"I am Tetsuo"

Wote's AKIRA blogging reminded me that I once owned the above animation sketches from AKIRA. I got them years ago from the NEC and have sold them off ever since. I just have one sketch left, for my own personal edification. None of them contained the iconic motorbike in Wote's bloglet but there were some great shots, for instance of the Espers and the Colonel and of the tentacles of the Tetsuo monster as it thrashed in the Neo-Tokyo Sea. Now that was animation. Just think how much work went into the whole film! Wish I'd never sold them now! Whenever I see AKIRA I can't help thinking about Marine Boy!

Brutal and Needlessly Sadistic

 I picked up Tron Legacy the other week on blu-ray. An absolute treat for the eyes. Beautifully rendered and with amazing designs throughout. Interesting to see Jeff Bridges as his young self again, synthespians may be the way forward, but there was still a mask like look to the face, cgi cant quite recreate the micro-expressions and tiny facial tics that pass across our face as we move. I watched the original Tron soon after and was absolutely apalled at how badly it had dated. One thing that had stoof the test of time well though was the Lightcycle and it was gratifying to see it reborn in the sequel. I still have the Tomy toy from the first film, one of the few toys to be produced for the film, a ripcord driven vehicle of the same type as Kenner SSP with a large rubber tyred wheel at the back. Needless to say, ive never had the courage to let her rip and risk smashing the bonnet open! The latest series of toys include the obligatory lights and sounds, but the design and manufacture of Flynns new bike are stunning. Made to hold a figure and light up in response to having the pilot installed, its a simple push along toy, but it matches the clean lines of the film exactly.

 Another famous future bike is from the anime epic Akira and is Kanedas motorbike. This ceramic engined beast is about 12 inches long and made by Macfarlane. Given the amount of detail lavished on it, it doesnt do much, steering is static and theres no moving parts except the wheels.

 Bandai on the other hand managed to do a much better job with a small 3 inch diecast some years earlier, including removable engine access, fairing and full steering. It even came with an 00/H0 Kaneda figure reminiscent of the old Britains bike riders.

Fortune and Glory

I'm going through a sort of Indiana Jones craze at the mo, which is largely due to the fact that all four films are on TV every two weeks this month and I seem to be semi-comatose on the sofa. It's driving my Missus up the wall as I seem to be permanently watching Raiders of the Lost Ark or the Temple of Doom, which I disliked when it first came out but it's grown on me a lot. I'm hoping to catch the Last Crusade before the current TV season closes soon. And I've only seen the Crystal Skull once so I'd like to have another viewing. Everyone's uncomfortably older in it, principally Indy and Marion Ravenwood, not to mention me the viewer, and I'm still not too happy with the extra-terrestrial ending for some reason. Anyone else like the Indiana Jones films?

When I used to frequent Toy Fairs at the NEC and Donnington I loved to drool over those fab Kenner toys based on the films. The most exciting for me was the rare Map Room set. Fortune and Glory!

PS. Whilst reading up on Harrison Ford's filmography I was amazed to see he had a bit part, abeit uncredited, as a Nazi guard in the Great Escape! Anyone got a screengrab?

JR21 ROCKET XL9 SPACESHIP

With permission from "Toy Cellar" here are photographs from a past Ebay auction of the utterly fabulous JR21 ROCKET XL9 SPACESHIP, a close realtive of the C21 PROBE FORCE 3. As a JR21 toy it is completely new to the blog and I imagine to most SWORD collectors. However we have seen it's clone before, the identicaly boxed and designed HOOVER ROCKET XL9 SPACESHIP. Again, the chicken and egg question rears its head, as to which came first? My own opinion is that the Hoover version did and JR21 copied/bought it and later, as part of Century 21 toys, used it as the basis for the PROJECT SWORD PROBE FORCE 3. It's a theory but does it hold water? There are so many Probe Force 3 variants and makes (pictured here in part), probably more than any other SWORD design, that it's a game of snakes and ladders working out what came when! The model number of the JR21 XL9 is 304. The C21 Probe Force 3 us unnumbered.

Below are pictures comparing the JR21 and HOOVER versions. NB. The Hoover XL9 has a rear red fin missing.

Above JR21, Below Hoover

Above JR21, Below Hoover

Transit of Titan

Sword Booster Rocket 'Gungnir' approaches parking orbit close to Saturn as the spaceplane prepares for a close pass to her largest moon Titan.

Saucerers Apprentice

Keen eyed operative Andy spotted this Adamski classic venusian saucer on a gum card recently, in response to my call for UFO pics!

Charly Duty's Coma

There have been some cool and unusual space sets on fleabay of late. One I noticed was this Italian 'Space Operation Charly Duty' by Coma 1970. With obvious influences from Major Matt and Billy Blastoff, it still exudes it's own distinct charm. Apparantly Charly's radio lights up too. The Seleniti or Moonmen aren't original but the replacements appear fine in the picture. And I love the name, Charly Duty! Billy Blastoff watch out!

'An Audience with Sylvia Anderson' 14th May RAF Museum London

Calling all children of the 60s & 70s! The Royal Air Force Museum London is inviting you to revisit your childhood on Saturday 14th of May by opening its doors for a special evening event that will take you back to your childhood futures.

From 7pm until 11pm, the museum will be opening up its Milestones of Flight, Bomber and Historic Hangars for free to over 18s, giving adult visitors the opportunity to play with giant sized versions of classic children’s games whilst listening to music of the 60s and 70s inspired by ‘futurism’, ‘the white heat of technology’ and Cult TV shows from their childhoods.

For those who spent their school hours idly day-dreaming about living on Tracy Island and piloting Thunderbird 2 the museum is offering the exclusive and rare opportunity to enjoy an audience with Sylvia Anderson, the voice of Lady Penelope and the co-creator of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlett, UFO and Space 1999.

In an interview to be held in the museum’s cinema at 7.30pm, Sylvia will talk to fans about her career; the iconic actors that she worked with and the inspiration behind the characters that she created taking questions from the audience. After this she will be available to talk to fans whilst signing copies of her latest book ‘Sylvia Anderson – My Fab Years’ in the museum shop. Only 210 tickets for this element of the evening will be available from www.rafmuseumshop.com from Thursday 28th April retailing at £12.50 each, the profits of which will go to the maintenance of the museum’s aircraft collection.

Additionally, the museum will have on display throughout its galleries original and studio standard models and characters from Century 21 television programmes and will also show favourite episodes from Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlett in the Museum’s cinema specially selected by Sylvia Anderson herself.

Event Date Saturday 14th May, £12.50 per person. For more details go here.

Keep Watching the Skies

 Back in the summer of '72, while on holiday in Devon, I picked up a book, Investigating UFO's. at 25p it wasn't expensive, but it turned out to be a real influence on me. It contained several amazing photos of what appeared to be indisputable flying disks as well as descriptions of alien encounters. I tend to be quite cynical and skeptical at best, but do have an open mind and a willingness to accept new ideas, so I found it all very interesting indeed. Following on from the book, I got the 1972 Countdown annual for xmas that year and this included a thought provoking four page article shown here:

Ufo

Between the two books and regular articles in Countdown weekly about UFOs, I became quite interested in the field, although to this day I cant honestly say i've ever seen a genuine UFO. Some of the photographs in the Countdown article and in the Target book such as the Santa Ana sighting and the photo taken from a plane window in 1963 over Venezuela appear to be inexplicable and very real.

 

A lot of such photos such as George Adamskis famous sightings are clearly hoaxed, but others are more difficult to explain. Such as William Rhodes photos of a craft with a white circle in the centre or the amazing shot of a saucer over South Africa in 1956.

More recently, UFO sightings have centred around the 'black triangle' and speculation that sightings in the US may be actually a secret Area 51 skunkworks aircraft known as the TR-3B, an antigravity vehicle supposedly developed with recovered alien technology!

Black triangles are spotted all over the world, hovering and flying silently overhead. In 2002 an oil rig worker took this shot of what is clearly a delta winged vehicle out over Glasgow.

So, has anyone else seen a real UFO or more importantly - have you got a photo ?.......

RAY GUIDED X-2 SPACE SHIP FROM ARTO

I do love this TB2 clone, the wonderfully named RAY GUIDED X-2 SPACE SHIP. It's operated by use of a simple torch beam. And we thought the Internet was clever! I think the transparent green fuselage is particularly attractive and reminds me a little of  later TB2 doppelganger, THUNDERCOP. This particular X-2 was acquired from Italy and is shown courtesy of blog friend Arto.

As for the little blue torch, it's a classic Sixties design. I'm sure I had a torch like that. It kinda sort of reminds me of the small kaleidoscope made by SWORD copyist HOVER as pictured below:

Mo' Molab

This post has been a long time coming and is probably not really ready to roll even now. The problem has been that the bulk of the information I will present was shared with me by ubercollector and premium expert Mike Speth aka Astronit, who I have not been able to contact for some time, largely due to his work schedule and other pressing issues he was faced with. So if your're reading this Mike, please feel free to correct me. Shortly after I started blogging, I got in touch with Mike with various queries about premiums and he was a mine of information. One of the biggest thorns in my side had always been the Kelloggs Space Age premiums and their background, and Mike kindly illuminated their story for me in a series of emails accompanied by some amazing pictures. Some of the pictures copyright and credit belong to third parties and this is where my reticence to post them lay.

I had first come across the Molab as one of six small kits made available in Sugar Smacks around July, 1969. I was always a fan of moon buggies etc and was overjoyed when I got the Molab in the first box of cereal I opened. Unfortunately, I wouldn't eat the sugary rubbish itself and I only ever got another two chances, one of which revealed the atlas rocket and one final one got me the transporter. At the time I didn't know that the set contained more models than the UK release as this japanese box art shows.

As I am focussing on the Molab at this point, i'll disregard the other kits for now and revisit them later. At some point during the succeeding years, I came across an illustration of a 'molab' on a book cover, bright red and unmistakably the same vehicle. This version painted by Alex Schomburg appears on a book dated 1953 and would appear to be the earliest appearance of the vehicle. The Spacex version, which I came across probably about 1972/73, follows this design closely.

However, when I asked Mike about the original and background of the Molab he told me - 


"The Space Age set came out in 1970 and all the mold pieces were designed by Stan Barton.  The actual craft designs for the vehicles were done by NASA.  The molds are still in use and you can get them from Mexico but the plastic is not as good as original R&L. Stan’s original models were made of wood and photographed in B&W to sell the concept to Kellogg’s.  Also is a scan of the page from Craig’s first book where all the pictures were his line drawing."

Stan apparently referred to the Molab as a 'space shuttle' and was quoted as having 'dreamed it up', but the general outline clearly reflects Schomburgs design of some 20 years previously. The other designs are easily recognisable as NASA concepts, apart from perhaps the Rocket Transporter, which could easily feature in Thunderbirds. 

 To blow my mind even further though, Mike pointed out that the R & L kits appeared again in another form, a set of all the collected models called Diko-Rama.

 This spanish set featured all the kits together with a card backdrop and was sold at retail, rather than being offered as a premium. The set included 12 individual kits, with duplicates of some of the models and the buyer was encouraged to paint each one after making it up.

Personally, I prefer the plain coloured plastic myself and although I did actually paint my original green Molab and add an american flag decal, it was only because it had been battered and repaired so many times over the years.. I eventually managed to replace it and find the missing models from my collection in ebay Australia.

As a background to cereal collecting and a good source of info on the range of R & L premiums, Mike recommended Craig Halls book BREAKFAST BARONS CEREAL CRITTERS AND THE ROSENHAIN AND LIPMANN LEGACY - from which several of these photos are taken.


And finally, part of the reason that this post has appeared now was that after Andy sent me his photo of his premium collection, I was contacted with a request to use the pic of my Molab in a blog post on the actual Space Race. Also I had been mulling over something I might use as a subject for a painting I wanted to do to experiment with oils, the resultant illustration sits at the head of this already long article...