SCRAMBLING MY BRAINS

Shortly before I left my old childhood home in Liverpool in 1970, I got a space colouring book. It was largely unremarkable, aside from the inclusion of drawings based on some of my favourite toys at the time, from the Project SWORD range. On the day I left the old house, I was at in the back of the removals van and suddenly remembered I had not emptied a cupboard and had left the book behind, along with a similar Thunderbirds one and a wooden rocket launcher that my dad had recently made me. Although I was quite upset, there was no way I could convince anyone to go back for the items and it was written off as one of those unfortunate childhood events. Still, it always bothered me, as I have a long memory for things that slip through my grasp and many decades later, I saw a similar american range of colouring books on the internet, named 'We Land On The Moon'.

 As it turned out, this was not the same one, but did have drawings which were similarly derived from illustrations in a space book that I had and also from another range of space toys.

Working on the subject on my sister blog, Moonbase Central, we discovered that the toys were in fact based on paintings by Ed Valigursky for Arthur C Clarke's book 'Man and Space', from the life Science Library.

Whoever had published the colouring book, had clearly used Valigurskys art as the basis for the drawings, just as Triang toy designers had done too.

After such a long time, I began to suspect that my memory of a colouring book with other toys in had been false and that I was in fact mis-remembering the 'We Land On The Moon' and the copies of Valigursky's drawings. However, I had the nagging suspicion that I was right and another book was out there somewhere. Fast forward to summer 2023 and whilst sifting through a local car boot sale with my good friend and co-blogger on Moonbase, we came across a tatty colouring book in a box of old annuals, which I bought sight unseen for 50p.

The 'Man on the Moon' book was a British publication, in a similar vein to the US version, but with slightly less good quality drawings. It covered the usual space race fare, with lots of pictures of Apollo etc, astronauts and satellites, but also included some much rarer illustrations, such as the Gemini Parawing design, which was suggested as a means of capsule return.

A fictional astronaut drilling on the Moon

Ed White during America's first space walk

Gemini with Rogallo Parawing

Whoever had produced the book had clearly been using aerospace literature as a source of reference.

In the later futuristic section, a design for the West German Junkers Raumtransporter shuttle was repurposed as a deep space liner.

The Raumtransporter was an unsuccessful project for a ground launched shuttle with air breathing booster and tethered rail launcher, with the orbital glider upper stage returning to a runway on skids.

Although the project reached the prototype stage, it was never flown. Models shown here are from an international aerospace show.

However, despite these unusual inclusions in a children's book, what I discovered later in the book was the culmination of years of wondering. A full page drawing of the project SWORD Scramble Bug!

Even more exciting was the fact that I could place the original image which had served as a reference, as it had clearly been copied from the 1969 TV21 Annual, which would have been concurrent with the colouring book. the drawing featured in a text story for Project SWORD, entitled 'The Loyal and the Dead'.

Further images in the colouring book had also been borrowed from the annual, in particular a full page drawing of the 'moon vehicle' which was clearly influenced from a lovely painted illustration from the annual by Ron Embleton as well as another drawing influenced by Embleton's art for another text story, called 'Ace of Spades'. This was drawn by SWORD regular artist Malcolm Stokes.

Ron Embleton - '3031'

Malcolm Stokes - 'Ace of Spades'

Actual Century 21 Toy - Scramble Bug 

Its clear to see that Embleton has used an actual toy as the model for his painting and Stokes has based his drawing on Embleton's painting, with some small amendments.

The bug appears in other drawings in the book, but in a much lesser fashion, such as this illustration showing a space suit, which again bears more than a passing resemblance to Mattel's Major Matt Mason toy line. 

Some of the other drawings do reflect current media such as Thunderbirds too and one of the rocket drawings is very similar in style to a 1960's rocket pencil sharpener, which would probably have been on sale next to the colouring book.

Now i just need to track down a copy of the american issue of 'We Land On The Moon', with the other illustrations in it!