The line of toys in this post represents my on-again, off-again efforts at collecting the spaceships and vehicles associated with the comic strips printed in the Project S.W.O.R.D. Annual starting in 1968. Essentially these were toys being made by Century 21 and the idea was to promote them using a comic strip format with an end-of-world story line. There's more to the history but the below extract is enough to allow you to get the gist of the matter.
An excellent source for Project S.W.O.R.D. (or SWORD - both are correct) is the Moonbase Central blog where Woodsy, Scoop, Wotan and a coterie of contributors, have tried to tell the history of the strip and the toys, track down the toys themselves (common and rare alike), and feature knock-offs and variations. Be Blessed and Relish Life! Ed
(The following is an excerpt from a now-defunct website: www.technodelic.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk:)
"The City... New York. The
Time... near World's End.
The opening caption of the first strip in the Project
SWORD annual sets the scene for this ambitious format to promote a new
range of Century 21 Toys. The irony is, the format is not set in the 21st
Century at all. But then, to be in the pages of TV21 when it
did, it would have to be somewhat removed from the other series. So 'near
World's End' was a thousand years in the future, in AD 3031.
The feature In The Beginning starts six years previously, with
an equally ambitious plan to explore deep space to find resources for a
depleted Earth. S.W.O.R.D. - acronym for the Space World Organisation of
Research and Development - is set up for this quest, beyond the known worlds.
The second main feature 3031 explains how chaos and
destruction had now come to Earth in the form of a meteorite plunging into the
Pacific Ocean. In a broader reworking of the opening instalment of Project
SWORD in the weekly comic, and illustrated by three of Ron Embleton's
artworks from TV21 (below), we are reintroduced to the
desperate plight of Earth and its survivors. Project SWORD is
again reiterated as the last hope for humanity, with a three part mission -
Evacuation, Rehabilitation and Investigation.
So what of the annual
itself? Production lead times indicate it was being written just as the first
instalments of the weekly Project SWORD stories got underway. Howard Elson, who was
working as an editor in the Century 21 Publishing book department, 'The idea was they had a
range of merchandising that they wanted to sell, and they decided to sell it on
the back of strips. The strips basically revolve around the vehicles, which was
a unique idea at the time"
My Project SWORD Toys
The two companies most closely associated with the Project SWORD line of toys is Tarheel Industries, and Century 21. The line actually got its start with Century 21, but I'm not sure how Tarheel became involved. In addition, companies like Tri-ang produced smaller versions of some of these toys but weren't branded as Project SWORD.
Tarheel
Nova I No.5918 (posted just yesterday)
For some strange reason, Tarheel used the same item number for all three ships
Nova II No. 5918
(Shown with Tri-ang 1/72 scale spaceman for size comparison)
Nova III No. 5918
Probe Force 2
Task Force No. 1
Task Force No. 3 No. 5917
Century 21
Project SWORD Moon Prospector
(To be blogged)
Tri-ang / MPC Golden Astronaut
SpaceX Rocket Ship 'Hawk'
(Shown with Tri-ang 1/72 scale spaceman for size comparison)
SpaceX Prospector
