Super Booster

2012 was a great year for Booster Rockets, seeing the elusive orange bodied Hover version and a small scale cereal premium version added to the Wotan Archive. Being a serial completist, it's always very satisfying to plug a gap in a range or collection, so I was very pleased to find a tiny box included in Woodsys birthday package that he sent me this week. Tucked away in the little box was the missile from the inside of the Imai Thunderbird 7 model. This tiny one inch model is clearly a booster rocket derivative, down to the winged glider at the front and strap on fuel tanks.

HUSTLER

Just listening to a rock band I haven't heard for 40 years, Hustler. I saw live around 1973 supporting the mighty Welsh power trio Budgie. I fell in love with Hustler from the first kerrang and swiftly exchanged some spondoolies for their first album, High Street pictured below with some glorious mullets on show! I also shelled out for their single Get Outa Me House, a cracking cockney geezer rock 'n' roller. There were so many great bands working hard to make a living back then and Hustler worked and rocked harder than most. For a taste of them here's their superb Jack The Lad courtesy of a fellow rock fan on You Tube.

 

 

Who were or are your favourite bands and musicians?

MOON PATROL

 

IT'S COMING!

Gunther Radtke's Nuclear Ferry

I recently saw this beautiful artwork from 1974 by Gunther Radtke on Flickr [X Ray Delta One]. Radtke is a German artist I'm not familiar with. The illustration is from an unknown German publication [anyone recognise it?] and describes the space station as a 'space factory for 400 personel'.  The perspective of the space station is beguiling and the two spacecraft echo the design of our friend the front cab of the Nuclear ferry pictured below from a story in TV21 comic.

Eaglemoss Classic TV Batmobile

The second issue of Batman Automobilia features THE Classic TV Batmobile . It’s certainly the one I was looking forward to and it doesn’t disappoint.

The display case shows the car parked in the Batcave with a couple of control consoles and a reflector dish.  The 3D lenticular backing  card shows the atomic reactor .

I think it’s a cracking little model and really well detailed. The only downside, as was pointed in a previous post is the wheels don’t turn so no taking the model out and driving it across the carpet.

As a display model it’s great. The cockpit has a tiny bat phone, the bat chute release lever, an accurate steering wheel and dashboard. The seats are even detailed with red piping and bat logos.

Under the turbine afterburner is a detailed number plate.

Well worth the six quid I spent on it.

Next time - The Tumbler from Batman Begins!

S.T.A.R FORCE LOT

If you like the S.T.A.R FORCE range of toys there's what appears to be a bargain lot on a classifieds ads site in Northampton, UK. It may be already sold, I don't know but there's loads of boxed toys. It's not a line I know well but I know that they are at the larger end of the scale. Link to the ad. Anyone collect S.T.A.R FORCE?

Prospecting

Rather like the cargo module that crashes on the moon in my inaugural story on Celtica, 'Tales of the Darkside', another parcel of goodies arrived at Marsbase yesterday. This time from Commander Woods, I received a real cornucopia of goodies, including the second SWORD Make A Model book, so I can finally build my own Hovertank! (watch this space..). Packed in amongst the books and other treasures was a small orange Kinder Egg like capsule, which when I cracked it open revealed the rare Furuta mini model of the NASA Lunar Prospector probe. This tiny kit, comprising just 9 parts, builds into a really finely detailed model of the 1999 vehicle. Tucked in next to it was the micro Booster Rocket from the Thunderbird 7 kit too!

Just to indulge an old man even more, Woodstock had sent me a fine Boma resin Totem Pole, which was skillfully appropriated by Mrs Moonbase from Dewsbury Car Boot! The pole is the latest addition to my other major passion of collecting and now takes pride of place on the First Nations shelf.

My collection of Totem poles are squirreled away on my secret blog here.

LUNAR ORBITER: MORE ART

Always on the look out for potential sources for SWORD and SpaceX art, here's a beautiful illustration from an unknown childrens' book 1969. The Lunar Orbiter isn't that similar to the SpaceX card art shown below, but overall it's a lovely montage of space vehicles. It's interesting that the capsule is called a Ferry Vehicle. The space station has been clearly pilfered from Bob McCall's iconic 2001 Space Odyssey poster art although the departing spaceship is not the same as the original space clipper. Anyone know which kids' book this came from?

To Bill From Will

Greetings Bill,

I just wanted to wish you a very Happy Birthday my friend!

Cheers!

Will S.

Special Man

It's someones special day today so I couldn't resist posting this fantastically naff knockoff. There's just something wrong calling Superman special! I adore knockoffs but they are piracy and it must be a huge problem for the big toy companies. Even Golden Astronaut toys were bootlegged causing the manufacturers Multiple to post a legal notice in the toy press at the time. Wonder if they meant Imperial Toys and Apollo Moon Exploring amongst others? Pictures of knockoffs of any toys, the stranger the better, always welcomed here!

 

 

Anyways, on this special day here's an especial quiz question: which 1970's UK rock song contains the phrase "...became the special man...."?

Stories Of The Batman

With the new Batmobile collection in the offing, I decided to raid the loft and dig out my old  Batman annuals which have survived the years since I was first introduced to the Caped Crusader in the mid sixties.

I've never considered myself a big fan but thinking about it I have enjoyed the occasional flirtation with the comic from time to time. For me and most people of my age the sixties TV Batman is the basis for any interest .  The release of the Corgi Batmobile was the must have toy for any Batfan particularly as it was the same as the one on TV.  The comics showed a different car with a shield-like bat across the front, not the same at all!

This story book annual released  in 1966 by World Distributors has the bat faced car on the front cover, but inside shows the TV version, along with other references from the TV show.

The Batcave  showing the Bat poles, and Batman working the Bat-computer.

This is from 1967 and one I don't have but remember having at the time. I've include it because it does have the George Barris TV Batmobile on the cover.

This is an example I have retained.This story book annual from 1968 has a  great cover showing the TV Batmobile. 

This Batman Bumper Book from 1970 carries no references to the TV series, apart from a single photo on one of the inside pages of Adam West as Batman.

Most of the book is filled with reprints of American Batman comic strips.

I can remember getting TV Tornado back in the sixties which carried text stories in it's early issues with the odd illustration showing the TV Batmobile.

The short lived Super DC also featured text stories similar to TV Tornado as well as reprinted comic strips.

In spite of a lack of TV series related imagery  I do remember picking up Smash purely for the front covers which  reprinted old newspaper strips. 

The TV series got me into the Batman character and from then on I've sporadically  enjoyed the various incarnations. The excellent Frank Miller penned  Dark Knight Returns comic strip from 1986  really got back into the Caped Crusader. Batman: Year One, also by Miller released the following year was another tour de force which went on to influence the critically acclaimed Dark Knight Trilogy.

While I wait for the next Batmobile model to arrive on my doormat I reckon it's about time I gave these stories another read

Maybe I am a bit of a fan after all!    

MOONBASE ON YELLOW ALERT: UFO-GRAM FOR BIRTHDAY BOY BILL

 

 

.......happy birthday cmmdr.wotan, mars base from lt. gay ellis, moon base.....stop

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILL!

Look what we found in today's postbag!

 

From Woodsy

 

 

From Andy B

 

 

From Ed The Iceman

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WOTAN

FROM EVERYONE ON THE BLOG!

MANY HAPPY RETURNS

TO EARTH

YOU OLD SPACE DOG!

Kennedy Capers

Some while ago, I blogged about a small Cape Kennedy Launch Pad set, I'd come by from the states. A classic Woolworths or seaside shop toy, it replaced one I had as a kid. The combination of delicate plastic and a powerful spring meant that it didn't last long. The cog shaped devices are satellites, which are spring launched from the tip of the rocket after it reaches a height set by a length of cord, which sets off an interior spring catch. Since I've, had it, I've been tempted to open it, but resisted. Yesterday a large box arrived from my great friend Paul Vreede which contained (amongst other delights) a larger carded version of the set.

This one held the same rocket and gantry but was joined with a neat radar telescope too. The blister was held one by a couple of rusty staples, so this time, I liberated the set.

 Its a marvellously simple design, clean and unfussy and nicely scaled for Spacex too.

The Radar telescope is scaled much smaller, judging by the tiny stairs and doorway, but has some great detail.

Although the card is marked Dean plastics, the toy is clearly trademarked in German. The gantry rolls back with a small knurled wheel and astronauts can take a lift to one of two platforms.

BOOK OF SPACE ADVENTURES 3

Published by ATLAS in the early Sixties, the  series of Book of Space Adventures is a great addition to your space library. I've got number 3, which is packed with Sixties NASA space concepts and programmes, many which echo Project SWORD and Spacex/Golden Astronaut. I've posted a few pages here. Have you any old books containing designs which went on to become space toys?

Lunar Orbiter a la Spacex top right

Space Gliders a la SWORD and Spacex

top: US MIDAS satellite. Does it remind you of Spacex's

Photonic Propulsion Space Station as well [below]?

Art by Scoop 2009