Moonbase Memory

Back in da room after an epic journey on British Rail, and a day back at the desk in work, fun and games at Moonbase now seem like a pleasant memory. So before things get back to normal and the big smile fades, heres a brief rundown of the small selection of goodies I picked up at Doncaster Toy Fair. Besides a huge selection of trains, trucks, dolls and diecast, there were one or two boxed JR Rosenthal Thunderbirds and Scarlet toys, daleks galore, the odd vintage toy but precious little in the way of space stuff. We did see a bag of about 20 odd repro Archer/Tudor Rose spacemen, including our old friend the Magic Robot, but at £20 it was a bit much for me. We also saw a bevy of the Kelloggs Spacemen (sans helmets) ranging from £3 to £10 each. I was on a tight budget and Mr Moonbase an even more restricted one, so I chose carefully.

The first cab off my rank was the futuristic Corgi Inter City minibus. Very much a fixer-upper, but with a definite C21 feel to it. I'll see if I can strip it down and consider what can be done with it.

Walking around the fair, surrounded by loads of classic die-cast, I slipped back to my Matchbox Superfast collecting days and found myself with the chance to pick up a few items to plug a few gaps in my old collection. I had always been a big fan of Battle Kings, so I snapped up a half track and a pair of King Tigers
all were missing tracks, but the bodywork was fairly good.

Next up, we discovered a stall with predominantly dolls, but sat amongst the girly stuff was a small collection of Tudor Rose classics, boats, telephone boxes, train and other vinyl figures. Hiding amongst the fluff and dolls house stuff we spotted a Tudor Rose Rocket firing tank. The black dome was a rubber ball which when compressed would fire out a rocket from the barrel. The rubber had perished and the rocket was gone, but for a pound, I couldn't resist.

Then, as Woodsys tummy started doing somersaults and we had to get him back to moonbase for food, I felt the change in my pocket burning and picked up a couple of last minute bargains.

 Principal among them was something i'd been after for a while, the Dinky Coast Guard Launch from the abortive anderson show, The Investigator. Missing a few small bits and suffering a couple of teeth marks in the mast, but othrwise not bad!

So now, I just need to find the Armoured Command Car and ill have another niche of obscure toys complete!

 Matchbok Super Kings Shovel Nose, another futuristic hot rod.

 Finally, another obsession of mine, Lego, coupled with a favourite film character Zurg from Toy Story 2!

 Having reached Moonbase safely, theever generous Mr Woods rewarded me with a surprise set of Apollo Moon Exploring variants, a slightly larger version of the standard LEM, Apollo Service Module and a neat rocket!