A Bird in the Hand

I must say looking at these pics

I prefer this jazzed-up Japanese Star Bird

With it panels and red nose

To the plainer Western version.

What do you reckon?

Action Man Vintage Ads from TV

Thanks to TimeTunnelToys in You Tube, I really enjoyed watching these old TV ads, especially the late Sixties, early seventies. I so remember sliding my arctic patrol action man down our snowy drive on his wobbly skis, as if it was yesterday.

Do these ads bring back memories for you? We're there similar ads in your country?

https://youtu.be/KXf8OLhmxjY?si=TiW5baHVN826y57v

Manama More Apollo 16

Some gorgeous stamps here. Do you recognise any of the space vehicles?

Quantity of Assorted Toys

 A couple of toys caught my eye on old auctions.

A new one on me, the Magnetic Moon Race. I've no idea how it works mind! 

And Lilliput, a beautiful set of parts for building structures and cars in townscapes. It my be East German.

What do you think readers? 

Ed's 2010 Batman 5-Pack

 Woodsy, 

As a follow-on to Paul Adam's 2026 Mattel Batman vehicle 5-pack post, here's my only set. It was a 2010 issue that I bought perhaps ten years ago.

From The Vegas Batcave

Ed

Manama Apollo 13

More from the stamp state, a beautiful moon base. 

The rear cover sheet depicts moon modules and astronauts reminiscent of Ed Valigursky (see labels).

Strange Kingdoms

The Missus and me concluded our Stranger Things viewing last night with the final two hour extravaganza on Netflix, which I read had crashed their servers in its first airing. 

What to say? Well, it's been a long time coming and this final series is years after the first seasons when the kids were, well, kids. Personally I think the gaps been too long but hell, I'm 65 and I'm not the proper audience. My daughter, 25 years younger, is nearer the mark but I reckon young teens are the true fans. I understand that Netflix have their own cinemas in the US and the ST finale was shown there. Folks got dressed up at home and used ST plates and cups for party food to watch the ending together. To be sure it's a phenomenon and Netflix will be wondering what on earth or the Upside Down to do next!

In short, in spite of it being a big drawn-out mess, we enjoyed it. Questions were answered, the day was saved and hope sprang eternal. The best bits for me were glimpses, albeit acted, of American teens in the 80's, rather like they were in ET and those other Spielberg flicks, in this case playing Dungeons and Dragons as a group of friends in a big habitable basement, an American world unknown to me but very alluring and reminiscent of the passion I and no doubt we all felt as youths for the glorious crazes of our day. Mine was monsters and space in the late Sixties and Seventies. I was too old for D&D by the Eighties, but I get the excitement around it and the nostalgia for that simpler decade of board game geeking together in basements before the yet-to-arrive isolation of social media.

Will Netflix make Stranger Things II I wonder? 

Last thing last night I caught Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom. Being a big DC fan I'll always give their flicks a spin. Having said that Aquaman films are my least favourite simply because it's all underwater and for me, just not as exciting as on land. Lost Kingdom was no different and all the bubbling oceanic scrapping left me a bit cold and wet, besides which, I'm not too keen on the character Black Manta. It's the huge pill-shaped helmet; for me it looks a bit daft. I enjoyed meeting Aquaman's estranged brother, played by the guy who played the Owl in the brilliant Watchmen I think.

I hate to admit it tho, I turned Lost Kingdom off and it's unlikely I'll go back to it! 

Bring back the Justice League I say! 

Did you see either of these readers? 

It's Twelfth Night!

As Christmastide reduces its sparkle to a faint glow and the decs are stowed in the attic for another year I like to remember what the Monday after the Yuletide fortnight's holiday means.

School: To most kids in Western cultures, like my two Grandkids, it means a return to school after two weeks of rest, partying, rest and partying. Nowadays, in reality, it will have more likely been two weeks of sleep, Minecraft and TikTok, the arrival of long, screenless schooldays again being like a terrible cold turkey without their phones and playstations! The only cold turkey I had to deal with as a kid was on Boxing Day!

Decs: our annual twinkles are packed away again, usually by the 6th, each prized item wrapped and placed in a battered box with Xmas scrawled on the sides. Our baubles, mistletoe and lights recall the candles in the dark of our Christian medieval forbears, shivering through their superstitious nights and even much older pagan feasts of hoary evergreens and evil spirits warmed and warned by an all-powerful Sun. In some traditions the decs are left up till Candlemass, February 2nd, some 64 days since the beginning of Advent on November 30th. That's a long time with the decorations up! 

Twelfth Night/ Epiphany Eve/ Old Christmas Eve: made famous by Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, the final festive swish of the Twelve Days of Christmas, was once far more important than Christmas itself, when the Twelfth Cake or Kings Cake was the order of the day. The richer you were the richer the cake and around it was all manner of raucous revelry. It's worth remembering that it is the prelude to the ecclesiastical feast of the Epiphany, the revelation of Christ to the Gentiles and the Three Kings, otherwise known as The Three Wise Men or the Magi. From a date point of view the 5th is also Old Christmas Eve on the Julian calender, the 6th being Old Christmas Day, the 13th Old New Years Eve and the 14th Old New Year, echoes of the lost dozen days when time slipped into the Gregorian year in the 16th Century and in the English speaking world much later in 1752. 

And so, stashing the decs back in the loft, the tree laid bare and scoffing the very last of the mince pies, here's to the opening line of the Bard's Twelfth Night;

If Music Be the Food of Love, Play On!

What are you doing today readers? Eating your Twelfth Cake?