Philip's Finished Photos of 1/72 Scale Icarus Spaceship Crash Diorama From the 1970 Movie BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES

The groundbreaking, classic 1968 sci-fi movie THE PLANET OF THE APES introduced the world to the very sleek ANSA (American National Space Administration) spaceship that accidentally propelled American astronauts 2,000 years into Earths future where apes are dominate over humans.

In that movie the Liberty 1 spaceship (later nicknamed Icarus by the movie fanbase) crash lands in a lake and sinks. In the 1970 sequel movie (BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES), a second near identical rescue ship is launched and travels on the same trajectory into the future.

This ship lands tail first on the ground but an apparent explosion in the drive section causes it to topple over, burning up the rear half of the vehicle. Sci-fi TV fans may recognize that some of the wreckage in the burned out section is actually the landing legs of the Jupiter 2 spaceship from the 1960s CBS TV Series LOST IN SPACE.

The image showing the spaceship after the fire is one of the most iconic from any of the PLANET OF THE APES movies. I have long wanted a model diorama depicting this setting, so I was very happy when resin garage manufacturer Skyhook Models came out with their model kit.

The diorama base has a length of 14-1/2 inches (368mm) and the spaceship length is 8 and 3/8 inches (212mm). The last couple of photos are stills from the movie showing the spaceship crash site. 

 I hope you enjoy the photos.

Philip Gore

USA

Who can Clone SpaceX? Bullycan!

 What's better than one toy aircraft carrier? 

Five! And they all carry SpaceX Hawk copies. These are red, more often they're green. These were seen on Spain's online marketplace. 

The maker was Spain's Bullycan and although it isn't labelled as such they're part of their wider Aviones Cosmicos Spacox clone brand. 

The bag header depicts Bullycan's other plastic boats and interestingly the more complex yellow aircraft carrier #3162, which carries three of the multi-coloured Aviones Cosmicos SpaceX clones, which are found carded in packs of three. I was lucky enough to pick up one of these carriers about ten years ago, a superb toy. 

Released circa 1970.

Have you any SpaceX clones?

A Dream of Paper

 I remember buying one of these modern printed copy ephemera sets from Pastimes. 

The vintage copy catalogues and papers were really ace.

Not the kind of thing you light your bonfire with! 

My favourite had to be the Ellisdons mail-order catalogue. I ordered ordering from them in the early Seventies. Truly happy times. I still dream of buying from them.

I've noticed on Etsy the sets been upgraded to include a box of UK coins from 1967.

Flip, I do recall all those,be specially the Threepenny bit! Do you remember these readers? 

Spanish Saucers: UFO Invasions

Old Spanish UFO videos are fun to look at. The covers are brilliant.

This one features a ginormous rifle!

I love the car on the rear of this one.

This one's got everything going on on the cover and interestingly it's in V2000 format, shaped like a sort of huge audio cassette.

Looey and Winslow at Wollongong Doll Show

Moonbasers,

Australian Visual Artist Rachel Caballero has had an exhibition of Doll sculptures on, at the Wollongong Art Gallery.

For the final day's event, she organised a doll show open to the public. Anyone could bring their doll in and compete in one of three categories.

This seemed like a grand day out for my Winslow Churcher puppet prototype, who will never walk the stage, so I converted him to a full display doll.

First up I added a lot more dacron body padding to give him a better body shape.

I have a new 3D printed body shell in the works and it means I'll have to re-tailor all his outfits too -groan!

His jacket buttons had previously been held in place with Blu Tac, so they received some attention. His jacket was sewn shut as best I could, then his cigar, hat and head were permanently glued in suitable positions.

Finally we all bundled into my car for the 240km round trip from the Blue Mountains to coastal Wollongong and back.

We had a great time and Winslow entered the "Best Dressed" category.

How did the World's greatest Wartime Statesman, complete with Tommy gun fare against Regency Nobility and other more conventional doll subjects?

...let's just say "Close, but no cigar"!

Looey,

Oz Base

Emitter Recepter

 I'm guessing this is a Japanese toy altho the box is French.

It looks super cool, a helmet with mic and a walkie talkie.

Now which kid wouldn't have wanted that? 

Is the brand Fairmate?

The Outer Limits of my Wallet

 A trip to Featherstone Re-value netted me a few odds 'n' sods today.

Two cheap Lesneys, a small novelty record player and an Outer Limits annual I've not seen before.  You?

There were two vintage Outer Limits cards as well, nicely housed in plastic wallets, priced £12 and £15. Ouch!

I nearly bought this old pulp mag for the startling cover alone but I passed. £4 would have stretched my wallet too much.

Those creatures don't have heads! 

A Fridge Too Far

 Im so impressed with my Granddaughters new toys by Mini Brands.

It's a range of mini plastic cakes and meals you create like these noodles.

Her top toy though by far has to be the brand's plastic Smeg-like fridge. At about 10 inches tall, it's fab!

Perfect for Barbies, it even lights up! 

I reckon my old Action Man might grab one of those cakes, before Ken does!