Sheet 1
Sheet 2

Mobile Interior Views

SHADO Mobiles
Web site by: Phil Broad

The "Mobiles" were used as all-purpose ground transports for SHADO. They carried just about anything the defense forces might need and were designed to go anywhere, in any conditions that circumstances demanded. Those actually seen in the series were shown in three basic configurations; unarmed scout/command vehicle, mobile radar tracking vehicle and armed attack vehicle. It is quite logical to assume that these "Mobiles" were probably modular in configuration, allowing for them to be quickly reconfigured for specific missions as needed. As with all of SHADO hardware, the mobiles were small and further serve to indicate a limited operating budget at SHADO. This would add extra pressure to build vehicles which were as flexible as possible in terms of operational capabilities, thus a modular approach would be quite reasonable. We could therefore imagine other configurations which might be on the SHADO roster such as: surface-to-air missile launcher, mobile communications post, wreck recovery vehicle, troop transport and probably ambulance too.

The studio miniatures were built on the Marx "Tiger Joe tank" toy chassis. These toys are 23.25 x 14.25 inches in size which makes the miniatures not so, er, "miniature"... These toys may be found for sale today on Ebay from time to time. At the time of this writing (2003) they sell for from about $150 for one in "played with" condition (without box) to $350 and up for one in mint condition including packaging. These toys also formed the basis of many vehicles from Thunderbirds (including the popular "Crab Logger") as well as the Moonbase ground defense vehicles in "UFO".