KEVIN D'S ORIGINAL STAR COPS LASER PROP

 

 

 

 

Kevin D has kindly sent in these great pictures and says:

 

"Hi, here are photos of my Star Cops original laser prop. In the series, they never say what the red/ green buttons do. Star Cops went for realism, so when they fire the gun there is just a brief flash from the muzzle (the electronics are in this prop) and the victim dies as if shot with a bullet. There is no beam. The prop does have a set of switches and a 7-segment LED display in the rear, presumably for that function."

CENTURY 21 CAPTAIN SCARLET FRICTION DRIVE TOYS

Although  the fabulous  Zero X toy made by Century 21 is pretty high on everyone's want list I suspect that the C21 Captain Scarlet vehicles are also up there, especially the SPV judging by the crazy prices it's gone for recently on eBay.

Hers's a candid shot of my collection which I managed to get before silly money started changing hands,

Although most of the gadgets have long since ceased to work, the SPV is still my favourite.

The Captain Blue figure has managed to escape  from the ejector seat and has subsequently gone AWOL but there's still some nice detail inside including Captain Scarlet who's firmly glued to his seat.

KEVIN D'S STAR COPS COMMANDER NATHAN SPRING UNIFORM

 

 

Kevin D has kindly sent in pics of a new acquisition and explains


"Hi Chaps,

 

 

Thought you might be interested in this. I am a massive fan of the 1987 BBC2 series 'Star Cops' (yes, it possibly is just me), I have been lucky enough to acquire the odd original costume from the series but so far they have been of background characters.


However, I am now the proud owner of the uniform worn by the hero of the series, Commander Nathan Spring, head of the International Space Police Force (nicknamed in contempt by the press as 'Star Cops', but a phrase that so caught on that our heroes use it to describe themselves). David Calder played the character in all 9 episodes of the show. (BBC2 1987).


Well, I'm very pleased with it anyway!

 

 

take care,

Kevin D"

DALEKS MAKE HEADLINES

While, I think it’s fair to say that Doctor Who didn’t have that much  to do with the worlds of Gerry Anderson,  the Daleks, on the other hand will forever be linked by way of their inclusion in TV Century 21.

They even made a small but significant headline on the front cover of issue 2.

In the ‘Stripped For Action’ documentary on ‘The Planet of the Daleks’ DVD extras , Gerry explains that Terry Nation contacted him with the view to doing a comic strip featuring the Daleks in the upcoming TV Century 21.

Gerry went on to say he was very jealous of the creation of the Daleks in the way they moved. While he had struggled to make convincing robots in his series, here was a ’robot’ that moved about annoyingly convincingly. Imagine if Terry Nation had suggested that Gerry do a puppet series based on the Daleks.

Ah, what if!

The strip, written by David Whittaker featured the story of the creation of the Daleks  many years prior to Dr Who coming across them.

Rather than having a Nazi influence that would take place many years later in the TV series, this strip took its influences’ more from the Roman Empire,  and showed the Daleks building up their fearsome and all conquering reputation.

The strip ended after two colourful years with the Daleks about to conquer Earth.

As we see The Daleks made plenty of headline news for TV Century 21 so as far as I’m concerned the Daleks are a welcome addition to the worlds of Gerry Anderson. 

JECSAN SPACE ROCKET AND ASTRONAUTS SET FROM SPAIN

 

This is a nice vintage space set I recently saw online. Its by a Spanish company called Jecsan, who are new to me. The set contains spacemen and astronauts which could almost be cake decorations. One is even in the gunmetal grey which LP astronauts came in. The two tripod contraptions and the rocket add to the set's overall appeal. It comes in a box with a large window and neat NASA-type graphics. Anyone recognise the figures or know anything about Jecsan?

SCRATCH-BUILT SPACEX-GOLDEN ASTRONAUT MODELS IN DIORAMAS BY KEVIN D

Scratch-built Nova 1 SpaceX Rocket, Spectrum Helicopter and BP Tanker

Scratch-built Spacex Nuclear Freighter, Space patrol 1 and FAB1

Scratch-built Spacex Nuclear Freighter

Scratch-built Spacex P3 Helicopter

All these amazing diorama's are by reader Kevin D.

SPV DIORAMA BY KEVIN D

 

SPV

By Kevin D

UNCERTAIN PROSPECTS: IMAI AND CENTURY 21 MOON PROSPECTOR BOX ART

 

Looking through some pictures of box art I thought I'd compare Moon Prospectors. Above is the Century 21 toy's and below is the Imai UFO model's. There's is a striking similarity between the vehicles don't you think? Yes they are both of the same toy but the style looks similar.

We know that Imai's art is by Japan's Shigeru Komatsuzaki. Could it be that Century 21 hired him as well? Pure speculation I know but it's New Year and my mind's wandering! After 5 years of blogging, we still don't know who Century 21 used as box artists [for any of their toys] so its worth a punt just to speculate. What do you think readers?