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?

Waffely Versatile

 We made waffles with the Grandkids this morning. Sweet ones for cream and jam.

I was telling Junior about Savoury Waffles. He's way too young to remember them.

I recall the Seventies TV ad.

Something savoury waffles, they're waffelly versatile!

Very catchy but what was that first word?

I bet somewhere you can still get them.

Did you like them readers? 

Memories of Jet Gyro

Google sent me these memories from 2021, the second year of Covid. It's like my total recall! 

Those were my car boot die-cast days and a period making home-made Thunderbirds toys like Jet Gyro in 2020. Well, you had to do something stuck indoors for months on end didn't you!

The black and white is me staring out the window wondering when I could go out again! 😂

Jokes aside, a serious time for many. The Missus got Covid and then our very elderly friend in our bubble. I escaped.

I remember posting lots of money boxes in 2020. We were all saving money! 

Alvis is Fab!

 Wow, this old mixed lot has two things I loved as a kid: an Airfix Alvis Stalwart and a JR21 FAB1.

Cor!

What a combination!

Good for you too?