Blog Monsters

The night was dark as pitch as Toad lit the rank candelabra in Mars House. The skull of old Sam Hain, who had drowned in the steaming blog, grinned knowingly. Toad roused the FrankenWote Monster from it's fetid slumber. They had a visitor this Hallowe'en - Count VampenWoodsy en route to his hideous repose on the Yorkshire moors. As they turned to meet in the gibbous glow of the ancient candles, Toad heard a familiar annual rant to which the fiends began to twitch in a hellish mimicry of human dance. And so through the rooms of the old Mars House there began to grow the necrotic rasp of ..Oh No! The Monster Mash!

Hexy Girls

Hex Girls version of

What's New Scooby Doo

For the Toadster on Halloween

Halloween Howler 2: Creepy Comp

OK Ghouls and Boyz, more Hallowe'en japes now.

Can you name these four Sixties monster toys and playthings?

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Halloween Howler 1: Mad Monster Party

Ahh, 1967. What a great year! Project SWORD, Solo, Captain Scarlet and .... Mad Monster Party! If you've never seen this ghoulish stop-motion gem, this Halloween is a great time to watch this short trailer courtesy of You Tube. Designed by the great Jack Davis of Mad and artist behind the iconic You'll Die Laughing Monster Gum Cards, Mad Monster Party was made in 'Animagic' and was graced [or even laced!] with the voice talents of Phylis Diller and the legend himself, Karloff. You'll also find The Count of later Sesame Street fame and lots of characters who influenced one young Disney employee called Tim Burton, who knocked-up the melancholic Vincent and his later gothic puppetry in films like Corpse Bride and Nightmare Before Christmas. The rest is history!

Yesterdays Tomorrows

On the eve of Halloween when the veil between the living and the worlds of the dead is at its thinnest, its perhaps fitting to look at some rare glimpses of what might have been in the worlds of Corgi cars. Following on from my recent blog article on the Corgi catalogues and the presence of the Dan Dar Car in the 1981 catalogue, it was brought to my attention that more detail on the fate of the model was available in the The New Great Book of Corgi 1956-2010 by Marcel R.Van Cleemput. A very weighty and expensive book, it was beyond my means to buy, but expert researcher Philotoadia managed to secure a copy on loan and provided me with some shots of the relevant pages. 
Apparently, pre-production models were built for the Dan Dare car, but as often happens, the money behind the Dare licence collapsed and took the Corgi model with it. Meanwhile, these two photos show the model in more detail with the wings clearer and the radiation shield in place beneath the clear cockpit dome.

Along with many other fascinating facts about the history of Corgi productions, there were other sci-fi related toys in evidence in the book, some of which are also instantly recognisable, but again never made it to the store shelves for various reasons.

 The 1974 Daleks are an interesting addition, although judging by the red pillar box/dustbin dalek at the front, its unlikely that Terry Nation would have agreed to them! Pertwees Whomobile is a nice model which judging by the car transporter next to it would have been just above Junior scale at about 10-12cm long. The Moon Vehicle is apparently just a work of the designers imagination.

Another surprise in terms of possible licencesed appearances was the Phoenix from Battle of the planets cartoon, sat alongside a pair of land speed record vehicles.

 

For me though, the more unusual vehicles were always a big draw with Corgi toys, the licenced vehicles such as Buck Rogers and James Bond may have had mass market appeal, but every now and then a purely fictional or non standard model would appear. Judging by the pre-production mock ups shown here, Corgi seemed to be pursuing new aerospace designs for aircraft and using those as the basis for a range of exciting boxed models. A shame they never left the R & D dept!

Happy Hallowe'en Swordies!

Mod Monster

wishes you all

a

Pant-Droppingly

Scary Halloween!

PS. what are your scariest tales or fave Hallowe'en memories or bestest creepy toys?

Pics of your monstrous window and table displays welcomed for posting too!

SWORD on FILM

Here's a round-up of all the SWORD and SPACEX online video footage I know of. I've included forerunners and box art. These have appeared previously on the blog over the years but not all together in one posting. Enjoy!

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. Source: British Pathe.

UNBOXED 'SEARS' ROCKET LAUNCHER  [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!] NB. this 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. Source: British Pathe.

PROJECT SWORD. THUNDERBIRDS EXHIBITION, BLACKPOOL 1994. Many of the SWORD range appear towards the end [anyone know who put this exhibition together?]. Source: You Tube.

ZERO-X TOY by Century 21. Source: You Tube.

NICHIMO SPACE ARMY TANK. Forerunner of the C21 SWORD Moon Ranger. Source: You Tube.

SWORD MOON CRAWLER on the left of the plastic UFO Missile Tank box art. Source: You Tube.

Amy more video footage welcomed!

Mike B and the 1990 Eagle Exhibition in Southport

As promised, Paul, some old snaps of the Southport 1990 Eagle Exhibition. As the huge banner over the front of the Atkinson Art Gallery showed, the exhibition was co- sponsored by a national building company called Sibec who were building a massive shopping complex in the town. With private money behind it the local council felt they could do the Eagle celebration justice, and thinking it wouldn’t cost them a penny they spent and spent... and spent. The free exhibition was probably the most successful event the Art Centre had ever staged and brought a lot of people to the town.

 

 

A lot of time and effort went into producing quality brochures and flyers. The souvenir brochure was in the style of an original Eagle comic with an instalment from the Dan Dare story ‘The Ship That Lived’. Inside was full of original articles and a double page cut-away of the Anastasia, Dan Dare’s personal ship. A colour flyer and full size poster was produced incorporating original artwork.

 

 

Members of the Eagle Society loaned original artwork, toys and professionally commissioned models. (Some made by modeller, Martin Bower) Original studio props were made available by family members of artist, Frank Hampson and editor, Marcus Morris.

 

 

Some talented lads from the local art school created a full size mock up of a Dan Dare space craft. You can see a picture of my son who was four at the time at the controls. Even the gallery spent a few bob on tracking down the first 14 or so issues of the original Eagle comic . These were the issues produced in Southport prior to the Eagle studio moving to Epson.

Even the New Eagle gave away free issues of it’s latest edition. The exhibition filled the entire gallery.

Apart from the displays there was a full size reconstruction of the original Eagle studio, a young boys bedroom from the fifties and a professionally made scale model of Space Fleet Headquarters complete with working monorail!

Apart from providing a couple of models, my contribution was creating a hastily built moonscape which was around 8’ square. It featured a moonbase, a moon lander and a space station .Visitors could see the scene by looking through a small porthole in the wall as if they were up in space. I thought it was quite innovative – but I’ll reserve judgement on whether it was successful.

 

 

Anyway, the exhibition itself was a great success, boosted by the enthusiastic response from staff at the Art Gallery, the Eagle mob, local fans and helpers. The Council believing that it was somebody else's money well spent enjoyed the moment.

However, the Council’s self satisfaction was to be short lived as Sibec, went bust taking with it any sponsorship money. The Council had to foot the entire bill. But, it didn’t put them off. For the fiftieth Eagle anniversary at the Gallery they put another, somewhat smaller exhibition on, and this time people were charged to get in. I was even witness to some Council jobsworth trying to charge artist, Don Harley admission as he arrived as a special guest at the opening.

 

 

But I guess those Treens are everywhere!

Mike B.

Captain Lazer's Rattling Back-Pack

If you'd have come round to my house in 1968 you'd have found me messing with Major Matt Mason by Mattel. Of all the space toys there was something complete about the MMM universe, it simply had everything. I particularly loved all the little silver gizmo's like the walkie talkie, his chrome tools and his cool rotojet rifle.

There were some deeply satisfying facets to these toys: the way the little gold visor went neatly up and down on Matt's helmet, the rotating radar on the Firebolt Lazer Canon and the puff technology that sent Callisto's string beam flying out.

But above all - and the thing I recall the most vividly - is a sound. Not just any sound but possibly the most unique sound in Sixties toydom - the odd rattle buzz made by pressing the push-buttons on the backpack of Matt's big buddy from Mars, Captain Lazer! Priceless! I loved it and still do!

You can still hear the sound on a You Tube MMM TV commercial from 1968 [above] around the 42 seconds mark where the Cap's eyes light up. It's a very strange echoey zing!

Can anyone have a go at describing it? It letters or words or sounds. Best one gets to be called Captain Lazer!

Dan and Gerry

 Setting the way back machine to 1990 again, here are some custom creations from the hands of uber-modeller Mike Burrows once more. Originally built to sit alongside the Anastasia and Space Shark at the Eagle Expo, these two Fireballs deserve an exhibitionon of their own. Built at two scales and complete with launch ramp, they have survived well in the dusty attic since the expo closed.

Armageddon a la Carte

Been catching up on Apocolyptic movies of late:

Contagion [2011]: saw this at the flicks. A big budget film stuffed with A-listers. I have to say I was dissappointed and left the cinema feeling somewhat irritated by what I can only describe as a lacklustre dumbing-down of the horrors of a global pig-flu pandemic. Now I know that most modern flicks are aimed at beautiful young things but is there really any need to fill a film with jangly techno-beats during the sciency bits, public service information style? The last time I saw anything like this was Doomwatch from the 1960's [whom I'll forgive] but don't really expect mental breaks nowadays. They should have watched The Andromeda Strain at least once more before making this drivel. Overall verdict: Pants.

Virus [1980]: pretty much the Contagion flick of it's day, this movie cost $16 Million to make and was a complete flop at the time and that's despite it being crammed with big names like George Kennedy, Olivia Hussey, Chuck Connors and Robert Vaughn. I watched a VHS Big Box video version distributed by Intervision. I have to say I really enjoyed this movie and found the story sufficiently complex to keep me entertained. Another Flu pandemic, this time its Italian Flu that decimates the world's population with only 800 men and 8 women surving in the polar regions, where the virus is dormant. The inclusion of Henry Silva as a mad General hell-bent on a nuclear solution was inspired. Overall verdict: Interesting.

 

 

Book of Eli [2010 ]: I saw this as part of my Love Film quota of two DVD's a month. I missed it at the flicks and it's apocolyptic contemporary, The Road. The Book of Eli is basically fifteen rounds between Denzel Washington's good guy and the bad guy, Gary Oldman. I'm surprised they agreed to it as it is truly awful. I was bored after half an hour. A message, a journey, a battle, a new hope. It's all been done before and much better when set in space with a few Sith thrown in! Overall verdict: Duff.

Holocaust 2000 [1977]:  from the year that gave the world Star Wars came this little gem of a "horror" movie. I'll say right from the outset that it's a blatent rip-off of superior The Omen from the previous yea, but Holocaust still has enough going for it to stand on it's own two feet [or should I say hooves]. Thios was another of my bBig Box VHS tapes dusted off this week. Starring Kirk Douglas in fine Kirkian form, together with that erstwhile child-star Simon Ward, the plot is basically about the development of a nuclear reactor, which, if various priests and protesters are to be believed, will bring about the apocolypse. Like Gregory Peck a year earlier the chisel-chinned Kirk is having none of it until everyone around him has been dispatched, except of course, his grinning son, one Master Ward called Angel in the film [as in Fallen!]. Very Seventies. Apparantly the beach scene was filmed in Bigbury-On-Sea in Devon! Overall verdict: Fascinating.

PS. I just cannat get paragraph breaks to stay put on blogger. Sorry!

Thunderduds

I do love knockoffs. I particularly love Thunderbirds knockoffs and there's a couple of great ones gracing the pages of fleabay at the moment. First up we have a real mish-mash, a carded set containing a cheapo looking Thunderbird 1 together with a racing car and pair of sunglasses no less! Just what the toy maker had in mind when they concocted this combination I just don't know! It's Japanese and looks old. Cam anyone translate the header card?

Second up is a much classier affair and from what I can tell a scarce item. I've certainly never seen one before. I'll have to check if it's in Dennis Nicholson's Anderson Memorabilia Guide but I don't remember it. Basically its a motorised Thunderbird 4 kit called Star Command Galaxy Airsub. Its dated 1977 and was made for Calfax Inc. by Caprice products. I really do like the overall look of the box art and I'm sure that the red star describes an offer of some sort. But what? Oddly, there is no mention of Thunderbirds, which I assume is a licensing evasion tactic. Anyone ever seen this kit before? Are there more in the range?

One Drop

On tonight's TV there was a throwaway comment about water particles having been found floating about somewhere in the universe. The scientist predicted that one day Mankind might use this water to inhabit another world once our own Sun has expired. Despite the water being countless light years away [I forget how many] I was excited by this news! A job for SWORD methinks! Now which ship should we send?

It's Got to Be Perfect

Earlier in the autumn Japan auction hound Terry sent me a link to these pictures of an unusual Space Rocket TO1 'Perfect Model' kit by Midori of Japan. It's super sleek shape and trio of engine fins will appear familiar to blog readers because we've this rocket at least twice before: on the X-60 Space Rocket and Lucky Toys' Lunar Probe No.1 [pictured below]. Any more rockets of this shape Swordies?

Eagle Expo

ANASTASIA

 Way back in 1990, when I worked in Southport, the local Atkinson Gallery held an Eagle and Dan Dare exhibition to celebrate the work of Frank Hampson and the birth of Dan in a small corrugated lean to shed in nearby Churchtown village. Part of the exhibition centred around some astounding model work of ships featured in the strip such as the Anastasia. Fast forward to the present day and model maker Mike Burrows has unearthed some of the models from the exhibition, dusted them off and retouched a little flaking paint. Quality, I think you will agree, stand the test of time nicely.

THE COMET AT MOONBASE

MOONBASE TANKER

TREEN SUPER SPACE SHARK

SPACE SHARK ENGINE DETAIL

Booted

Just picked up what looks like a loose military mono rail by Blue Bird from 1989 at the local boot sale. Once I've set it up I'll post a snap or two. In the meantime, having googled a bit, I think it's the monorail and carraiges of this Zero Hour set.

PS. Where have all the vintage toys gone at car boot sales? He-Man, Ghostbusters, Thundercats et al and even earlier stuff from my own childhood? There used to be tons!

Beetle Mania

Blog reader and Japan auction watcher Terry has sent me these cool pics of our friend the Beetle II. The top one is the Midori version and the lower one is by Academy of Korea.

For good measure I've thrown in these pics of the cute Quick-Fit-Kit Vanguard, whose sister the Echo Car I had for many years. The box art of the series is simply beautiful.