The first evidence of the Captain Scarlet Angel Interceptor prototype was provided by The Dinky Toys Encyclopaedia compiled by Jacques Du Jardin. John King revealed the provenance and details of a companion model to the very successful Captain Scarlet TV Series range produced by Dinky Toys.
Jacques originally photographed this model at the house of the then owner, John King, a Dinky expert and former Editor of Ramsay’s British Diecast Model Toys Catalogue. John obtained the model from another dealer who had been at Binns Road around 1988 and who found what he thought was a just a ‘Dinky prototype airplane’.
John believes that the item is a genuine Dinky Toys prototype, probably the last or at least one of the last, produced in late 1979 or 1980. The model is small, similar in size to the 803 USS Enterprise and may have been intended for the 800 series of models that were being produced at the end of 1979, such as the Starchasers range.
The Angel Interceptor may possibly have been numbered ‘830’ and was probably designed by Joe Fowlman who created other Captain Scarlet Vehicles such as the 103 SPC and 104 SPV. Proof will come from a factory drawing, if one still exists and if it does, please contact the site!
The photos above were taken around 10 years ago and show construction typical of the evaluation stage. The wheels probably come from an existing airplane model, the bulbous nose, which should be pointed, was possibly designed to have a rubber or plastic tip.
Since this article was published new information has come to light provided by ‘toys from the past blog’ This was highlighted by Paul Woods’ excellent site Moonbase Central.
A very similar model, painted yellow was found in a flea market in Spain. The date of manufacture is thought to be c 1981 and there were no manufacturers or other making on the model. They appear to be part of a set of SciFi models.
Blue model: Buck Roger’s Starfighter (TV Series 1979)
Yellow model: Gerry Anderson’s Captain Scarlet’s Angel Interceptor (TV Series 1967).
Comparing the prototype and its Spanish equivalent demonstrates the similarities.
It is possible that in the dying days of Dinky, castings of the prototype were sent to Spain and were then released there. The blue and white 361 War Chariot was sent to Italy for assembly and the 361 Missile Firing War Chariot may have been assembled in Hong Kong so this is possible. However unless a design drawing shows up we will not know for certain.
Airfix, who owned Dinky at this time, had produced an Angel Interceptor, originally in 1968, and it was available throughout the 1970s as it was a popular model. They would therefore have had the designs and possibly the licence to produce another version as well.
TV SERIES:
Both the Dinky and the Airfix models were based on the prop used in Captain Scarlet TV Series.
In the TV series the Angel Interceptor is a single seater supersonic fighter jet employed by the SPECTRUM organisation as a fighter compliment aboard it’s floating air carrier Cloudbase and as a general air defence and strike force. They were flown by an all-female team of top pilots called Destiny, Symphony, Rhapsody, Melody and Harmony Angel.
Dinky Toys: TV Shows, Space and Specials 