Flying Star Moon Craft

 I don't think I've seen this radio controlled  Flying Star F5 Moon Craft before. 

It looks fantastic!

There's elements of the USS Enterprise and Thunderbird 5 in there.

I love the blue and orange colours.

Is this a toy you know?

Payva the Way

 Ever since finding this Payva toy series, Series Espacial, on Todo I've loved the look and the link to the Blue Box originals.

I think I like the Spanish boxes more than the UK releases.

The one missing is the elusive space tank car.

Anyone got any of these toys from any maker?

Searching for Thunderbirds The Anniversary Episodes

 A while back during lockdown I recall a company called Century 21 Films making three new supermarionation episodes of Thunderbirds. 

It struck me as a massive and heroic mission at the time, to recreate the greatest kids TV show of all time.

Having just remembered six years on and wondering if they ever finished, I've been in search of the episodes, hoping they're available to the public via streaming, so I'm going to look.

In the meantime here's what the company says about them on their own website.

Anyone seen them?

https://www.century21films.co.uk/thunderbirds-50th-anniversary-specials

Small And Hexcellent!

 It always amazes me what's out there to get. 

As a young teenager I was mad about Witches Tales comics and the related titles like Horror Tales, much to my Dad's 'horror'. I guess the covers were pretty gross!

Anyway searching for miniature bibles I came across tiny versions of Witches Tales ... For dolls houses! Now that's the kind of dolls house I'd like! 

I guess you can miniaturize anything! 

What would you make small readers?

Syd Mead Cruiser

 Whenever I see a T in a Circle Cabin Cruiser like the one Will O sent in this week

I always admire the cool and colourful box art on the side

And immediately think of this fabulous Syd Mead artwork

Do you know of any art in this sort of retro futuristic vein? 

Spanish Fly Ship

 I clocked this on Spain's Todocollecion. The Fly Ship X-3.

A superb looking craft by OK toys, it's wireless controlled. I'd have loved it as a kid. The box art alone would have done it!

Did you have radio or wireless control?

Ex Machina

I re-watched Ex Machina last night,

A future flick from 2014. I enjoyed it but not ecstatically.

Basically about a gynoid called Ava, an imprisoned innocent and a megalomaniac, Ex M was an AI vision made when, unlike today, AI wasn't part of everything everywhere. 

The film is good to look at: minimal, stark, clean and polished. The inside of the house is a pristine underground white rat maze like you'd see on Grand Designs. Outside it's a shack in a remote lush valley. 

SPOILER! I found it awkwardly tense and ultimately a bit depressing, the robot killing it's captor in order to live in the real world, the innocent sacrificed.

Prescient it was and I'm still wondering what would an AI being like Ava do in a world full of humans?

It's probably not long before we find out.

Have you seen Ex Machina?

Paul's Fantabulous Paint Box

In the 1960s/1970s I had a couple of tin water colour paint boxes. A small one with (I think) a circus scene on it; and a large one with a boy and a girl riding a giant paint brush through space, on their way to the Moon.

Although wearing space helmets, both were in normal clothing, which seemed a bit odd. The paint box was a large one, with 100 small cakes of water colour paint, in an array of colours.

I had this box for years, but with the paints mostly used up, and the box beginning to rust, I threw it out about ten or twelve years ago. Something I have regretted ever since.

Just below the word Fantabulous the box has a white rectangle containing the words 'With 100 Colours', although I found a variant which says 'Up to the Moon' instead. I have no idea which version I had.

The hinged lid of the tin says 'Made in England', and in the lower right hand corner is a logo or trade-mark. A figure holding a spear, with either a single or double letter L, and the word Product.

I do not know the name of the company, and have not been able to identify the logo. Although I did find a clearer view of it, on a different paint box.

Here is the photo with a clearer view of the L or LL logo. I do not know who the maker is, and I am hoping that someone can identify it. Does anyone know the name of the maker?

It was a great paint box, and kept me amused for many hours.

Five photographs from Worthpoint, Ebay, and Etsy.

Paul Adams from New Zealand