Before Michael Myers scares the bejeebers out of us again like every Halloween I thought it would be fun to post one of the silver screen's very first 'bleeding' men, Nosferatu, played by the aptly named Max Shreck [Shreck means 'fright' in German!]. Made in 1922, Nosferatu: Symphonie Des Grauens is an amazingly dark silent slice of German expressionist cinema dripping with chilling atmosphere and unforgettable black and white images. An X-rated Jack Skellington to make your blood freeze, Shreck's rat-like Vampyr will never leave you, so be warned! Amazingly, it's in the public domain, which means that no one owns it. A whole new generation have discovered their gothic roots with nearly a million hits on You Tube, where you can see the entire film, which is just shy of 90 minutes long. Complete coincidence, it turns out we were stood next to the house bought for Nosferatu in the film when we were strolling around Lubeck this summer. Creepy! Enjoy this classic on Halloween courtesy of You Tube:
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Happy Halloween Everyone
Well dusk is on it's way here in deepest Yorkshire so I feel I can safely wish everyone a Happy Halloween! I've got a couple of old crusties out of their coffins for their annual evening of grisly japes. My pal Mod Monster, who gets offaly embarrassed when his trousers keep falling down! And old Bela who loves to sing his Romanian ditty over and over again!
Happy Halloween!
They Glowed in The Dark
Halloween is always a trip down Memory Lane. I was chuffed to see this old cheap set of magic tricks online. I sooo remember the BIG MOUTH trick as if it was yesterday. My favourite jokes and novelties all came from an amazing mail order firm called Ellisdons. I got a Skull Jackinabox, a Restless Skeleton and loads more creepy stuff. I've a catalogue I'd forgotten about somewhere so I'll post a few bits. But the spooky toy I most hanker for was bought in a shop, most likely Thomas Mears in Preston, by my ever-patient Mum and Dad, GLOW GLOBS as pictured below. Basically Glow-Globs were shapes of luminous putty in day-glo colours. I had the set below with the scalliwag, ghost and ghoulie. They smelled great too! They were stuck to the side of my bedside cabinet so I could watch them glow as I fell asleep! It worked! I was gone in no time! Quite scarce now they occasionally surface on Ebay and there's a nice set on this cool Flickr site as well.
Box of T
I think I've posted this before so I apologise. It's not often that a toy turns up with it's original till receipt still inside the box but this is such a one. You can see on the blow-up below that this T in a Circle Amhibious Car was bought originally on the 5th August 1970 at IDS stores [?]. The ebay seller bmurphy1932 is in the US so I assume that the $2.97 price are US dollars and that IDS is an American store. Anyone heard of IDS?
+SALE+SLIP+FLIPPED.jpg)
Pictures courtesy of bmurphy1932 Ebay US
Arto's Swedish Astronaut Game
Here's one for the Toad, a close-up of the Astronaut board game instructions sheet he requested. In Swedish only, sorry! The first paragraph is an intro talking about recent manned space flights, which would date the game somewhere early-mid 60's. The game itself is very simple, the rockets trying to make the red path around the Earth while the Robot (or Tobor, should I say) moves along the yellow ones, made of heavenly bodies, and tries to shoot the poor rockets down. Should their paths cross in a same square along the way, the rocket is lost to oblivion. The last rocket standing wins. There is a marking "Nr. 3185 K schwed." on the bottom suggesting that versions in different languages exist. However, I have not come across any other examples yet. "schwed." for "Schwedisch" or "Swedish" in German would suggest an (Eastern) German manufacture. Cheers Arto
Pictures posted previously on the blog.
Saturday, 30 October 2010
Grif Conquers Space
Dear Woody, On the Man Conquers Space site take a look at this page, which shows the Mars Glider with the Return Rocket still attached - if you're wondering what I'm talking about, see my post re. the book cover below! Grif
Nice one Grif! Woodsy
When I were a Vlad
I'm still chuffed with my autographed Cape Kennedy Box. They're a funny thing, autographs. Somehow they hold a deep fascination as though the writing of a name can somehow capture the essence of the person. Probably the most impressive group of signatures I've ever seen was Forrest J. Ackerman's collection on his personal First Edition copy of the novel Dracula, which you can see in all it's dark glory here [Forry created the iconic magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland and singlehandly kicked-off the Sixties monster craze].
Amazingly Forry managed to get ALL the Dracula's: Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, Paul Naschy and most fantastic of all, Bram Stoker himself from 1900. There's only Vlad The Impaler missing! The book was auctioned a couple of years ago as part of the late great Forry's grand sale to fight a court case. Such a shame that probably the greatest monster and sci fi collection collection, housed in his Ackermansion, got broken up. I'm off for a bite!
Anyone else got any autographs?
I Beg you Not to Go up to the Castle after Dark
Like my brothers before me, I was always rather a gothic kid growing up in the Sixties. My Mum and Dad didn't know what to do with me sometimes. I just had to watch Appointment with Fear, catch up with Scooby Doo, stay up to watch any Hammer film going and basically monster out at every opportunity! If there weren't enough monsters in the shops I'd save up and send off for some by mail order! Good old postal orders! One I remember clearly is this soft plastic shrunken head I recently saw online. It brought back happy memories of my own Jivara skull dangling on elastic. It had my poor Parents worried sick! Funny how an entire generation can have been monster mad and turned out completely normal! We were the original goths without knowing it and Halloween was OUR moment. The year is round once more and right on cue I find myself quietly singing Monster Mash and driven by an unseen force raising my arms and clunking round as though I had huge boots on! "I was working in the lab late one night.......!"
Anyone else monster bonkers?
Perry Rhodan's MOLAB
The Philosophic Toad alerted me to this cool Perry Rhodan footage on You Tube from 1967. I love the MOLAB with it's Bendix wheels! There's tons more clips on YT too!
Wonder if there's a Moon Prospector or a Moon Bus somewhere?
Bus Stop Moon
What's the collective noun for a group of moonbuses? A station? A queue? I'm always up for another Moonbus and reader Eviled alerted me to the fascinating Kubrick- version Moonbus discussions on Hobby Talk. Have a look here. At TV21, there was mention of Century 21 effects people jumping ship to work on 2001 Space Odyssey. Is it possible that there was a Century 21 influence on bringing Arther C. Clarke's Moonbus to life in the movie? There's some great views of the boxed Aurora model version here. The overall shape, especially the blackened frontage, of the Kubrick Moonbus reminds me of another model I saw at TV21 last weekend pictured to the left. It's probably from UFO but I'm not sure. The third 'bus' at the bottom is my Lanard STAR FORCE toy, which sort of looks like the con bus too especially with it's satellite dish!
On a seperate Moonbus tack, again at TV21 [I promise to shut up about the con soon!] I noticed some original TV21 comic artwork of a long red tubular wheeled vehicle, which looked like the Spacex 'moonbus'. the Mobile HQ. I only glimpsed it and remembered after the con had finished but I think it was Frank Bellamy's Thunderbirds [?]. PS. found it on a photo I took of the back wall of the room - see close-up to the left below. Anyone know what it is?
Moon Prospector by William B.Ellern 1966
Ever since coming across the MOON PROSPECTOR art by Kelly Freas on the cover of Analog April 1966 [below] I've been fascinated by the painting and the likely content of the story. As it's a short story I had hoped I would find it printed in full on the net so I've kept on looking for ages but to no avail. There's nothing for it., as soon as I replenish my hobby funds I'll acquire the real thing from somewhere and read the story for the first time.
In the meantime I've located this excellent summary on an online forum by one "murphydyne":
"Next up is "Moon Prospector" by William B. Ellern in the April 1966 "Analog: science fiction-science fact", weighing in at 22 pages. What is notable about this particular story is that it is set in E.E. 'Doc' Smith's classic "Skylark of Space" series of the distant future. Doc Smith gave permission for this story to be set in that Universe, and permission for its publication just four days before his death. It is a sort of early prequel, set on our Moon.
Pete Miller is an old-time prospector on the Moon. He and his moon creeper wander around looking for useful stuff and transporting it back to base for processing. This time around there's a meteoroid strike about a hundred miles from Copernicus Base which kicks up a lot of debris. Pete manages to get his creeper under some minimal cover, but can still hear the impact of molten material kicked up by secondary impacts splattering on his hull. After things subside, Copernicus Base is largely blocked in, and his friend Harv is missing out at crater Mayer A, and Pete needs to go dig him out, pronto. When he gets there, Pete puts a few pieces together and figures out that there's a LOT more going down than anyone is telling him, and when the first 'cleaner' tries to take him out, his suspicions are confirmed - Harv has stumbled on a couple hundred year old nuclear base, and there are evil forces conspiring to control the facilities to their own dark power-hungry ends. Can Pete and Harv save the day? "
Moon creeper! I love it! Anyone else read the story? And where is the original art by Kelly Freas? In a gallery?
Friday, 29 October 2010
The Fabulous One by Jim Lewis
With the Dinky release number 100 the FAB 1 die-cast was always going to be an important toy for both the company themselves and kids across the country at the time of release in 1967 as well as for adult THUNDERBIRDS collectors today. There really is little to fault this amazing piece of precision craftsmanship forty-something years down the line!
Joe Fowlman designed the toy to incorporate all sorts of launching and firing facilities with no sign of an ugly button and the toy retains the smooth look of Derek Meddings'original vision for Lady Penelope's roadster. The whole thing worked on a clever suspension system discreetly tucked away in the chassis. The interior, although gold for some reason, is a very reasonable approximation of the Bob Bell created set in the show itself and of course how can a toy fail with children when there are tiny people in there too? A clear sliding canopy allows some access to this area although the figures themselves are pretty much stuck in position so they aren't truly removable. Jewelled headlights give a little hint of 'class' which the vehicle deserves of course and the livery is almost perfection and far surpasses some of the bizarre efforts of Dinky for later Anderson toys they produced. On the top of the grill there is even a tiny 'nodule' of metal to suggest the Spirit Of Ecstasy figurine the actual miniature in the show had. Although again like the JR21 toy no mention is made of the car being a Rolls Royce!
This particular example came into my hands 25 years back from a die-cast dealer who himself had found it in an old toy shop unsold from the 1960s. However the popularity of the toy and of course THUNDERBIRDS itself meant it was almost continually issued for the better part of a decade. The various Dinky catalogues during this period featured the toy extensively either in artwork form and latterly in photographs. The packaging too changed from the one we see here to bubble packs as the 1970s crashed upon us.
MECCANO MAGAZINE featured the toy and it received a glowing commentary so it's inclusion here is worth a look. It goes to show that it really isn't just a bunch of middle-aged guys or children at the time who rave about this. A toy from the 1960s many will have memories of, along with the Corgi Batmobile and 007 Aston Martin and Dinky's own SPV from 'CAPTAIN SCARLET', the FAB 1 die-cast toy is one any THUNDERBIRDS fan will be pleased to own. I know I am.
Jim Lewis
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Autumn Brainteaser
There weren't many published photo's of SWORD toys
during the techno-beat drenched 1980's but here's one of the Apollo Saturn, with little robot chum, from 1984.
But which publication Swordheads?
Still Life
Arto sent through these Pathe stills from yesterday's post. Thanks also to Toad and Maverick for help.
Stills owned by British Pathe and shown for educational purposes only.
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
The Reel Toys
More British Pathe Newsreels spotted by hawk-eyed reader Darth! Enjoy!
German Toys: Submarine, jets, moon track, Gama moon rover, Major Matt Mason 1969
[is this the famed Space Models who were contracted by Century 21?]
Triang-Pedigree - six minutes! 1971'ish
cool or what! Well spotted Darth!
All we need now is footage of a boxed Moon Base!!!!!
Window Boxes: Spacex Superset and Sears Rocket Launcher in Sixties London
Eagle-eyed Canadian reader Darth has spotted these amazing newsreels on the British Pathe website
[sorry about the adverts at the start!]:
BOXED SPACEX SUPER SET
IN SHOP WINDOW
in Christmas on Carnaby Street, London [1969?] Silent, colour.
Spacex set in the window briefly at different points in the film.
UNBOXED 'SEARS' ROCKET LAUNCHER
[Apollo Saturn forerunner]
[Apollo Saturn forerunner]
IN SHOP WINDOW, Oxford Street, London
in Xmas Round The World December 1964 - sound, black and white.
'Sears' Rocket appears unboxed at 1.02 minutes for a few seconds [along with a working Dux Astroman!]
Darth's clip pushes back the date for the earliest known sighting of the 'Sears' Rocket by a good six months from June 1965 [reader Jim's TV21 ad] to December 1964.
Anyone know how to screengrab a still of these two toys? It says they can be viewed as stills but I can't seem to fathom it!
Anyone know how to screengrab a still of these two toys? It says they can be viewed as stills but I can't seem to fathom it!
Films owned by British Pathe.
Battery Operated Deadly Danger by Jim Lewis
JR 21 Toys’ enthusiasm for FAB 1 was such that they went as far as to produce two different versions of the now iconic vehicle. Both used the same basic body mould but incorporated different internal workings. Here we see the more expensive, at the time, battery operated version. Like the battery-operated THUNDERBIRD 1 in the same range its namesake was driven with the traditional friction power many toys of the period utilised. This battery operated version boasted headlamps which lit when the forward and reverse motion was in use.
Hand operated variable wheel control allowed the car to move to the left or right or ultimately go around in a circle much as it did when stolen by crooks in the episode ‘Brink Of Disaster’. Inside the clear canopied vehicle we see partial painted figures of Lady Penelope and Parker. A chrome effect too was applied to appropriate sections of the car to offer the impression of quality and craftsmanship one would associate with the ‘real’ vehicle. A button also engaged forward firing machine guns just as any good 1960s secret agents car should!
Nowhere in advertising or packaging is the vehicle referred to as a Rolls Royce and there is no ‘Spirit Of Ecstasy’ on the grill. The box has a variant design with one, as shown here, having a plain painted image of FAB 1. The other has a descriptive “Special Features” listing incorporated into the artwork. Both designs however have the now famous Lady Penelope motto:
ELEGANCE CHARM AND DEADLY DANGER
Jim Lewis
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
21 Pen Salute
Here's a close-up of my new prized possession in the Moonbase collection, the SWORD Cape kennedy Set box top autographed at Fanderson's TV21 con last weekend by Century 21 actors, staff and one mega-collector! Alas, no Gerry.
[see post below for who's who].
SWORDtastic!
PS. Pity this version of the painting ['Roll Out'] doesn't include the artists's printed signature, of one Robert McCall no less, as appears on the 1960's Look and Learn magazine original. Nothing's perfect!
Thunderstruck! Reflections of a Rookie at Fanderson's TV21 Con.
Well fellow Swordfolk, I'm back from the Fanderson TV21 convention in Bristol. My very first 'con'. It's hard to describe how absolutely brilliant it was and how much I enjoyed every minute but I'll give it a go. After a four hour drive to Bristol on Friday morning, Mrs. Moonbase and I checked into our hotel and went for a stroll both to take in the sights and for me to enrol. We took Bristol's very own [nuclear] Ferry down the harbour enjoying the pastel coloured houses nestling on the banks. Around 3pm, with rookie apprehension, I registered at TV21, got my name badge and goodie bag and sampled my first 'con' air! As Mrs. Moonbase wasn't attending we then went for an evening meal at the wonderfully grungey Mud Dock cafe lit with simple candles dripping down wine bottles. It brought the hippies out in us and set the scene for a nostalgic weekend.
On Saturday I attended the con proper and like the newbie I am, name badge firmly fastened to my Star Wars T-shirt [yeah, I know, wrong series!] I crept into the large auditorium below complete with TV21 neon sign [later auctioned!] and superb screenings of Four Feather Falls, Space 1999, UFO, Thunderbirds and more shows than you could dangle a puppet at, many of which were in HD.
[PS. anyone know what the red jet is on the screen?]
Over the weekend I was very chuffed to bump into a few blog pals, which made the event extra special for me as it's always nicer to share your experience with people you know:
....above, the superbly friendly Mike Burrows. Note the SWORD badges! hee hee. Mike is an old hand at Fandercons and attended the very first one in Leeds in 1981!
.... and the sublimely pleasant John 'Swan', who attended the first workshop of the con about the TV21 universe [I missed it] and yes, John tells me Project SWORD got a mention!
.... and the mightily talented Mike Delamar with his amazing Thunderbirds Fire Tenders, made from scratch, featured in the exhibition room
...and perhaps my own personal highlight, meeting up with the gentlemanly Alan Shubrook, C21 modelmaker, photographer and blog supporter!
Someone else I met, but didn't photograph, was Dennis Nicholson, author of the definitive Gerry Anderson Memorabilia Guide in the early 1990's. I was thrilled when he called me 'Mr.SWORD'! hee hee [I know, I'm sad!]. Dennis and his tome were one of the main reasons I got into collecting Century 21 back then and was so excited when Dennis announced, during his 'digital' collecting workshop, that the 'Guide' will be available in revised form and in colour as an 'E-book' during 2011! Luckilly for me this was only the second Fandercon Dennis had attended after debuting at the very first one in 1981!
Another Fanderson first! Besides all the people, there was lots of 'stuff'. Here's a gallery of the amazing 'exhibition' room.
The above shot includes original TV21 and Joe 90 comic art on display, courtesy of Graham Bleathman. Fantastically it included the original art for the Saturn Probe page I blogged the other week complete with a MEV 2 descending from Shindig 1. Art by Chris Harrison. The fab models were loaned by different modellers including probably my favourite, Mike Delamar's RESCUE boat [below bottom left], based on Derek Medding's original design complete with plastic Vosper toy boat base!
Also on display was this detailed interior model of Thunderbird 2 [below] and description panel, which included a Finnish Thunderbirds comic [one for Arto!].
But probably the most exciting aspect of the con, for rookies like me and old hands alike, was meeting the people behind all those cool anderson TV shows. I didn't catch everyone [e.g. John Blundell and the Terrahawks creators] but I did see...
...above, Gary Files [seated]
... Parker himself aka David Graham [seated], 'Yus, M' Lady'!
... New Captain Scarlet's Dominic Lavery and Phil Ford
... Alan Tracy aka Matt Zimmerman, a brilliantly funny storyteller
...Century 21 designer Mike Trim
... Century 21 modelmaker and photo-archivist, Alan Shubrook, during one of his two talks [note the on-screen photo of C21 Slough!]
....and, yes, Gerry himself on the interview stage. He spoke about his past achievements, the current convoluted ownership of his shows and future projects like the andersonized Royal Mail stamps this coming January! 21 lucky folk also got to meet Gerry afterwards and have items autographed [not me I'm afraid]. It was superb to see the great man after being first thunderstruck by his genius 45 years ago.
... last but certainly not least, Nick Williams, Fanderson's Chairman, who kept the whole event moving often doubling as an auctioneer of snap items being sold for the Wallace and Gromit charity throughout the weekend. Nick caught the elated mood of the con, contrary to the doom and gloom in the country, in his emotional closing speech. He was left in no doubt about how much everyone had enjoyed TV21 and the demand for another!
Another highlight for me was having my prize SWORD Cape Kennedy Set box lid [below] signed by Shane Rimmer, Gary Files, David Graham, Mike Trim, Alan Shubrook and Dennis Nicholson! FAB! I also, like many delegates, took advantage of the special low price of Shane Rimmer's autobiography, which was launched over the weekend. Again, Shane kindly signed it. Alan Shubrook also signed a few items for the entrants of the blog's SWORD art competition! More on this later! To complete the whole experience, Fanderson had created a unique TV21 - style comic, which came in the delegate pack along with an Agent 21 badge, a con TV21 name badge, a C21 EP mini disk and lots more.
And finally, amongst many brilliant moments over the weekend, here are two I managed to snap: Shane Rimmer signing a Lady Penelope lookalike's dress and Parker the Butler stealing the show in the foyer!
Well done Fanderson! There was no need for me to be apprehensive, everyone was completely welcoming and my first convention was totally FAB!
PS. This short fan film played three times at the con, all of which I missed. But, I've just watched it on You Tube! You can too: THUNDERBIRDS 2010.