THUNDERBIRD 2 BOXCAR ORIGINS BY ARTO

Dear Woodsy,

 I came across this page in Ideal Toy Catalog of 1958 (from the http://www.usdimestore.com/ website).

Look at that boxcar - is it not a dead ringer of our dear TB2? 

The overall shape which with minor adjustments would turn into that chubby fella, the opening front which reminds me of an opened TB pod with ramp and all, but especially the similarity of textures both on the chequered body and on the striped tail fin.
The most important thing from the likeness list: it's all in the eyes! The line of four squinty windscreens zeroing on the potential threat and ready for rescue!

The Ideal plane was released as Globemaster Flying Boxcar

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/ideal-globemaster-flying-boxcar-499048475

Looking at the toy itself, the resemblance is not as striking as in the catalog photo because of different materials and of the colour scheme. Perhaps Derek Meddings leafed through the Ideal '58 toy catalog and that stuck with him!

This might already be common knowledge among anderson aficionados, but wanted to share nevertheless as the similarity is (at least to my eye) so striking.

Cheers

Arto

____________________________________________

Woodsy's Footnote:

Arto has struck a chord here.

Looking at the 'pod' vehicles in the Globemaster a little closer I was amazed to see the Jeep and the Radar truck!

The amazing Toy Soldier HQ website showcases them all:

The Jeep could easily double up as the Land Rover in the JR21 Thunderbird 2 release [or the Spanish Molto version].

You can see what I mean in this comparison. 

Ideal Globemaster and descending green Jeep photographed by our own Ed Berg.

JR21 Thunderbird 2 and descending green Land Rover photographed by our very own Scoop.

Anything good on TV?

Anything decent on TV or online you've seen of late?

Films, series, documentaries?

What you watching readers?

GEE BRAINS! YOUR BEAUTIFUL MODELS!

The movie Thunderbirds Are Go is a must see for SWORD Fans. Its all about Zero-X after all!

The movie Thunderbird 6 has much to offer too. Besides the amazing Skyship 1 there are some beautiful models too.

I've discussed Brains' tantrum in Thunderbird 6 many times on the blog. Its a painful watch as the angry boffin destroys three superb model craft, all of which were his prototypes [or were they maquetes?] for Thunderbird 6. 

If you haven't seen it here's a handy montage of the three models being thrown on the floor, which I found on You Tube.

There is a toy connection to the red model shown above. It involves the Tarheel and Durham toy companies of North Carolina, USA. I first talked about it here years ago and was chuffed to have the idea included in the latest copy of the Gerry Anderson based fanzine ANDERSONIC.

Its interesting to note that the clip's You Tuber has also commented about the potential numbering of these three models if they had all become part of the fleet. Thunderbirds 6, 7 and 8!

This isn't the first time we've seen a Thunderbird 7. Certainly not in the model/toy world. Imai released a Thunderbird 7 in the 1980's.

We now know that this is actually the Snow Train from the Project SWORD universe and more exactly its the Snow Train with its heat shields up ready for magma diving as seen in the Project SWORD Annual.

In this shielded form its called the BEETLE.

Like the red Thunderbird 6 in the clip the Beetle would have made an excellent friction drive toy. Its a real shame that Century 21 Toys never released it as part of the Project SWORD toy range [although C21 did licence the Imai model].

We can get an idea of what a JR21 Beetle might have looked like in this superb mock-up done by collector Ferryman in 2009.

The actual model was released by Imai in orange plastic and intriguingly in plain white.

I shall write about the white version at a later date.

For now ....

Like Keaton's Batman says in '89,

"Shields!"

Scratchbuilt Doctor McCoy Medikit Spray Healer by Kev D

Hi,

I've made the next gadget in McCoy's medikit. The spray healer. This was made from aluminium tube and detail added with scored aluminium tape and scrap bits!

Take care,

Kevin

DALEKS INVADE KEV'S DIORAMA

Hi,

These are my toy Daleks, fine examples of how good modern toys can be. These are really good replicas and even though they're only 4 or so inches tall, the black one is radio controlled!

Kevin

window shopping for toys in new jersey

Rained out at work and bored out of my skull, I decided to walk around and gawk at ToysRUs.

Naturally, I know where Godzilla is lurking and this glowing blue plasma G is awesome.

I also got a kick out of the Animal Planet Dark Forest playset.

 

I don't know what this Disney Mecha 4 is but I like the monsters.

I was completely blown away by the Star Wars Landspeeder kiddie car. 

I would have traded in my tricycle for that pronto!

Lastly, a rare find in clearance! Thunderbirds are scarce in the States, but here's proof that if you look carefully enough,there they are!

$7.98 In U.S. dollars. Tell me if that's a good price when converted? 

Brian F in NJ

Lily Blastoff: Musings on the Mini Capitan Boy Toy Range

Mini Capitan Boy was a Mexican hybrid of SpaceX toys and miniature Billy Blastoff toys.

I first stumbled across it last year on You Tube in a video about toy firm Lili Ledy. 

Beyond this new information has been scant about this unusual brand of toys.

However it is possible from the film to see some of these Mexican toys quite clearly. One of these is the miniature Scout Car pictured here from an online auction. But just how small is it?

The mini Billy Blastoff figure is 1.5 inches tall according to a Worthpoint auction listing.

Guessing how small the scout car toy is can be estimated from this.

It would appear to be 2 to 3 inches long to me.

Also this group shot below has several mini Billy Blastoff figures. 

For a sense of just how scaled down the range was compare the normal sized Billy Blastoff Scout car centre left and the Mini Capitan Boy version front centre above the letter T in the word ROBOTIN. 

You can also compare large and small versions of  the rest of Billy's range too including the Walker and the buggy with pincers at the front.

Another possible yardstick of size is this similar little red Scout Car knockoff which appeared in several LP and Apollo Moon Exploration style sets like this pictured.

This could very well be the same scale as the Mini Capitan Boy toy.

Fortunately its dimensions and features have been beautifully catalogued on blog friend Paul V's Triang Spacex Toys website.

http://www.triangspacextoys.info/SpGAderv/LPHK/LPhkSmTy/LPscuBug/LPscuBug.html

Looking at the dimensions on Paul's site the orange scout car may be smaller than the Mini Capitan Boy version.  Its hard to say without having them side by side.

Its interesting to note that Paul's site also features one of the Mini Capitan Boy Spacex-based toys, the T-5 Tractor lookalike with the double launcher

http://www.triangspacextoys.info/SpGAderv/OTHR/mexico/MxT5copy.html

This is clearly visible in the Lili Ledy film on You Tube. Here's a still. The double missile launcher yellow tractor is just behind the front P3 helicopter.

Comparing the sizes on Paul's brilliant site, its also interesting to note that the dimensions of this toy were slightly bigger than the Tri-ang SpaceX T-5 and Golden Astronaut Terrain Tiger originals.

Were all the Spacex-inspired toys in the Mini Capitan Boy range slightly bigger than the Tri-ang/ Multiple Toymakers versions?

We will just have to wait for a Lili Ledy Mini Capitan Boy range to surface before we'll know exactly what the rest of Spacex-inspired vehicles look like, how big they were and if and how the little spaceman could sit on them!

DAN ZOOMERAY

Hello Woodsy 

I responded to the Dan Dare gun video post [last month] and then discovered this on eBay. 

1950's Tigrett USA - ATOM FLASH ZOOMERAY Plastic Toy Space Gun

This was made under licence in the UK and branded for Dan Dare. 

Inflict a paper cut on evil Treens!

Terranova47
NYC