Saturn V: Toy Roll Out and Lift Off

There's some beautiful footage of a model Saturn V rocket blasting off from its launch pad and gantry here.

Its from You Tube and appears about half way through.

Rocketry has always fascinated me but I never had actual firing rockets as a kid. Did you?

What I did have was the Project SWORD Cape Kennedy Set with its own Saturn V back in '67.

Made by Century 21 Toys it as a bundle of battery-operated rocket fun!

I had more fun with my set a few years aback as you can see from this You Tube short I did at the time. 

I always thought Century 21 Toys could have released a large plastic biulding, the VAB, as an accessory to this toy, maybe even flat-packed IKEA style!

They didn't so I made my own from a cardboard box.

Enjoy!

Could Zeroids Do Any Real Work?

I wonder just how much weight could a Zeroid have pulled?

I remember the brown one distinctly dragging his box trailer along behind him. He gave my Action Man a ride round the room now and then.

But could Zeroid's do any real work?

Would that trailer take a a book from one side of the room to another for instance or maybe relocate a whole stack of loose SpaceX vehicles?

There's one other working Robot I'd have loved as a nipper in 1968, Captain Robo from Yonezawa - their 21st Century Space Series range. It looks superb but I don't know how the robot pulled the trailer. Or did it?

Captain Robo reminds me of something in Space Safari by Miniflex. I haven't got that set so if you have maybe let me know which vehicle I'm thinking of. 

The Captain's red domed cockpit has a look of the Project SWORD Moon Ranger too. I'd like to get a good clear look inside that red dome.

Did you have any working robots as a kid? Zeroids, Ding a Lings etc?

The Thunderbirds Way of Moving the Empire State Biulding

Was this the biggest vehicle in the Anderson universe?

Courtesy of You Tube.

Vintage Japanese Imai Thunderbirds TV Ad

Mat Irvine Books, Models and Century 21 Props

I came across a name when reading the story of the sonic screwdriver in my last post. Modeler Mat Irvine.

Its a name I don't often see now for some reason but when books and magazines ruled Matt's name popped up regularly.

I have two that spring to mind. I'm pretty sure Mat is mentioned in Starlog's Science Fiction Models from 1980. I have a well-thumbed copy in the attic. Have you?

I also have Mat's book, Creating Space: the Story of the Space Age Told Through Models, which I got through reader Darth's own publishing house Apogee.

Having not seen Mat's name for ages I was fascinated to read on purpleblancmange's TardisBiulders forum post that:

".... the late 1960's, he [Ian Scoones] got wind that Gerry Anderson's Century 21 Studios were selling off all their props and models and was invited to purchase some of the stuff. He jumped in a van and tootled over to the studios with his assistant Mat Irvine and loaded the van to capacity with loads of stuff - much of which would end up in Doctor Who in one shape or another."

So Mat's professional modelling went as far back as the late 1960's and the close of Century 21? Wow! I'd no idea he was part of that golden age. I can't imagine what fabulous Century 21 props Mat saw when Gerry's company shut up shop. A sad day but I would have loved to have been there with Ian and Mat!

Are you aware of this C21 props sell-off readers and are you aware of Mat Irvine's modeling work?

PROPS USED IN THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO 1966

I originally wrote these two posts 5 years ago.

As we have been talking about props I thought I'd re-blog them together.

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Thunderbirds Are Go, the Andersons' first of two Thunderbirds movies, is a real treat for any Project SWORD fan simply because the star of the film is Zero-X.

WOTAN recently gave me the DVD version, which I watched this week. With its brilliant effects, fantastic imagery and superb musical score, here are a few other things I noticed about the film.

The Zero-X appears in a Newspaper in the movie [top picture], which is an artist's impression. 

Comparing it with Derek Medding's original concept painting [bottom; looked on by Sylvia Anderson] its clear that they are the same. It does feel only right that a film about Zero-X should include it's origin like this and it was a nice touch by the Director David Lane. 

I wonder what happened to the painting?

When the MEV is trundling round Mars and fighting rock snakes it deploys a machine gun from it's roof [below, bottom pic]. 

As soon as I saw it I thought of the Action Man machine gun I had as a kid [below, top]. 

Comparing the two there are some similarities but they're not the same. Presumably the movie gun was made by the prop department.

Finally, we have the grey rocket rests of Thunderbird 3 [below, top] and the Zero-X escape pod [below, bottom]. 

I'm sure I've read somewhere that these are parts from an old vacuum cleaner like Hoover but I can't find any reference to it. 

Does any one else know anything about this?

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My last post on the movie Thunderbirds Are Go generated two great clues from Yorkie and Kevin about more stuff possibly used in the film: the Johnny Seven One Man Army and Dr. Who's Sonic Screwdriver. 

Armed with a strong cup of coffee and the two clues I searched the movie on You Tube for evidence.

It turns out that Yorkie's Johnny Seven sighting was bang on as you'll hopefully see from the two screengrabs on the left below. 

The Johnny Seven has indeed been modified into the cable-shooting gun Alan fires from Thunderbird 2 to attach a line to the stricken Zero-X. 

Besides the overall shape of the toy, the main giveaways are the classic Topper riveting and the circular embossing on the 'rear' side of the toy, the side with the maker's mark and name.

The lower of the two comparisons of both guns from the front clearly shows the dark aperture on the Thunderbirds device, the which formed one end of the slot for the spring-loaded grenade launcher on the toy. 

Although morphed and painted grey, there was definitely a Johnny Seven on board Thunderbird 2 in Thunderbirds Are Go! Result!

This leads onto Kevin's suggestion that Alan Tracy's tool used to repair the Zero-X was in fact the sonic screwdriver used by Jon Pertwee's Doctor Who. 

Looking into this I was able to get a good screengrab of the Zero-X repair tool from Thunderbirds Are Go, which you can see above left. 

The Pertwee screwdriver proved more elusive and the best shot I could grab was one from the Doctor Who story The Green Death, where the good Doctor is brandishing it in his hand in a landscape of mining of spoil. 

Even though the sonic screwdriver is partly obscured you can still make out enough detail to see that Kevin is indeed right. They appear to be the same!

As you can imagine, anything to do with Doctor Who has been poured over by countless fans and the origin of the sonic screwdriver is no exception. 

The story was brilliantly researched by purpleblancmange in 2009. 

It really is a truly fascinating read on the subject, involving Century 21 no less and corroborates Kevin's observation.

The Zero-X repair tool did in fact become the Sonic Screwdriver!

Thunderbirds Are Time Lords! 

Excellent!

Any more prop stories readers?

Brian's Cheapo Die-Cast 20 in 1 Space Set

Hi all,

Here is a space play set I found on holiday clearance last month.I opened it up and took some closer pictures.

See anything you recognize?

Brian F, NJ

The Gates of Talos

I recently heard a large creaking steel gate opening at work. It sounded more or less like this one on You Tube:

As soon as I heard the metal gate creaking I knew immediately where I'd heard that grating high-pitched whine before!

Yes, Talos!

That has to be a creaking gate sound when Talos awakens on his pedestal after the treasure horde of the Gods is disturbed.

I can well imagine that the sound editor actually went out and recorded a creaky gate with a microphone and reel to reel tape recorder to capture this.

It is without doubt one of my favourite movie scenes of all time.

Does anyone know how they did it?