SWORDSTOCK & SWORDCAST SUNDAY!

It's all go this weekend as Woodsy, Wotan and Scoop get together for a Blogstock at Moonbase. An opportunity for us all to get together and plan out the next steps for the blog and pig out on beer, curry and big box videos!

Then at 8pm on Sunday night we will have the latest Swordcast on Celtica Radio, but before that, the big three will hit sunny Doncaster to explore a huge toy fair at the Racecourse! See if you can spot our smiling faces amongst the throng and give us a wave!

DYNA SOAR BOX ART ON THE RANGER-7 ROCKET

There aren't many toy boxes with Dyna-Soar artwork besides the Project SWORD one. Well here's a cracker. Spotted by Arto it's the uber-cool Space Rocket Ranger-7. A tin rocket to get the pulse racing, the R-7 seems to zoom out of the same generic rocket design pool as the Project SWORD Task Force 1. Can you think of more rockets like this readers?

THE TARDIGRADES OF SPACE

I love the Tardigrade. It's a microscopic space-traveler currently assisting NASA. The bug's ability to withstand extreme conditions such as drying out may help the space boffins understand how humans might survive in the cosmos. Affectionately known as the Water Bear, it reminds me of a hoover bag with legs! I'm expecting a Tardigrade monster movie at some point or at least a Doctor Who story, The Tardigrades of Space!

Do you like Tardigrade [is that the plural?] readers?

AIRFIX SCALE SKELETON: DEM BONES

I saw a large plastic model skeleton today and bam! it took me straight back to my childhood when I made one.

My skeleton was an Airfix model. It was bone yellow and about 12 inches tall. It stood upright on a plastic stand [or was it metal?]

My brothers had the Beatles model kits by Revel, like Kooky John, to mess with but I just loved that Airfix Skeleton to bits! Anyone else have one?

COUNTING DOWN

VINTAGE TOY BOXES AND SUN FADING

Sunlight is a real fader when it comes to toy boxes. My best stuff is under wraps in a display cabinet covered with a blanket. I suppose an alternative would be some thick curtains.

How much a problem do you think sunlight is readers when it comes to fading box art?

TA TOO TA TIN: MY TINPLATE EMERGENCY VEHICLES

I know my cyber colleague WOTAN hates tin plate but occasionally it does have to feature on the blog! Continuing my look at the few vintage tin cars I accumulated in the 1980's, here are two more, the Red Cross Ambulance and the Highway Patrol. 

YET MORE FROM THE ARCHIVE OF COREY LECHAT

Pictures from the collection of Corey LeChat

Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel

.... but Ubercollector Terry certainly isn't!  Here's a picture of all the model Angel Interceptor variations he's aware of so far. Apart from a Super Deformed model, anyway... the glider model carries Angel Interceptor artwork on the wings. SIG!

MORE UGLY SPACE TOYS: THE SPACE PACER AND FASHION SHIP

I've had more ugly space toys sent to me. It's struck a chord with readers. It's strange how ugliness should go together with space. I suppose it's more to do with cheapness than space. Crap is always going to be crap! Keep your uglies coming!

"Hi Paul, don't know if this counts as an ugly space toy- looks like a militant toaster! The Space Pacer. Andy B."

It counts Andy. Looks like a Moon Scout with bits randomly stick on. I think it's from Greece. A militant toaster! Yes! ha ha!

and from Wotan, a toy he calls 'Way Fugly'. This Fashion Ship! can only be the product of the Eighties: big hair, padded shoulders and drum machines. This ship has them all! It has listed on Ebay as maybe being for girls. Hmm. 

It does deserve a second look though. There is something here that is sort of appealing. It's shaped a little like a Spacex pleasure cruiser and the coloured lights are straight off the end of an alien in the Fiftie's B- shocker War of the Worlds! 

Overall it reminds me of the time machine in the Sixtie's original from which our hero, as the decades roll by, views the changing fashions in the shop window. Fashion ship! Yes! I like it! What about you readers? Would you buy one?

MANNA FROM KEVIN

Further to the recent post about Angels, here are my collection, The modern Airfix one, the larger Imai kit, the Corgi diecast (including the one from New Captain Scarlet), the little Vivid Imaginations diecast and the excellent Konami toy.
Kevin Davies

SATURDAY MORNING TV: MARINE BOY

One of my all time favourite cartoon shows courtesy of You Tube: Marine Boy. Did you watch it? Was it an early example of Anime?

Why Oh Why don't they show these old Saturday morning cartoons on the TV for us old fogeys? What would you want to see readers?

LION ROCK IN A JUNK SHOP

In a Huddersfield arcade junk shop the other day I saw two interesting small loose action dolls sat on the edge of a shelf, looking as if they were about to jump off. About 6 inches tall and very military. As if Action Man and Barbie had had children. I immediately thought Bradgate's 'Little Big Man', one of my sidelines as a Kid in the Sixties.

On closer inspection, the price label read 'Lion Rock Pilot'. I must admit I'd never seen a pilot before so I assumed it must be a pilot set for the US Lion Rock Little Big Man. In the UK LBM was sold by Bradgate.

Doing a little digging when I got back to Moonbase I discovered that there isn't a Little Big Man pilot as far as I could tell. The two junk shop men were a separate line by Lion Rock called COMBAT MAN I think. In the end I passed on the two little fellas, £15 each. Was it a wise move readers?

Combat Man pilot

Lion Rock

WHERE'S MY CAPTAIN LAZER MUM?

If there was one toy I could take to Mars it would be Mattel's Captain Lazer. With his Leonard Nimoy looks and glam rock boots the Captain is the coolest toy ever. I adored him as a kid. My Mum forgot to leave it out for me on Xmas morning so on hearing my sobbing she quickly retrieved it from under the bed, came down stairs and handed it to me wrapped in paper. "There you go Son, Santa didn't forget".  

I even wrote a poem about him when I was a teenager. Such is the power of the Captain's dazzling eyes and chest plate. I think the neatest stuff though, were his lazer attachments; the rod, the barrel and my favourite, the purple shield. Callisto and his cissy string pistol never stood a chance against the might of the glowing Captain! 

These three coloured lazer parts reminded me of the cool weapons and accessories which came with Colorform's Outer Space Men, probably the best space toy range ever made. In fact Mattel's Major Matt Mason range and the Outer Space Men fit together perfectly. Callisto could easily be an Outer Space Man! Ol' Cap was so cool that Mattel used his body again for a new generation in the Seventies, by which time Captain Lazer will have been but a distant ray blast.

Finally I'd like to mention the sound the Cap's backpack made. I've talked about it before and will no doubt again. It is one of those iconic sounds unique to a Sixties childhood, like a spring rattling round a paint tin. Words like 'bodoingggggg' and 'de-de-de-de-de' don't do it justice. What do you think readers? What was that sound like?

ANGEL INTERCEPTORS

Hi Woodsy

Angel Interceptors were supposed to be derived from a World Air Force design. Curiously the [Alan] Fennell world had Britain as a Republic after a military dictatorship but just as US units of the World Air Force seemed to still have USAF markings it is reasonable that the British should keep theirs. So here is a BAF/RAF interceptor from the 2070's.

Ralph [reader]

To add to reader Ralph's cool military interceptor, here are three more unusual ones I've seen on the net [is there a collective noun for angels?]. They are various colours but I'm assuming that those on the TV were always white. Or?

Here's New Zealand's Lincoln International's original white version of the Japanese Bandai Angel. I'm unsure if its the same size. Does anyone know?

Next up is this blue Spanish angel attached to its launcher on the impressive Super Pantera toy by Guisval.

Finally, here's an unusual red Angel I saw on the bay [seller: Santa Claus]. It's by Bandai and is a rare ceiling flyer. Alas, its such a rarity I doubt that anyone would want to test it out!

Have you any Angel Interceptors readers?