THE FIRST OF THE ZEROIDS

The first three original Zeroids as they appeared in this advert from a 1968 DC comic.

I did like the comic panel look of the ad which tempted me to read about all their features and give subtle hints to my parents for that year’s Christmas present.

Forty five years later I’m still as fond of these little critters as I was when I was a nipper.

And even though their design looks like they've been built using chrome auto parts and bits of Hi-Fi, it all helps to reiterate their retro kitschy look.  

Zobor, The Bronze Transporter.

 It came with its own Cosmobile used to carry small rocks.

Zerak, The Blue Destroyer.

 It came with its own Control Station which it was able to release itself from.

Zintar, The Silver Explorer.

It came with its own Lunar Sled.

Eventually, other robots would join the line up but for one youngster in 1968 these were the original and best.  

SWORD - A Cast of Thousands

Well here we are with a year of radio presentations under our collective belts. Thanks to Bill Everatt and Radio Celtica, the blog has been able to open up its airlocks to engage its audience in ways we never thought possible when we began blogging, almost five years ago. September 15 will see the blogs fifth anniversary and we have no plans to slacken the pace!

But, like every medium, we don't want the content to become stale or uninteresting. The Swordcast is a vital, interactive element to the blog as well as being a means of entertainment in its own right. The Darkside 'Squaring the Circle' series of radio dramas are set to continue the cycle of space toy themed stories and each month, the three of us will roll out a new Swordcast programme for your delectation.

But the important thing is feedback. Are we doing the right thing ? Is there something you would like to hear on the Cast, or would you, the reader/listener like to be involved ?

If you would like to tell your collecting story live on air, or would like us to cover any of the material we've shown on the blog in greater detail, just let us know. Contrary to how we look on the SWORD bio, we don't bite!

Evolution of an Übercollector

For this months Swordcast, as me and Woodstock had taken off to tour the continent, we left Scoop holding the microphone and put him in charge of interviewing our good friend and blogger Ed 'Ice' Berg, over in Lost Wages!
Ed, a prolific toy collector, runs two of his own specialist blogs and has an enviable collection of all kinds of vintage toys on show there.

In Scoops first interview with Ed, we discover what drew Ed to collecting space toys and how his collection has expanded exponentially!

Tune in tonight at 8pm (UK time) for the live cast, or pick up the podcast download over the next few days.

NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST

Well this morning I saw something which struck terror into my old bones as a Project SWORD toy passed the one thousand pound mark on ebay. It was perhaps understandable as it was the elusive Nuclear Ferry, probably the third or fourth model known to exist. I can breathe slightly easier in the knowledge that I have the second model discovered, but it is dismaying to see toys reaching such astronomical prices.

Its probable that this was partly due to the ' blog effect ' as toys highlighted on the blog often appear for silly money at auction, but this model started at a very modest opener and was driven up by demand. I must say, however that it is easily worth the money too as it is a toy benchmark, beautifully designed and with a great backstory.

The other slight compensation is that there clearly are other rare models still out there after almost half a century, so we may yet see a moonbase on the blog...

JIGGLERS AND THINGS

Saw a kid at a festival t'other weekend playing with what I would have called a rubber jiggler when I was a nipper. Rubber jigglers were sold from display boxes on the counters of Preston's toy shops. They were basically monsters, which slipped over the finger. I think Bill's a big jiggler fan too! Are they still available?

Kenner's old Swamp Thing action figure line used something similar to Jigglers too. I wonder if Jiggler collectors go for them as well?  

I used to love Swamp Thing and Man Thing comics. Hard to say who'd beat the other in a Thing-off! What do you think? 

 

MORE BERWICK JR21 PISTOL AND FAIRYLITE LADY PENELOPE

If only we had access to old toy manufacturers we could clear up mysteries there and then. But we don't and Andersonalia continues to bring on head scratching. A while ago I asked whether the Berwick Thunderbirds Uniform included the JR21 Thunderbirds pistol.

Well, there appears to be evidence that it did. Checking the large webpage of the Dutch Lester Demon, there is a photograph of a uniform set containing just such a pistol: http://lester.demon.nl/superm/tbirds/merc-gallery.html . There is also a basic uniform by a company called Eba Stevens just above the Berwick suit! Now that's another new one on me! Be warned, the site takes ages to open because of all the images. Does this put a lid on the Berwick pistol puzzle?

 

Check out the Lady Penelope Play Suit whilst your'e there, which I assume is Berwick as well.

 

Speaking of Penelope, I recently spotted this doll online, which at first glance I thought was a variant of the Fairylite Lady Penelope. It is a Bonnie Blue Ribbon Doll made by Perfekta for Marquette to promote the National Blue Ribbon Freezer Food Service [date?]. You can compare it with the Fairylite doll below [Ebay].

 

Elegance, charm and deadly dolls!

RIDDLE OF THE STONES

 

I'm just doing some computer maintenance and uploading all my pictures to a separate 160GB hard-drive. I've not done it for a while and despite a lot of duplication, I'm uploading everything, all 18,000 images, 10GB, going back years.

 

 

Amongst them this popped up as a duplicate so I thought I'd blog it as I found it so amusing. It's an interpretation board on a rocky beach in Iceland, which I snapped whilst holidaying there in 2009. The board describes in various languages how a series of stones, which are lying in a group on the beach [and they are!], can be lifted to test a person's strength! Fishermen  did it originally. Believe me, those stones are heavy and I won't say whether I managed any or not! ha ha!

 

 

Has anyone seen them too or anything like them?

Riddles of the Sands

For some time I have wanting to see a movie called the Riddle of the Sands from 1979. It stars Micheal York, who is one of the quintessential British actors of the Sixties and will be familiar to readers from Logan's Run and latterly Austin Powers. Whilst I continue to track down a copy of the film, there are a number of real riddles in the sands, so to speak, which do fascinate me.

First we have the old story of a film set leftover from an epic Cecil B Demille movie, long forgotten and buried in the sands of time, literally. You can read more about it here:

http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/03/19/the-fascinating-story-of-cecil-demilles-lost-city/

The second riddle is more recent. In fact it is very much current and concerns a German World War II plane being recovered from British waters. You can read more about this one here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22380915

Finally, we have the recent endeavour of a British man to unearth long lost Spitfires in a distant desert. A noble quest but sadly one in which he did not succeed. Read more here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/9811196/Search-for-lost-Spitfires-ends-in-failure-for-treasure-hunters.html

Have you any knowledge of these 'riddles' or 'quests'? If so, please share it with us or indeed any other stories of lost sets, vehicles, comics. programmes, props, toys and their attempted recovery.