CAPTAIN SCARLET LIQUID OXYGEN TRUCK

I'm always amazed when I find a new toy based on a Gerry Anderson vehicle. It doesn't happen often but on Sunday I bought a Vivid Imaginations large scale SPV at Dewsbury car boot sale. Getting home I researched the toy online, during which I found these pictures of the following toy truck completely new to me, the Vivid Imaginations Captain Scarlet Liquid Oxygen First Line Defence System Truck.

 

 

 

I don't know this truck from TV show and I've never seen the toy before. It's one I shall be looking out for at car boot sales from now on. I wonder just how many Gerry Anderson vehicles have actually been made into toys over the years? 50%? 75%? It would make an interesting database!

 

 

Does anyone know about the role the truck played in Captain Scarlet on TV?

ROBERT OPIE BOOKS AND JIGSAWS OF VINTAGE TOYS

Whilst out today I saw a van which had this sign on it "Zombie Attack Response Unit". Lets hope we never really need it a la World War Z!

In a heritage shop I thought I was actually about to find a Project SWORD toy on a modern jigsaw by Robert Opie/ Gibsons. Mr. Opie is a packaging and pop culture mega-collector and archivist in the UK and has a museum devoted to packaging for sweets, food and household stuff. It includes toy boxes.

 

 

He's also published a series of books on said packagong and it was a picture from his 1960's book he's publsihed as a large jigsaw as well. There are JR21 toys on there - New Flying Saucer and TB5, but alas, no SWORD. Wonder what you had from this lot though?

 

 

The specific book this image is taken from, the 1960's Scap Book, does indeed contain piccies of Project SWORD boxes, which makes it sort of unique amongst modern books!

 

Taken from Opie's 1970's scrap book, this is the 1970's Gibson puzzle in the same series. What did you have from this lot?

MYSTERY SPACE TOY ON EBAY

This mystery toy is on Ebay. Its a mystery to me too!  I thought it might have been Six Million Dollar Man but its far too small. Anyone know what it is?

 

MYSTERY CAPTAIN SCARLET EP RECORD

I recently saw this EP record on Yahoo Japan. It's described as Captain Scarlet. What drew me to it is the nifty cover art, which features a ring space station and a superb space jet. The seller describes the EP as  "record 7 inches, Artist: The Wanders, A surface Tobeyo Captain Scarlet / B surface!Angel" Anyone know this record?

ZERO X TALES

Zero X grabs the attention. Simple. Thunderbirds Are Go and Project SWORD. What's not to like? When I was re-united with the Century 21 toy version circa 1996, which I purchased from TV Toy Zone Mail Order for £60, it was missing its heat shield as explained by the seller. Resigned to never having one, I was amazed to find this one in a bag of junk I bought off a Scalextric dealer about a year later! Glenn Field Result!

 

So how best to display a heat shield? Well, you could always try to get hold of this Ajamodels Mobile Gantry model kit, which, judging by how little their is on the net about it I would say its discontinued. I've never seen one so I don't know the scale. The crenellated base reminds me of the Glico Tracy Island base. Anyone got this gantry?

 

 

Some very fortunate Anderfans are lucky enough to own actual parts of the real models used in the filming of Thunderbirds Are Go. The image below is of the remaining bits of Zero-X undercarriage, which is understood to be the last of the original once it had been blown up for the end of the Thunderbirds are Go movie. Jim Lewis informed me that it had been bought at auction some time ago.

 

Picture: Steve Zodiac

 

 

And remember this original but derelict Zero-X MEV prop that was bought on Ebay last year for £20,000?

 

Well, it's been immaculately restored to its former glory! Kevin D kindly forwarded me a link to the new owner's, The Prop Gallery's website detailing the amazing restoration by none than Mastermodels, who worked on the original Zero X in the movie! Now that's what I call a good ending!

Nigh is the Time of Witches

 

Halloween beckons and the monsters' balls are bulging. Whitby holds its annual Vampires Ball this weekend. Whitby lies on the East Yorkshire Coast and is twinned with Anchorage. Bram Stoker both wrote and set Dracula in the town and it remains a mecca for the children of the night. Halloween is also a huge collecting area and every year the shops seem to be stuffed full of Halloweenables earlier and earlier!

 

 

I'm actually heading in the same direction as Jonathan Harker this weekend as I'm fly to Germany. He went much further east, to Transylvania, and his unfortunate exsanguination at the hands of the Count.

 

 

Luckilly I shall be back to celebrate Halloween in Blighty. I land on what is now termed Mischief Night, the night before Halloween, when there are no treats, just tricks, and usually anti-social ones. It seems to have a particular resonance in West Yorkshire, where I live, much to inconvenience of its residents. There is even a film of the same name filmed in Leeds nearby. I think Devil's Night seen in Brandon Lee's Crow is the same unruly occasion.

 

 

What will you be doing on Halloween?

DON'T LUT NOW

The Century 21 Cape Kennedy Set is a rarity. Not only is it a rare Project SWORD toy but its also the only large scale Saturn V, crawler and LUT gantry toy that I know of [ smaller ones were produced by Triang and Imperial Toys].

There are however many more larger scale models of the Saturn V, crawler and LUT gantry. A quick browse around the web will throw a few up like Cashalete/ Countdown, Aoshima and Inter Culture. I would like to establish a time line of the main kits but to start I've simply pictured them to help visual comparison.

 

 

I have noted scale the where known but I'd be grateful if anyone can tell me if the Countdown and Aoshima kits are bigger or smaller than the Century 21 toy from the above gallery [which is not to scale!]

 

 

If you have any Saturn V crawler and gantry kits or indeed toys I would love to hear about their size, age and maybe get a piccy for the blog!

"It went through the wall!"

Just been leafing through todays Guardian newspaper, and they are offering the box set of the original BBC tv dramas featuring Professor Quatermass! Just £14.99 all in gets you All the extant episodes of Xperiment, Quatermass II, Quatermass and the Pit and interviews with the SFX crew and Nigel Kneale. Its worth it just for the Pit, which considering it was filmed live, is tense, emotive and fabulously chilling!

http://entertainment.guardianoffers.co.uk/i-bb-20890-zba/the-quatermass-collection-on-dvd-%C2%A314-99-with-free-p-and-p-save-%C2%A315/