Enter the Draken

Not long ago I made a little post about some inexpensive plastic planes, I had from childhood:
http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/airplane-graveyard.html. Having recovered a new X-15, it left the Starfighter and Draken to be replaced. Thanks to the help of an ebay seller, who let me buy a single toy from a larger unsold lot, I picked up a new model of a Draken recently. Besides figuring prominently in my childhood, the Draken featured in Gerry Anderson series as the basis of kitbash material from kits such as the Airfix range. Most prominently, it starred as the air sea rescue plane in Thunderbirds.

WOODSY'S ZOMBITE ADDENDUM

Vintage Japanese Thunderbirds Giant Heavy Machine Gun by Matsushiro with a red Zombite Fighter Plane in the box art! Now that has to be a rarity! 

[pic: SWORDgrasshopper]

The rear of the box depicts a huge Zero-X, so it gets even better! You can see it and read more over at Brian's brilliant Alphadrome site.

ARGENTINIAN PROJECT SWORD MOON PROSPECTOR IN ACTION

Argentinian Moon Prospector on You Tube [karafankunte]

Known in Argentina as the Explorador Planetario, it was manufactured by prolific plastic company CHIBI. Examples by BICHI also exist.

Have you got one readers?

SYNDICATION OR PIRACY?

Over the years I have noticed an annoying trend in using this blog wholesale as part of other sites and blogs. There is probably a name for this - syndication? - however this would suggest my consent but as I haven't been asked or given it its just plain old piracy. I'm not even sure if these sites are real and not just run by robot programmes trawling the net for content.

The first site where this happened was Planet Die-Cast.

The latest site where I have found one of my own articles is the Aquarius Project, whilst browsing for a UFO fact. There is no mention of my name as the author. The whole site looks quite bizarre and sort of pretend.

Have you any experience of this outright duplication of blogged articles readers?

MEMORIES OF THE OLD SWEET SHOP

When I was a kid, like most kids, I loved sweets. They were the cornerstone of my diet and were an important source of daily vitamins!

There were various ways of accessing sweets: checking out the sweet tin in the kitchen, asking Mum to bring something back from town and when finances allowed, trips to the sweet shop.

My favourite was called the Penny Shop and was near my old Primary School in Ashton, Preston. The Penny Shop was a jammed full with jars of toffees and shelves of chocolate. It was Happy Land itself!

For me the most satisfying form of sale were small bags of sweets called penny mixes. There were paper bags in which different goodies were placed by the shop keeper [whose name I forget] with guidance from the kids stood in front of the counter. 

Most of the wares were in front of the counter on a large shelf in rows like vegetables. There were Fruit Salads, Black Jacks, Anglo Bubbly, Parma Violets, Cherry Lips, sour Flying Saucers, chocolate nutty logs, caramel sticks, sweet tobacco, cigarette sticks, sweet bananas, Spanish, snakes, gobstoppers and Callard and Bowsers chews to name just a few!

Usually the counter shelf, with the trained hand of the shop keeper swiftly grabbing the selection like a vending claw, held enough magic to keep us kids transfixed. However, we would sometimes break from our trance and look around the shop's walls. Here we would see row after row of glass jars stuffed with more adult goods.

The jars all had black screw tops and looked like soldiers lined up for parade. Sweet parade! Inside were sweets like liquorice caramels that required individual paper wrapping and therefore must have been really important. 

There were also loose sweets that were very substantial-looking like chocolate chewing nuts and sweet peanuts and very exotic fare like pink bon-bons and floral gums. There were medicines too like cough candy and voice tablets!

Plucking up courage I would occasionally stop the shop keeper and her vending hand and ask for one or two of something from the jars. Horror of horror! Despite my brazen audacity and after a series of grunts and grumbles from the keeper, a few bon-bons would plop into my bulging bag.

Paying my pennies I stepped outside hefting my paper sack, comforted by its weight and thrilled by its sugary contents. Shoving a sweet in my 'gob' the bag was then tucked into my Parka pocket and I strolled off with my mates. All was well in the world!

How did you get your sweets in your part of the world readers? Was it a shop?

NIKE HERCULES LAUNCH: THE PROBE FORCE 1?

Vintage footage from the 1950's of a USAF Nike Hercules missile launch on You Tube. Is this missile the inspiration for the Project SWORD Probe Force 1?

UNCLE SMASH

I saw this comic strip from Smash comic posted on social media the other day and  felt I just had to blog it. The Man from Uncle,  Stingray and Amos Burke Secret Agent all get a name check.

THUNDERBIRD 7 AKA THE PROJECT SWORD BEETLE ON YOU TUBE

Imai's Thunderbird 7 aka The Project SWORD Beetle filmed by Tachit Sky on You Tube. Beware, there is a hypnotic noise in the background. I'm still in a trance!

 And here's more from Windows 95!

OX FLEET: ZERO-X DISPLAY TABLE

My friend Terry H has kindly sent me a miniature Morinaga OX this week, probably the smallest Zero-X ever, so continuing the OX day, I thought I would pull together all the Zero-X models and toys that are currently stationed at Moonbase.

From top to bottom- central column: Imai 1967 original kit, Beat 2007 Imai 1967 re-issue, Aoshima 2007 die-cast toy missing, Century 21 Toys 1967 remote-control toy

Left column top to bottom: Imai kit 1988, Imai kit 1992

Right column top to bottom: Bandai 1967 friction drive toy, Morinaga 1992 Thunderbirds Super Real Model OX, Morinaga 1992 Thunderbirds Tracy Island Base OX [unbuilt - thanks to Terry H]

The same toys are here displayed without the boxes but in the same positions as above.

Finally, the OX's are here arranged in order of size.

This last shot shows a close-up of the unbuilt green Morinaga Tracy Island OX from 1992 courtesy of Terry. There are of course many more Zero-X toys and models than shown here. Do you have any readers?

WOODSY'S ADDENDUM

Reader SWORDGrasshopper mentioned the Glico OX. Here it is in all its miniature glory as featured on the blog previously and conveniently placed next to a ruler by a Japanese seller! Its 5cm long. I will measure the small Morinaga OX and add the dimensions here to see finally which is smaller.