Project Sword 1

The Forgotten Plastic Anderson Rockets of the Sixties: by Paul Wood

Long, sleek, curved, big fins, astrodomed, big retros, futuristic shapes, prolific - these are all words describing that forgotten
range of plastic Gerry Anderson space-ships and vehicles of the sixties - Project Sword. 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.