GUN LAW

Some more toy guns from the pages of TV Century 21. 

A nice arsenal of Lone Star guns including the Midge, which appeared quite recently on eBay complete with holster.

Another little gem in the selection is the snub-nose automatic, the gun of choice for Amos Burke.

A couple of guns that had first appeared as Dan Dare merchandise in the fifties was this Stingray cap gun,

and this Fireball XL5 suction cup gun. I did have this as a youngster. Although it's quite obviously a Dan Dare cast off ( The handle has the lettering Inter-Planet Space Fleet) the XL5 box artwork by Eric Eden is excellent.

THE JR21 THUNDERBIRD 2 POD JEEP

A reader kindly supplied these pics of his little plastic jeep from his JR21 Thunderbird 2. Despite it missing its windshield, I was keen to see whether the JR21 diamond mark appeared on the base but as you can see there's no mark at all. How about the Mole? Are there colour variations of this jeep and the mole? Any other J21 pod vehicles?

HAPPY XMAS FROM ANDY B

Hi Woodsy, Xmas greetings and thanks for all the hard work! Andy B.

THE CARDED HAWK NOVA II BY DURHAM

Regular readers will have seen the carded Tri-ang orange SpaceX Rocket Ship Hawk before like the one pictured above. 

Not so common and in fact the first time on the blog is this larger green Moon Rocket Nova II by Durham. We've seen the boxed Tarheel version of this and a couple of loose Durham examples but never a carded one. Nova's I and III also came carded in the same way. This one looks really quite snazzy don't you think?

Both carded toys are currently on Ebay, from whence I came the images.

TOYS ON FILM: MORE PLASTIC TOYS USED IN THUNDERBIRDS CITY OF FIRE AIRPORT RESCUE FLEET

In this shot from of the Thunderbirds airport fire and rescue fleet we can see that those crafty modelshop chaps have raided their local toy store near Century 21 studios in Slough! (picture borrowed from the Space 1999 Eagle Transporter Forum. Thank you.)

First up we have the tender tug

and in it's original form, the plastic AQUACAR by Marx

Next up the tender cab

and in its original toy form, which we have blogged before

but I've found what is clearly a similar toy, the ELEKTRO AMPHIBIO by SCHUCO, which came in a variety of colours

and finally the tanker car

and a similar yellow prop being displayed at Fandercon

Well it's not really a toy this time but there is a connection to PROJECT SWORD as the same shaped truck appears in the 1969 SWORD ANNUAL (there is also a slight look of the BEETLE with its heat shields up)

so stripped down of all the red paint and airport scenery a family portrait of the original toys might partly look like this

(the green DUKW-style vehicle is by Marx and has sneaked into the photo!)

Pictures borrowed from the wonderful Space 1999 Eagle Transporter Forum and VECTIS.

SECRET AGENT SUITCASE

Back in the sixties the success of James Bond and the Man from UNCLE meant a lot of toys were spy themed, and I for one loved them.

Some TV Century 21 competitions featured spy sets, generally centred around the gun, which was usually made by Lone Star.

I remember getting this James Bond suitcase for Christmas in 1966. It was made of cardboard and contained a Winchester rifle which connected together. The gun was a Walther P38 rather than Bond's trusty Walther PPK. Not that I was too bothered, as the P38 was the gun used by Napoleon Solo in UNCLE.

Here's an UNCLE suitcase. Rather than a P38 this contained a Mauser c96,  This was an ungainly looking gun . Solo was featured using a Luger in publicity photos I'd have settled for that.

This set did contain the right gun (although it didn't have that unique UNCLE flash eliminator) and I do remember saving the tokens,but alas, I never did get one.

Any look at spy sets wouldn't be complete with the Secret Sam set. I'd imagine quite a few of you lot owned one of them.

ITS A SMALL GOLDEN WORLD

I was pleased to see that the appeal of LP Spacemen spans continents and fans can be found in Buenos Aries, Argentina. El Juguetionista blog covers our little space friends in detail and Moonbase Central even gets a mention! Its a small world for small scale astronauts! 

THE JOHNNY EXPRESS CRANE

Pictures: Sean