PROJECT
SWORD HISTORY
by paul woods u.k.1999
Forgotten, perhaps, but how many
baby-boom Xmas mornings were lit up by the wondrous coloured lights of the moonbus or the
moon prospector? How many airfix plastic- soldier carpet- battalions were blasted by the
Booster Rocket! More than we think I bet. For me, the toys completely eclipsed the other
Anderson craft by Century 21, Lincoln et al. For 1 or 2 Christmas's in the late sixties,
Project Sword- the ships, badges and space- age boxes- were my only reasons for getting up
at the crack of dawn, falling over the dog and raiding the pile at the bottom of the tree!
Always destined to be in the shadow of
their more famous cousins, Thunderbirds, and the other Gerry Anderson TV series, Project
Sword was one of the most exciting and futuristic fleet of space toys around, particularly
in the UK. Yes, they never made it onto the small screen or even the scriptwriters' desk
and some of them were straight out of NASA, but the toys were masterpieces of plastic
design and the peak of space- cadet cool.
The one exception to this lack of fame
is, of course, Zero X - the star of the Thunderbirds are Go Movie and a fantastically huge
toy to boot, which graced the pages of all the Project Sword publications.
The 'Sword world of toys was conceived
through a mixture of Century 21 Toys purchasing some old Hong Kong/ Taiwan toy moulds and
then doing there usual magic on the designs. All this was way back in 1967/68. The full
range of 'playthings' consisted of: plastic toys, one annual and comic strips.
It is unclear who at Century 21 Toys
oversaw the Project Sword range, although it is likely that Jack Rosenthal and Keith
Shackleton were central. Allen Fennel had a role in creating the concept/ story. The
design work will have included Derek Meddings, most likely on Zero X. Other staff included
Angus Allen, Richard Curtis and Todd Sullivan. Gerry Anderson will have certainly endorsed
the whole Project Sword line.
The plastic toys were neatly bound
together in stories featured in the Annual and the comic and text strips in Solo and
TV21respectively. At the nub of the Sword concept is Earth in the year 3031- struck by a
meteorite and dying, global civil war and a mass evacuation to other planets- this last
challenge being the reason for all the Sword ships and vehicles. Pity it never made it
onto the TV!
As a collectable, Sword has
everything: a defined but numerous range, a degree of obscurity and hence is challenging,
relatively modest prices, stunning good looks and a few real rare nirvanas like the
Nuclear Ferry . A particular area worthy of further exploration is the precise number of
different American Sword toys by Tarheel - there could be a whole replica US Sword
universe out there (let me know if you find any!)
They deserve not to be the forgotten
plastic rockets of the sixties because they are as good as anything else produced by
Century 21 or any other sixties space- toy outfit. Then again, I don't want everyone to
start collecting them! I have written a Checklist for collectors and I am always
interested in talking Sword, so please email me.
NB Spacex history page in
development.
created by
paul woods u.k. copyright 1999.
