I Very Nearly Hersheyed

 Food can be polarizing.

Marmite for example.

Recently two foods came up which divided the family.

The first was a flat filled pre-packed pancake my Grandchildren love. They brought lots on our recent holiday, so naturally I tucked in.

Expecting nutella I grimaced and actually spat it out. Ugh! I got crystals and off sour paste! Foul! I very nearly hurled!

Informing my grandkids their latest wrapped pancakes were crystallized and completely off, they said 

"No Grandad. Those are Hershey's Cookies and Cream pancakes! We love 'em!"

That Hersheys pancake was easily one of most distasteful things I've ever eaten. How can our American friends stand it? Have they not tried Cadburys? Now that's chocolate!

Equally divisive is aspic.

I always loved meat in jelly like brawn and such. Lidl do a pork and pepper in aspic slice pack at the mo and it's quite delicious. On the other hand my Continental Missus detests the stuff, called Sülze in her mother tongue, which a particularly fearsome nursery teacher made her eat in a sandwich when she was four. Needless to say her life has been aspic free ever since!

Are there any polarizing foods in your life readers? 

What about your childhoods? 

Giant Slayers

Those meano Giant brand boys just love rounding up aliens. 

Evidence online suggests it doesn't matter about the ship.

They'll get the job done....

Chunky red and blue.

Are those Giant brand aliens?

Sleek silver and red.

LP bollard.

I don't fancy their chances against this LP knight guy above. He looks like a Sifu Ninja Ronin ready to pounce!

Have you any Giant astronauts and ships? 

American SWORD: Ed's Tarheel Space Glider

Well Woodsy,

I couldn't resist picking up this Tarheel No. 5934 Space Glider. It's in great shape, has the box and instructions, and it works - sort of.

 It tends to just want to make tight circles and doesn't want to go straight, but all the functions are there: motion, lights, and an annoying screech meant to mimic jet sounds. 

And, after losing an arm and a leg for that Booster Rocket, I didn't have to donate any body parts to get this one as it was quite reasonable (I thought)!

From Vegas Base

Ed

Have you got one readers?

Bob's Gama

Gama A7 rover's wheels are similar to Moon Buggy's. Larger scale.

Bob A.

Philip's Cake Topper Space Diorama via Paul V

Paul,

My name is Phillip Gore and I live in Trussville, AL (USA). I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed viewing the Triang Spacex website that you helped put together. I just found this site a few weeks ago when I started looking for information on the LP Hong Kong 1"(30mm) Spacemen figures and Mercury Capsule. Like probably a lot of middle aged male adults, I had these toys as a very young boy. I still recall the great times I had playing with them and the great memories they brought.

I recently was fortunate enough to purchase an old "Cake Topper Space Exploration" set on eBay for the very low price of $17.00 dollars (US). I was originally buying the set for the blue LP Mercury Capsule and had no interest in the other pieces that came with it. I was very surprised and extremely pleased when I saw the set also included three of the 1"(30mm) Spacemen! They were in white plastic with a good bit of flash on them so that is probably why I could not make them out from the eBay photos.

Anyway, I decided to rework the Spacemen and Mercury Capsule and put them in a lunar landscape diorama. I am a plastic model builder so it was easy to make the upgrade. I wanted to share what I have done with you. Attached are photos of the parts and final display. The modifications made are listed below:

Spacemen: trimmed off plastic flash and added a new paint job

Mercury Capsule: Added new wheels and axle, added hands and paint job to pilot, filled in and sanded/reshaped nose cone section, sanded away glue buildup on heat shield/retro rocket package, drilled rocket nozzle openings, repainted interior black and exterior blue

I hope you enjoy the photos. Thanks again and take care.

Phillip Gore

USA

*

Kindly forwarded by Paul Vreede

Ed's Exhaust

 Woodsy,

Here's the parts I have for my boosters' rear end (that doesn't sound right does it? LOL).

1st photo: The small cone on the left goes on first. The larger cone goes over it such that you can't see the smaller cone.

2nd photo (from Internet): Then, there is a nickel-plated exhaust pipe that gets inserted into the small cone (circled). I think that is doable using plastic tubing and a silver paint pen.

3rd & 4th photos: The cones that are shown in the link you sent could be used for other things. If you cut them in half, they would pass for a decent landing gear fairing as on the Falcon 9 spaceships. I'm a bit hung up on how to actually do landing gear without too much finnicky model work though. I'm not much of a modeler, so it would have to be something egregiously simple, along the lines of 'Spaceship Landing Gear for Dummies'!

From Vegas Base

Ed

Bill Ev's Childhood FAB 1 Restoration Progress

Hi Woodsy

My Dinky FAB 1 restoration is coming along very nicely. Extremely slow but a solid progression.

I've watched a number of videos and read up on it extensively. Pretty much all of the results can literally only be displayed and barely touched, as I know the paint finishes will mark, if even lightly played with. One of the unseen goals I have attempted to undertake with all of my restorations is to ensure the end result can be handled and even lightly played with.

Hence a good wash with Johnsons Klear and then baking the whole lot in sunlight in my conservatory. The Chassis has been completed and once the wheels are cleaned, I'll be able to fit two out of the three axels.

The next big piece is to strip the bodywork down to the metal. Once that's completed sprayed, and lacquered with a wash of more Johnsons Klear, it'll be on to fitting all the plastic parts. The last time "'er Ladyship's" ride will have looked as neat as this, will have been when I unboxed it in 1966!

I was advised that this FAB 1 is extremely difficult to do. Which is why I'm taking my time. It's a beautiful model, and even though it's not as accurate as the Corgi version, I much prefer its shape. I can look at this, and with its sleek, low-slung design, I can imagine it racing along at 200MPH. Not so much with the Corgi design.

After this restoration. That will be everything from my Anderson toy box. So it's bitter-sweet. I still have a number of Dinky, Corgi and Matchbox toys that can still be restored.

One of these is a huge Luxury Coach with the Chinese-Six wheel base! Although that may never be done, as there are a significant number of parts that are broken/missing. And after an extensive search on the Internet/eBay and everywhere else, the bits just aren't available. Plus, it's a really big model. So even if I were able to restore it, there wouldn't be anywhere to display it.

FAB.

Bill Ev.

Wheel Life

With Bill's comment in mind re the wheels of the Soviet vehicle in UFO.

 The Soviet surface rover shown above [bottom left and right] appears in the 1973 episode of UFO called The Responsibility Seat, which you can watch a clip of via You Tube.

As Bill points out, the wheels are similar if not the same as the SpaceX Moon Buggy.

Similarly, I couldn't help but notice a similarity between the UFO Russian moon rover's rear body shape and that of the red Apollo Moon Exploring fuel tanker from SpaceX's cousin range, pictured top. 

Or am I just seeing things as per usual?

Anyone got any more wheels like this?