A lovely trio from 2013, I noticed these this week online. I was surprised to see an Auction House get the titles wrong/confused. All three are described as Project SWORD. However the listing does say that one is by Pyro. Here.
Thursday, 31 December 2015
THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO EXHIBITION
I've got to hand it those wonderful Japanese toy manufactures
They come up with some fabulous Thunderbirds are Go merchandise,
Look at these photos taken at the Tokyo Toy Show in June, 2015 showing some of the TakaraTomy TAG toys, which I know many of you have managed to get hold of.
The small Tomica toys have been very popular with a lot of you.
Look at these photos taken at the Tokyo Toy Show in June, 2015 showing some of the TakaraTomy TAG toys, which I know many of you have managed to get hold of.
The small Tomica toys have been very popular with a lot of you.
It appears they've also got a Thunderbirds are Go exhibition being held at NHK Studio Park, part of the Japanese Broadcasting Centre in Tokyo until January 11th 2016.
Now that's how to promote Thunderbirds are Go!
MIDORI STINGRAY HYBRIDS
These old Japanese Stingray-based hybrid kits are cool. By Midori in 1966. The top one looks like the Sea View from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Seen online. The Japanese designers attention to detail and unlimited imagination never ceases to amaze me!
SPACE BOY SOREN'S BUBBLE MACHINE MYSTERY SOLVED
Hi Woodsy,
I know it's probably been a few years!
Just a word on the Plastic spaceship - top pic - with martian purchased in Japan mystery!
It is a modified re-tooled version of Space Boy Soren's "Bubble Machine" By Kumi Zumi Sankyo [bottom picture]. My built up is sans decals!
Pics included, and case closed!
Paul Kaiju
Christmas Shuttle
Hi,
Hope everyone had a good Christmas. I got this nifty little Tree ornament from Hallmark. An original (proper) Star Trek shuttlecraft. It is actually a neat little model and even plays a happy holidays message from Spock!
Take care,
Kevin
FUELLED BY HOPE FOR THE COMING YEAR
As this damp planet slowly ends its solar waltz once more I can't help thinking about the year to come and that most fragile of emotions, namely hope. If we were rockets it would power us.
In the Christmas song Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas we hear the lines From now on our troubles will be out of sight and similarly From now on our troubles will be miles away.
It is an odd thing yet completely human that we suppose our struggles will vanish as the Old Year turns and the new one dawns. This belief that an arbitrary moment in the passage of time will somehow heal the wounds of the past and fill our lives with new vigour seems to me to be the very essence of hope.
Philip Larkin, in his Whitsun Weddings, expressed hope thus,
Stood ready to be loosed with all the power
That being changed can give. We slowed again,
And as the tightened brakes took hold, there swelled
A sense of falling, like an arrow-shower
Sent out of sight, somewhere becoming rain.
Larkin links hope with change and the New Year is the biggest change we have. A fresh calender is carefully re-written from the old, whilst we notice the dental appointments we had and the birthdays we missed. Like the arrow-shower we have the power to rise above the humdrum and find new ground.
Yet hope is also frosted with doubt. We talk about the Fates, Destiny, Luck, the First Foot and chance. Somehow we cannot quite accept that things may just get better. We imagine that greater forces must intervene and strew rains of fortune on otherwise barren prospects.
In Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas the line If the Fates Allow, Hang a Shining Star Upon The Highest Bough the Fates seem to control our lives yet free us to place the very light of life itself up high for all to see as the clock strikes twelve. All the power that being changed can give.
So it would seem that as the clock calls time a New Year cocktail of Change and Luck, garnished with fresh Hope and preferably served by the first foot appears to be the best tipple if we wish for further warmth, food and shelter for our loved ones and ourselves in the year to come.
At the strike of twelve tonight when, for an instant, both years roll like dice, please let it be a double six. But if all the unbridled joy and progress we wish for fails to materialise this new year then there is always hope for the next one. As the song advises so well But 'til then we'll have to muddle through somehow.
I wish you all the very best for 2016 readers.
Wednesday, 30 December 2015
CANDY AND ANDY SHOE A HORSE
Photo: Geoff Webb
I was intrigued by this short piece in a Hertfordshire Online page. It features Gerry Anderson's Candy and Andy at the local Blacksmiths! To read the full item click here. Wonder what happened to the two creepy dolls?
Did anyone have any Candy and Andy collectables or see them on the box?
CLOUDBASE CUTAWAY
A little supplementary entry to the previous Captain Scarlet cutaway pics I posted a few days ago.
The above drawing of Cloudbase from the 1967 Captain Scarlet annual was done by artist Keith Watson.
This exploded view of Cloudbase was in that same annual. It is uncredited but I'm wondering whether or not it was Keith again, as a similar view can be seen in the 1967 Century 21 Make a Model of Cloudbase booklet, which, coincidently is exclusively illustrated by Keith Watson.
Just as an addendum, here's an example of a cutaway Keith Watson did as an advertisement for the Vauxhall Cavalier.
And here, Cloudbase done by Eric Eden,which I have to admit does lend support to Andy's theory.
The above drawing of Cloudbase from the 1967 Captain Scarlet annual was done by artist Keith Watson.
This exploded view of Cloudbase was in that same annual. It is uncredited but I'm wondering whether or not it was Keith again, as a similar view can be seen in the 1967 Century 21 Make a Model of Cloudbase booklet, which, coincidently is exclusively illustrated by Keith Watson.
Anyone know for sure?
And here, Cloudbase done by Eric Eden,which I have to admit does lend support to Andy's theory.
MYSTERY PROTOTYPE SPACE TOY
Hi Woodsy,
Just wanted to wish you happy holidays and share these pictures with you of a recent completed YJP auction.
The seller claimed it was maybe a prototype. Sort of vague but it does look like old resin.
It went for SUPER Cheap and unfortunately I slept on it (Forgot!). Oh well! About $10 this would have been!
I totally thought you should see it.
The bottomless pit of SF Japan model hell...
Paul Kaiju
POSTSCRIPT:
Tony K's suggestion, the Dalek Spaceship from the film Daleks Invasion of Earth 2150 AD?
POSTSCRIPT:
Tony K's suggestion, the Dalek Spaceship from the film Daleks Invasion of Earth 2150 AD?
[pic: the doctorwhosite]
Tuesday, 29 December 2015
One for Ron
Inspired by Ron Turners panel which introduced the Thunderbirds Excavator vehicle, I used the new Supersize TB2 pod and the small Imai model.
SPREAD A LITTLE ZEROID HAPPINESS
It occurred to me, I've not put any Zeroid related stuff up for a while so here's a few pics and a little music video featuring those little rascals from Planet Zero.
The Zeroid Exploration Module (ZEM)
Zemo, the later addition to Ideal's Zeroid range
Zerak, once considered to be the leader of The Zeroids, now just a plain 'ol destroyer.
Watch out for those flying satellites!
The Zeroids that never were, or rather the R2-D2 wannabe's - The Star Team Zeroids
Zintar, the Explorer. Don't tell anyone, but he's my favourite.
Zobor, the Transporter. I like him too.
The Zeroid alien. Now, he's a strange one alright. Always goes to pieces in a crisis.
Comr. Zogg, the leader of The Zeroids. Next year I must do a piece on his Action set.
Finally a little music video I've put together featuring The Zeroids.
BOY SOLDIERS:THE DILEMMA OF THE JOHNNY SEVEN TOY RIFLE
Johnny Seven was one of the top toys of the Sixties.
It was the mother of toy guns and still owning one now has made me think that kids nowadays probably wouldn't be able to go outside with anything like it. Or are toy Nerf rifles allowed in the street? I doubt it these days of heightened awareness.
Kids in the Sixties played out with toys and toy rifles. Look at this old print of kids in Salford with a Johnny Seven [pic: Shirley Baker]. Where we foolish to do this? Gung ho even?
It was the mother of toy guns and still owning one now has made me think that kids nowadays probably wouldn't be able to go outside with anything like it. Or are toy Nerf rifles allowed in the street? I doubt it these days of heightened awareness.
Kids in the Sixties played out with toys and toy rifles. Look at this old print of kids in Salford with a Johnny Seven [pic: Shirley Baker]. Where we foolish to do this? Gung ho even?
But kids these days witness violence in video games in their rooms on a hourly basis don't they. So which generation was and is more militarised? Us Sixties kids or today's generation?
Or are we beyond comparison? Is there a better question and does it matter?
LEMMY KILMISTER R.I.P.
Sad to hear the news of the passing of Motorhead frontman, Lemmy at the age of seventy.
Us older rockers will remember his earlier performances in the UK space rock band, Hawkwind, and their number 3 hit, Silver Machine, with Lemmy on lead vocals.
Us older rockers will remember his earlier performances in the UK space rock band, Hawkwind, and their number 3 hit, Silver Machine, with Lemmy on lead vocals.
Can't forget Ace of Spades
SHE COULD BUILD IT IN LESS THAN TWELVE PARSECS
I love this piccy of a worker at Palitoy's Leicester factory making a Millennium Falcon in the late 1970's.
Read more about the factory and the Star Wars toy collection, which was preserved by them but is now under threat. Its all online at the Leicester Mercury [picture courtesy of them also].
MR. SOFTEE SAVES THE DAY
My Mr. Frosty Ice Cream maker has packed up so Mr. Softee and his mates have saved the day!
Monday, 28 December 2015
MYSTERY SPACE TOY
Saw this on www.edp24.co.uk of a brilliant toy shop in Sixties Norfolk and noticed the space scene on a box at the back. Anyone know what that toy or game is?
FIFTY WORDS FOR SNOW
Following on from my gift of the new TV series Thunderbird 3, I was immediately smitten with the new toys, so as Amazon had a bit of a Boxing Day sale, I treated myself to the Supersize 2 and 4 and the standard 1. Both arrived this morning with amazing efficiency and after unpacking and laboriously applying all the decals to 2, I decided to photograph the smaller Thunderbird 1.
This time last year, the ever thoughtful Woodstock had sent me a bag of polystyrene packing to try with Scorpio's projector vest, but they were much too tiny. They did however look amazingly similar to windblown snow and as there is precious little chance of even a frost here, I thought i'd create my own white out.
Unfortunately, I forgot about the practicalities of polystyrene and as soon as I tipped the bag out onto the tray, realised I had just unleashed a small nightmare of epic proportions. Due to the effects of static electricity on the little balls, they stuck to everything and blew everywhere, with the lightest breath, so consequently I was soon issuing fifty new words for snow, none of which are repeatable here!
But beyond all the cussing and hoovering, I am seriously impressed with the quality of Vivid's toys this time. No obtrusive sfx buttons, good quality build, sharp detailing and a good size toy. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for Thunderbird S and the smaller TB 2 to complete the collection!
Unfortunately, I forgot about the practicalities of polystyrene and as soon as I tipped the bag out onto the tray, realised I had just unleashed a small nightmare of epic proportions. Due to the effects of static electricity on the little balls, they stuck to everything and blew everywhere, with the lightest breath, so consequently I was soon issuing fifty new words for snow, none of which are repeatable here!
