TV21 CUTAWAYS:A LAST LOOK

Now I'm back in blighty , and as the classic TV21 cutaway selections I've posted have been reasonably popular with a few of you, I thought I'd dig out the last few I posted a while back. These don't get seen as much as the others, but still good to see. I originally scanned them from the Joe 90 Dossier, a mailaway carded covered magazine given away by Sutherland potted meat spreads, the Joe 90 and Captain Scarlet annuals, and the joint Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet annual, and finally TV21 itself .

Naturally, we have to have something from the Project SWORD annual.

Please do bear in mind this isn't a final check list for TV21 cutaways (there's an M.S.V. and Spectrum Helicopter I've not got round to scanning yet) but hopefully I"ve covered most of them. I should also mention that it's generally accepted that the uncredited artist for at least some of them is Eric Eden, who drew the Lady Penelope comic strip in the early TV21's . This is Eric's cutaway of FAB 1 from the first TV21 summer extra.

TOP OF THE MORNING

I loved this tinplate top I glanced online.

Its placed in the picture like a playground ride but I think its just a small tin top.

The large red ball is the push-down spinner.

Made in japan, I've never seen a space capsule top like this before. Such a cool design!

What do you think?

AU REVOIR TO SHORE LEAVE

Last day of my vacation, so it's goodbye to Summer Specials and lolly ices. Board the plane and back to base.

IN THE CHARNEL HOUSE OF SCIENCE ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN!

I'm more or less through digesting my holiday novel, Silence of the Lambs but next on the late summer pile is Chimera by Stephen Gallagher.

I watched this dark TV series back in the eighties and having enjoyed it then it was no big decision to grab this paperback from a Charity shop shelf in Wales on holiday.

Born of the eco-angst typical of the big-hair Chernobyl decade, which justifiably gave us the brilliant Edge of Darkness nuclear power TV drama with the late Bob Peck [the recent Chernobyl series is a modern example] , Chimera taps into that other bete noire of the green movement at the time, genetic engineering.

Remote labs, dodgy experiments, strong women, shady government units: Chimera had them all on TV and I'm hoping for the same growing sense of secret chaos from the novel, which I assume came first.

Have you seen or read Chimera?

What's on your summer piles?

A FEW MORE CUTAWAYS

Four more cutaways from TV 21 and Thunderbirds annuals. I posted these a while back, but as these original cutaways from the sixties are proving reasonably popular I thought I 'd give them an airing.

Just in case some of you are unaware The  Junglecat  is the name the vehicle was given in one of the early 1965 TV21 Stingray strips prior to its appearance on TV in the Thunderbirds episode, Pit of Peril, where it has its more familiar name of Sidewinder.

FIERCE TOYS: ZOOS, JUNGLES, PHANTOMS AND TARZAN:

I loved Jungle and zoo toy sets when I was a kid. Daktari die-cats and annuals and Woobinda annuals and carded plastic zoo animals were big with little Woodsy.

Were they for you?

I always have a look now and then for these type of toys especially old Hong Kong blister cards. I just like to see them.

Here's a couple I've seen of late.

This set has the iconic yaying gorilla that I adored as a young Kong fan.

These funny zoo animals have been seen on Moonbase before.

And check out this neat Jungle Adventure set in a box with those yaying Kongs. Not sure of the make.

An interesting set crossing over into super hero action figure territory is Larami's The Phantom Jungle Play Set, a set I've liked since first coming across it in one of my old toy reference books despite the jungle warrior being out of step with society now.

There can't be many Phantom figures.

This Argentinian Tarzan reminded me of the ridiculously rare Lone Star Tarzan set.

Also the Phantom figure above as its the same pose!

The only picture I've ever seen of the Tarzan carded set by Lone Star is on the cover of the excellent Plastic Warrior magazine from the UK as featured on their own webpage of back issues [ issue 118, 2007 ] 

Having just read my own copy, its a crouching chimp that appeared in the set rather than a gorilla although its hard to see in the picture.

The warrior looks like the one in the Phantom set!

Its so rare it even generated a googlewack - just one single result on Google! See below [just seen that I even got the mag's name wrong! Doh!]. 

Anyone got one of these sets or anything similar?

If you click on the link for Stad's Stuff Plastic Warrior magazine talk about this rare set in more detail including the crouching chimp figure. 

https://www.stadsstuff.com/?p=6403

A FEW MORE TV21 SUMMER EXTRAS

Of the remaining TV21 Summer extras I haven't mentioned this is a favourite. The 1967 Thunderbirds spring extra which heavily featured the movie. Thunderbirds are Go.

This featured a photo countdown of the Zero X take off, and a cutaway of the Zero X. This cutaway went on the feature in the Project SWORD annual in colour, so I did do an amalgam of the two pages together a long while back for a blog post.

The cover of the previous year's TV21 Thunderbirds Special.

There was also a Lady Penelope Summer Special too.

A bonus, and not TV21 related was the much sought after Lion comic Summer Spectacular Epic which was full of 1966 film features including James Bond and Thunderbirds are Go.

Also worth mentioning is the TV21 card cover magazine of the film, Thunderbirds are Go.

TUFF TRAY PLAY

Currently childminding so I thought I'd share my grandson Moonbase Junior's new farmyard.

Its in a large plastic tray called a tuff tray. You can put anything in it for childrens' play: sand, oats, pasta, water, plastic figures, grass. Its all contained rather neatly.

For added convenience, placing it on a low table creates the perfect height for toddlers.

I never had a wet tray like this. I did everything on the carpet!

Did you? What do you think of the tuff tray?