Double Track Showdown

Could Speed Track UK be rekindling the spirit of Hot Wheels Sizzler races with this double wide track? 

See what you think. 

https://share.google/uab8Ct7agMT7erDM7 

Bank Holiday Boot Haul and Unknowns

 There's always a big car boot sale on the UK's late summer Bank Holiday Monday, so the Missus and me took off to Castleford To have a rummage.

This was my frugal haul costing in total a fiver. I had fun ID'ing most of the bits. 

Anyone know the unknowns? 

Left: Britain's Space bits

Top LtoR: Unknown cast Staircase, Britain's fencing

Middle LtoR: Spider Man vehicle, unknown slot car, two 1993 FAB 1's.

Bottom LtoR: Super Shredder belt and spike pad, unknown pink knight, Husky MFU Piranha, Chap Mei Hercules weaponry, Falcon rear shooter.

Unknown slot car close-up

Unknown pink knight

Zero-X flying over FAB1: My Own Go

 Over the years I've mentioned the ocean colour scene in Thunderbirds Are Go 1966, in which Parker and Lady P sat in a hydroplaning FAB1 spot Zero-X in the sky above. It's a fleeting union of two Anderson icons.

You can see the super You Tube clip here

https://youtu.be/CJEczUhJ_do?si=2DCrVM5DebwiM2R3

And the fabulous marine action just prior

https://youtu.be/mUjNgDUaiGs?is=XyvLDSUBScnkFGQv

Well, spurred on by our Blue Milk 're-make' the other day, I thought I'd have a crack at recreating the above OX FAB1 scene or something like it.

I gathered my props, a smallish plaster OX and Carlton FAB1.

I finagled a set in the garden involving a tree to dangle the OX from in front of the sky and a wet glass table for the car.

Just as I set up it went dark with rain clouds!

I quickly took various shots before the heavens opened.

The last shot was then Woodsies up using the edit facility on my phone, basically smudging the background with my finger and then applying different filters (no AI). 

These are the finished filtered scenes. 

It was great fun doing it and messing like this gave me a very small glimpse of the monumental effort Derek Meddings and all the Century 21 team put in to create Thunderbirds et al.

Hope you like these. 

NASA's Artemis Moon Base

This is fascinating. 

Could it be that retro future moon base we saw everywhere in the 1960s?

https://youtu.be/zNv7o8wEJdc?is=B7rxloG_xy-EQikf

Planet Orbie

 The Missus and the Grandkids were finished with these hydratable balls, called Orbies, so I grabbed 'em quick before dehydrating.

Here's some TB4 action with a giant sea Wasp.

Have you got Orbies?

And the original shot.

End of an Era

As the British summer wanes it was an apt time to receive a letter from the bank stating 

The said account was my old vintage toy business and the letter marks the the end of a twenty year ride.

Inactive for years now, as is my original eBay business account, I began the enterprise in 2005 after leaving my old career in charity management. 

It was a golden moment to be honest as I detested my old job. The prospect of buying and selling vintage toys full time was just too good an opportunity to pass up. After all, I'd sort of been building up to it since the early 1990's with my mail order offer and cellar 'shop' in our old house, both of which were great fun.

In Autumn 2005 I launched Mad About Monsters.

As with all small ventures setting out, I had tons of enthusiasm to get it going. To this I added an attic office, business cards designed by my daughter, an eBay shop, lots of stock and the aforementioned account.

I sold thousands of items on eBay back then. I also stood at more toy fairs than previously and gave our as many cards as I could.

I also had customers outside of eBay, for whom I tracked down new lines such as Mego re-issues. I also sold vintage toys for other people Including a vast Meccano collection for my late old pal Richard, which went for a thousand pounds.

Occasionally I was given old toys for work in kind (cellar clearance)  such as a collection of Action Men and a couple of friends at the very start gave me their unwanted childhood artefacts, for which I was truly grateful.

It was huge fun and I actually looked forward to 'going to work' upstairs in the loft office.

I even became a Power Seller on eBay, an accolade that no longer exists I don't think but I was massively chuffed.

Alas, as anyone selling old toys will know, it's a huge effort to make it pay and even doing it full time it simply didn't bring in enough cash for the family coffers.

I had to get a part-time job, with a literacy charity. It was OK, as it wasn't every day and left me plenty of time to be a toy boy.

After many years and some fabulous sales like an uber-rare Sindy dress and clutch to name but one, the pressure of needing a regular profit and the dreaded cashflow problem killed off Mad About Monsters. It was a sad day when I stopped trading in the late '000's and got a full-time job again, this time in a high school for my sins.

The letter this week closing my old toy account is the very last chapter in the rise and fall of my stint in the vintage dream machine and marks the end of an era.

All was not all lost though. 

Shortly after, with inspiration from our industrious dog Blue, who never gave up looking for his ball, I started a new venture, blogging Moonbase Central!

 I'm pleased to say I'm buying and selling old toys again too, but no pressure this time.

Purely for fun!

Have you begun and ended enterprises and ventures readers? 

Ed's New AI Generated Logo For His Train Layout

Woodsy,

As the subject of AI has come up recently, I thought I'd show you one application I've used it for: the design of a logo for my train layout using Chat GPT. 

The layout was given the fictional name of "The Milwaukee North Western Railroad" a couple of years ago when I transitioned from running anything and everything, to running mainly Milwaukee Road trains (and any other railroad that ran through Wisconsin). 

The basis for the logo was a photo I took of my Lionel 4-4-2 Milwaukee Road Hiawatha #1. The Chat GPT prompt was simply: "create circular logo with the words 'Milwaukee North Western Railroad along the perimeter'. 

The result is shown here. I'm here to tell you, I have absolutely not enough talent to have done this on my own with paint, pens, markers, crayons, chalk, whatever!! 

The logo is now being used on my YouTube channel Ed "ICE" Berg - Trains and Toys.

From The Milwaukee North Western Railroad Offices

Ed

Luke's Blue Milk Re-Poured

 Ive often wondered if I could recreate the famous blue milk tupperware scene from Luke's moisture farm home in Star Wars, A New Hope.

Well, with the help of Luke MoonBase Junior Skywalker we had a go.

Deploying props from the kitchen, we made some blue milk with food colouring. A simple white play doctors top completed the look and hey, presto! 

Ha ha! 

Blue MoonBase milk! 

Great fun.

Have you recreated any scenes from films or series readers?