century 21 toys project sword badges 6: the nuclear ferry

This short film* rounds off my recent project looking at Project SWORD badges. In it I discuss the Nuclear Ferry's. In my own loaned example its a blue ASTRONAUT badge.

My online review of other Nuclear Ferry toys also revealed these badges:

The common badge among these Ferries is the red COMMANDER.

Obviously not having any reference as to which badge it should be on the toy's box makes this almost academic but the COMMANDER badge seems to me to be a more feasible option for such a large toy.

Whilst writing this I also got excited about the prospect of a PHASE 2 badge with the Nuclear ferry but that's just wishful thinking on my part!

What do you think about the Ferry's badge or indeed the mysterious specification sheet mentioned in the film?

*

This short film is an extract from a much longer video I made about the Nuclear Ferry in 2014 on You Tube.

random toy: fraggle rock cars

I once picked up a set of loose plastic novelty toy cars from the TV kids show Fraggle Rock.

I think Fraggle was a spin-off from the Muppet Show and aimed at younger muppets,

The cars I recall were all vegetables with drivers. A carrot was one of them.

They were nicely detailed with three coloured wheels. I think they were hollow too. They may have been fast food premiums. Not sure.

Anyone have any Fraggle Rock toy cars?

LOOK OUT FOR LOOK - IN

Keeping up the UFO interest, here's a few UFO themed pages from Look -In AKA The Junior TV Times from the very early seventies before it became more of a pop magazine.

The competition page featured a cut up photo of SID wrongly described as Skydiver... oh, how we laughed!

A pin up of the late Mike Billington as Col. Paul Foster.

A two page feature on TV SCI-FI with a nice photo from the UFO episode 'Survival'.

did you get changed after school?

Did you get changed when you came home from Skool readers?

When I say changed I mean from your school wear [did you have a uniform?]

I'm personally struggling to recall to be honest. I have a vision of me sat in my Primary School shorts watching telly in our living room eating steak pudding and chips from my lap, but this could be wishful thinking .... the steak pudding I mean.  You can't get them in Yorkshire!

I can imagine sitting around for ages in my school wear as I'm very reluctant to get changed out of my work clothes these days! I'm what my old Mum would have called a slob! She didn't call me that when I was a kid though I don't think!

Getting changed these days depends on what I'm doing after work: taking the daughter's dog out [scruffs], working in the garden [scruffs], going out [casual] and best of all absolutely nothing all night [chumfs] but I would stay in work clothes as long as poss before chumfing up.

Scruffs are scruffy clothes; casuals are jeans and a lumberjack shirt and chumfs are pyjama bottoms and a T-shirt [short for chumfortable, our quaint family word for comfortable: what do you call pyjamas?]

So did you get changed after school readers?

SHADOCON IMMINENT

With just over two weeks to go before SHADO Con, and from what I hear tickets have sold well,  There are a few remaining tickets still available so if you're a fan of UFO book now for a day that promises to be UFOric!

http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/special-event/shado-con.aspx

captains' table

Before I collate all my Project SWORD badge information into a handy reference table I thought I'd post this shot of my toys and badges on an actual wooden table!

I used my old Nikon digital for this which has a bad habit of taking blurred pictures, sorry.

Reference table to follow.

chris cornell RIP

This has nothing to do with space or monsters or cult TV. Just the music I like.

Chris Cornell sadly died this week. He was the frontman for the Seattle Grunge band Soundgarden.

I came to Grunge by accident really. A family friend's teenage kid had lived with us in 1990 and left behind a stack of home-recorded music cassettes.

Among them where Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden.

I'd never really heard any grunge before but being an old rocker it found a natural home in me. I listened to all the tapes and went on to get many more of my own.

I listened to a lot of Soundgarden and loved Chris Cornell's unforgettable voice. He brought deep melody to the lush twang of the band's heavy Seattle sound.

It is even sadder that it appears that Chris committed suicide and that fame  and critical acclaim hadn't  brought him lasting happiness.

In memory of Chris's talent here is Soundgarden's superb Black Hole Sun courtesy of You Tube.

KITS IN WAITING

Here's some of the kits I've got at the moment that I'll be assembling at some point this year. 

I know what you're thinking,  I'm one of those odd folk who buys kits to actually make 'em!

Weird!