century 21 Toys issued a series of military style toys around 1967/8. One of them was the Hurdler, an green army-style jeep. The toy was battery-operated and able to climb over books and obstacles. It was most likely based on the similar Hill Climbing Jeep by Marx. I got my Hurdler boxed at Pudsey Toy fair, Leeds in 2010. The box is marked Century 21 but the toy is simply marked Made In Hong Kong.

 

 

 

 

As with any of the general Century 21 Toys, I am always looking for variants, relatives and origins. Last year I found this yellow version online. A replica in every way except for the addition of a crash bar at the rear and of course the different colour scheme. I don't know what the markings were on the toy but I expect it to be Made In Hong Kong as well. The make is a mystery and the box wasn't pictured.

 

 

 

 

And just when I thought it was safe to go back in the water up pops another Hurdler lookalike. This one is orange. It has the crash bars on the back too. Interestingly the driver colours have reverted back to the Century 21 version. Again no box is pictured so the make remains unknown. Does anyone else have any hill climbing toys?

 

 

Noodle

 

Swordray

Noodle

MYSTERY ACTION FIGURE QUIZ 2

Here you go. Second mystery lizard head figure. Gor for it!

 

 

WONDERS OF THE ATOMIC AGE

The sixties was a wonderful time technologically, huge advances occurred across the board in engineering, manufacturing and invention. Toys reflected these changes and the christmas shops were full of the newest planes, cars and rockets every year. Unfortunately, it was also a time when warfare and the means to wipe each other out advanced too, and along with these, came paranoia. Oddly, toys and films picked up on these trends too and all kinds of rocket bases, missile firing tanks and planes appeared.

I love this period as it marked a direct transition to plastic from the earlier tin and metal toys and allowed toymakers to experiment with the new materials. A famous aircraft of the day was the Avro Vulcan, one of the V fleet of bombers, including the Valiant and Victor, which provided Britain with the means to deliver a nuclear payload by air. This wonderful plane has been remembered in a number of toys and kits, but just recently this curious example appeared. With a lot of help from a very generous Scoop, it made its way into my collection, sadly missing a small bomb which was lost in the post as the careless seller delivered it in wholly inappropriate packaging. There's no makers marks at all, it was missing a nose wheel and two air force roundel decals. It has a cool spring loaded bomb bay and is made of a hard plastic.

THE BOMBER

Does anyone recognise it ? I suspect it could be early Tudor Rose, as I have seen  a Canberra of similar construction, but that was very clearly trademarked.

THE BOMB

Another of my sixties favourites is the Tri-ang Battlespace line of trains. I had already found a number of low loader wagons, but recently I was delighted to find the large red bomb payload from the series. The bomb is about 7" long, made of soft flexible plastic and has a alloy warhead into which caps can be placed. The bomb could then be used as a throwing toy, the caps going off as the warhead struck the ground.

THE SECRET WEAPON

James Bond films and cold war villains leapt to the fore in the sixties too and secret war mongering organisations and evil geniuses were invented. Airfix railways came up with a novel concept for their Dr X playset in the seventies. This rare set included a locomotive pulling a low loader with a container wagon on the back. Inside the container was a rocket, which by means of a switch could be transferred to a truck and taken to Dr X secret hideaway where it was launched upon an unsuspecting world.

So far, ive managed to find the low loader and the truck, but Dr X has hidden the rocket somewhere very secure...