THE SPECTRUM: PORTOBELLO ROAD - COMES THE DAWN 1967

Gerry Anderson's boy band The Spectrum released Portobello Road/ Comes The Dawn in 1967.  Courtesy of Sids60ssounds, You Tube.

I actually like Comes The Dawn.




Here's some old footage of The Spectrum being lads about town courtesy of You Tube.

What do you think readers?

FIRST BIRTHDAY MEMORIES AND THE SPECTRUM - CAPTAIN SCARLET THEME 1967

Ever since I watched Captain Scarlet I've loved that poppy theme tune played here courtesy of philo1978, You Tube. Only later did I discover it was performed by The Spectrum, a sort of Gerry Anderson Sixties boy band.

Oddly enough, the Spectrum featured in the blog's first birthday six years ago back in 2009.They featured on this photographic message from Century 21 model maker Alan Shubrook. Alan also donated several prints of the photograph as prizes for readers that year.

The Spectrum are sat front left next to a Project SWORD Moon Bus. Not sure who all the staff are. The competition that first year was to name every C21 toy shown in the picture! A reader did it and won a signed print! 

Would anyone like to see the winning list of which toys are in there again?

BIRTHDAY PARTY FAVOUR: ED'S ASTRONAUTS

I picked this up sometime last year. Has this set already been identified? If so, sorry guyz, it just means I haven't had the time to look for it anywhere..There's a small logo at the bottom left of the front artwork that appears to read 'LP' so that's what I'm callin' it unless it's in fact something else.

Cheers

Ed B.

THE COMPLETION OF MISSION ALPHA: AN ORIGINS STORY BY ARTO FOR OUR SEVENTH BIRTHDAY

The Completion of Mission Alpha

- An Origins Story

Apart from Thunderbirds, the only other Gerry Anderson series on Finnish nationwide television in my youth was Space: 1999. It aired in 1976-78. Soon after the series started, Space: 1999 bubble gum by Dutch manufacturer Monty appeared on the counter at a kiosk nearby. With every bubble gum, you got a collectible gum card as well.

(Picture 1) A full set of Space Cosmo: 1999 gum cards along with some of my favourite cards.

In the set there were 64 full-colour photos from various Season 1 episodes. As a further enticement for completing the set, the back-sides of the cards formed a large black-and-white puzzle with Moonbase Alpha crew on the lunar surface.

(Picture 2) Unlike the cards, the wrapper was not too appealing. (Courtesy of purkkakortit.net)

In spite of using all my weekly allowances for bubble gum, a lot of chewing and stacking a hefty pile of cards, to my bitter disappointment I was not able to complete a full set. Thus the b/w picture puzzle was left unfinished as well. Nevertheless, being a collector by nature, I stored my cards away in good - even if incomplete - order anyway.

(Picture 3) There were some tricky pairs in the set. Note the film strip-like layout of the title sequence cards.

Fast forward a quarter of a century: on a mid-summer day back in 2002, we stopped by an old junk shop on the way to our summer cottage. Inside the glass case on the counter, there was a small stack of those same Monty cards! The past just flashed back in an instant!

(Picture 4) This gruesome picture of Alpha's botanist Dan Mateo in episode "The Troubled Spirit" was also one of those hardest to find.

Soon after, while visiting my boy-cave at home, I dug up my old cards and compared them with these newly found ones. Miraculously, all those cards missing from the original set were present in the new ones! For the first time, I was able to complete the set, and more importantly, the puzzle of a lifetime!

(Picture 5) Mission Alpha completed!

(Picture 6) The same picture was also included in the set, in reverse.

This chance event sparked anew my collector's instinct than had lain dormant for decades. First I looked for everything about Gerry Anderson, until one July day in 2003, I stumbled online upon a certain Project SWORD The Collector's Checklist by an enthusiast, Mr. Paul Woods. 

That project is still underway!

Arto,

Finland

A GREAT AIRCRAFT

BIRTHDAY PARTY FAVOUR: CENTURY 21 TOYS VAUXHALL CRESTA

Here's another beautiful Century 21 Toys toy car, the Vauxhall Cresta from the 1960's, which was sold by 'verstecken' on Ebay.  I kept the pictures in my archive. This is one toy I'd love to have at Moonbase.

It has rear wheel friction drive, chromed wheels, tinted windows, lift up bonnet revealing chromed engine and is approximately 12.5cm. 

The model number on the box edge is 3009-1 and on the car underside is embossed 3009.

If you look at the picture of the underside above you'll notice that the toy is actually a LUCKY car! So it would appear that Century 21 simply re-boxed it and that's it! Lucky toys also had their identical own boxed version as well pictured below.

Are there any more links between Century 21 and Lucky?

IN TECHNICOLOR

SUPERMARIONATION

As you all should know by now our grand prize for the year seven anniversary competition, kindly donated by Network DVD is the  facsimile TV21 that originally formed part of their Supermarionation superset - AND!! (this is the biggy!) Paul McCaffrey's SWORD sketch!!!

Remember this brand new edition of TV21 has so far not been released separately, so if you bought everything separately, or just fancy an exclusive piece of merchandise  it's worth a punt at our competition.

You might, like me, be someone who bought the actual set when it came out, but for those who haven't   I thought it might be a good idea to give this excellent set a plug.

The presentation box

The updated book by Stephen La Riviere

The Blu-Ray discs

The exclusive postcard wallets.

The exclusive postcards.

It's also worth mentioning that Network are about to release a whole new digitally remastered Space 1999 season 2 boxed set , which is available to pre-order ( I know because I've pre-ordered it)