Being an avid fan of Gerry & Sylvia Anderson shows, I had all the Dinky Toys Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and UFO vehicles. So when I read in the comic Look-In about the new Anderson show, Space 1999 and the release of a new Dinky toy, I was very excited.

I visited my local toy shop at the end of my 1975 school holiday and found it had the Dinky green Eagle Transporter in stock. I actually owned the Eagle for some weeks before the first episode had aired – I had no real idea what the spaceship did, but the design was amazing.

I found more and more pictures appearing in newspapers and my comics with the white rescue Eagle featured, so I hoped a toy version would be out at some point. I then saw the clips of the Freighter Eagle lifting the nuclear waste tubs out of the storage holes – I was a bit annoyed there wasn’t one green Eagle shown!

By the time ‘Breakaway’ had aired, the white Freighter Eagle was out in the shops. I managed to persuade my parents this was also essential for me to have, so I swapped the transporter pod over from the green Eagle to the white Eagle to make that my Eagle One!

By that point, I’d realised there was never going to be a green Eagle, so I kept the transporter pod on the white Eagle. As I had some model kit paint on hand, I set about painting the doors (which were red on the transporter pod) white. That poor paint job I did can be seen in the photo I’ve included!

Eventually, the Airfix Eagle kit was released, which my Dad built for me. That was hung on very thin fishing wire from my bedroom ceiling for some years. That, however, did not survive all these years due to yellow glue marking. It was eventually thrown away as the marks couldn’t be removed.

The green Dinky Eagle was given away to a friend, but I kept the Freighter Pod. The white Dinky Eagle has survived well, and I still hold it very dear to me as the memories and excitement of the time are so very clear.