R is for Red Thunderchief Movie Car-90 or Something?

With a nod to Pete and Dud for their skit, which I've posted the link to here, and elsewhere, more than once, so won't bore you with again! And it's all because this is one of those moments when TJF's criticism of me holds some water, if only because I do, from time to time, get it wrong, but I tend to then tell you, giving a lie to his arrogant-git's attempts to paint me as an arrogant-git, although I may well be over-confident in my self-assurance sometimes!

I saw this going cheap on evilBay, can't remember if it was BIN or opening-bid, but I secured it for a reasonably small amount, thinking two things, firstly, "It's a copy of that big thing I got in two parts, but smaller and made as a single piece" and secondly "It's that little space man (fifteenth image down!) with the plug-in ariel who is still a question-mark".

 

Well, when it arrived, very quickly and well-packed I'm pleased to say, I knew instantly that I had been a very silly boy, as not only was it the smaller half of the X-40 Thunderchief Movie Thing, but that meant I'd had the pilot, AND had posted him, before I posted him again as a question mark! Doh!

 

Anyway, as you might have noticed it was also damaged, so, with nothing to lose, and a better one in the box, I carefully prised the two glued halves apart, by running a fine blade round the joined rim until the two halves fell apart, and the contents fell out!

I then cut away the remains of the cross spars, and polished the scars away with my finger-nails (the best way to get rid of the whitening of damaged polystyrene, you can also use jade polishing tips, or the old ivory finger-nail buffers), and heat-polished the transparency by rubbing vigorously on my jeans until I could feel it heating up, a technique which requires a bit more care/practice as you can crack the piece or actually melt it and instantly pick up fluff which equally-instantly wealds itself to the softened plastic

 

I then washed off all the greasy finger-marks from the inside of the canopy and put it all back together again, although you may have noticed the wheels have changed size, and it's lost its spigot/pitot/anemometer thingy . . . whatever they call the spike!

Major 'King' Kong, goes to space war! Yeeharh!

 

When it turned-up with different front wheels, and because I needed to dig everything out to unify it all, in one place, a quick look at the box, and comparison with my whole (ish) one, revealed that it had been mucked-about with and should have had the larger wheels, so they were swapped-out, and the pitot tube/prong went on the bigger model at the same time.

 

It's actually a carefully sanded, rolled-paper, lolly-stick (the new Q-tips, or 'don't-put-these-in-your-ears', ear-cleaners have them too), from the previous owner, to which I have applied a silver Sharpie! At some point in the future, I will do a little more work, especially to the rear, to make it more of a space-taxi or airfield/space-field apron vehicle!

X-40 is for Thunderflash!

Although I seem to recall Arto has it as a 'Space Rocket' too, somewhere. And before we look at it; if you only watch one thing today, this should be your viewing! I know I could embed it, but someone else (cheers Aidan John Bradley) found it on one of my Faceplant groups last night, so it would be a bit naughty, trying to take the kudos!

Apparently designed by Heinkel, it should have been the X-111! Hardly a rack toy, but from the Hong Kong cheapies section of the toy store, and probably something you could save your pocket-money up for over a few weeks, it's a bit ugly, but it grows on you once you have one to handle.

That German bomber nose-cone in full! Obviously, it's all about the figures, and this one is quite neat if hard to photograph, and while collecting vehicles only really took off to ID all those odd seated figures which have come in, the likelihood of finding a good example of this chap loose is unlikely as the amount of damage which would need to be created to free him would almost certainly damage him too! Yes; he has an ariel in his helmet!

 

On the ramp for a vertical launch, an exercise which is not easy as the two lateral fins are also the triggers for an XL5 type launching nose-section/capsule, and - like all these early spaceship toys - the otherwise clean likes are marred by the carpet wheels.

 

Pressing the fins launches the cab-unit, not very far on my example, but that's as much down to age as anything, the spring is a bit rusty! But it does work, and on 1960's lino-floors would have shot-off in a mission-like fashion I'm sure! Indeed, when I first got it, the two halves were apart in the box (it's a bit hair-triggered), and I spent a while wondering if I was missing parts of a battery-housing, before I worked-out what was going on!

 

Navigational equipment and the two fins, I don't think they are meant to come out with quite the ease of my example, but again, we can blame age for everything being a bit loose and flappy 'down below'!

Box Art, nothing exciting and my box is shot to bits, but I'd never bid on a 'new one', they are way out of my budget! And yes, the graphic is clearly aping the Project Sword logo!

 

In comparison with one of the Lido space vehicles for the Captain Video sets, the diminutive American polymer product makes quite a good Space Port tender, or even the apron tow-tractor!

Famous last-words on the pilot, one turned-up soon after, complete with ariel, and then a part-one which allowed a certian amount of restoration to this one too!

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2024/01/r-is-for-red-thunderchief-movie-car-90.html