It Gets Earlier Every Year!

The radio is full of Xmas ads. TV too! Has it started earlier this year?

When does it start for you readers?

PLANET SURFACE PATROL: MYSTERY MACHINE

 This strange space vehicle caught my eye online a while back.

Planet Surface Patrol.

Its has pull-back action and and was made in China.

The orange ribbed wheels immediately made me think of the SpaceX MEV2, but the picture shows a more conventional tyre.

And what is that design? It seems so familiar. Any ideas?

TEE'D OFF!

You think buying vintage toys is fraught with risk? Try buying a vintage rock T-Shirt.

My daughter wants a vintage Guns 'n' Roses T-Shirt for Christmas and I've been given the task of finding one. A real one from the 1980's.

We've discussed the word vintage before here on MC. I thought a search using it would prove easy.

No.

Vintage was the least of my problems. Words like original, classic, iconic, genuine, retro-styled, retro-inspired, old new, licenced and even more abound in the listings.

It would appear that these words are completely inter-changeable and are almost meaningless.

Some shirts cost hundreds of pounds and I assume these high-priced items are indeed the real McCoys, but alas I don't want to spend a small fortune on a T-shirt.

At the lower end its a shark frenzy. Old rock T-shirts are easy to re-print and that's what's happening. There are millions of 'vintaged' [my word!] T-shirts out there that are prints of 1980's designs and made this morning. It covers all bands and not just Guns 'n' Roses.

After searching for an hour - and taking a punt on a risk-free cheap one [which is likely to be too small] - I gave up.

I'll resume after several strong coffees!

Have you bought a vintage T-shirt?

Wooden it be Nice

 I loved model yachts as a kid.

In fact any toy boats would do.

I'm adulthood I carried on having a few around the house like this wooden yacht on a stand.

Did you or do you have any wooden yachts readers? 

REMEMBER, REMEMBER...

 As it's Bonfire Night, here in the UK, here's what I'll be watching tonight after some treacle toffee and sparklers!

AQUA DOUBLE

 As there's been mention of the Airfix Stingray on here, I thought I give a sneak peek of one of my build projects that's currently on the go.

I managed to pick up an original unassembled  Airfix Stingray kit a while back and have unsurprisingly started to assemble it.

There are a couple of repro bits in the mix but in the main it's fairly complete, and will compliment my resin version I've already made and blogged about back in June.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-incredible-resin-stingray.html

I'll do a decent post on it once it's finished.

Mystery Stingray Model Seen on You Tube: Lyons Maid?

 

This clip appeared years ago on You Tube and I've just found it again. What do you think it is readers? Is it a Lyons Maid Stingray, like the one posted today from Will O?

WHAT A DRAG! SWEET CIGARETTES AND MORE

With debates about smoking bans and stopping the sale of disposable vapes in the air my mind wandered back to my own smokes.

Both my parents smoked. After fighting in WWII they did everything. Smoked, drank, worked hard and had lots of babies, two of whom still smoke in the 70's.

For some odd reason it never appealed to me growing up in smoke-filled Preston. I can sum up my own smoking 'career' as 1 Gitane [French?], 1 black Sobrane [Russian?] and 1 herbal cigarette [Boots?], all puffed as a teenager in the 1970's and not an experience I enjoyed at all, although I always liked the packaging and artwork.

Much more to my taste were the chocolate cigarettes of my earlier youth, which I bought for pence in the local penny shop near Sacred Heart school. I don't think you ate the paper and I'm pretty sure they were always in packets like these I found on the net.

The chocolate was quite delicious, sort of powdery, about halfway between Cadburys and cooking chocolate. Its unlikely you can get them anymore given the current climate but I was wrong about Old Jamaica so who knows.

What's for certain,is that on the Continent you can get chewing gum cigarettes for kids still. When we were in Germany I saw stacks of them in sweet aisles. I suppose I was a bit shocked really but then again I ate tons of chocolate cigarettes and didn't make the leap to childhood smoking. Anyhow here's a large assortment currently on Amazon de. I assume the 'tricks' mentioned is a blowable cloud of icing sugar or something like that, certainly a step too far. What do you think?

As a kid there were smoking gags around back then. I got mine from Ellisdons in Liverpool but I reckon jokes and tricks were available on racks most everywhere, especially at the seaside.

The two I recall the most were a smoking monkey [not a pleasant thought now], which puffed special roll-ups, which gave off intermittent smoke and also a more robust card cigarette which sort of glowed at the end when you took a drag. That's how I remember it anyway!

Here's a the smoking monkey just as I remember it, this one seen on sale online.

Do any of these light any fires for you readers?