john noakes, blue peter presenter. rip.

I've been away on holiday but now I'm home I just wanted to say a few words about John Noakes, who sadly passed away this week.

John was a TV presenter on the UK television show Blue Peter. He was part of the classic Sixties trio together with Valerie Singleton and Peter Purves.

Of all the passings this year it's John's which has upset me the most.

At a time when there were only two TV channels in the UK in the Sixties Blue Peter, like Thunderbirds, was a real jewel among the many fine gems found on children's television back then. Its magazine format with regular features and exciting stunts was the perfect antidote to a day at school and Noakesy was at its heart.

His Yorkshire accent was a tonic and his boyish personality really made the show. His trademark stunts like jumping from a plane were always a hoot and his relationship with his dog Shep always a pleasure to see and often hilarious. I can hear him saying Get Down Shep now in his earthy Halifax voice even now.

Probably like most kids at the time I watched Blue Peter every week, got to know the presenters well, could spot anything new on the studio displays, saw it progress from black and white to colour and marveled at the editor's name Biddy Baxter! I even got Blue Peter annuals at Christmas. 

I ate my tea on my knees watching Blue Peter: steak pudding, chips, peas and gravy. Valerie, Peter and John were right there with us all as we lived our Sixties lives.

Childhood seems like a distant shifting shore right now but in those golden black and white to colour days John Noakes was centre-stage, climbing steeples, leaping from boats and walking elephants. He was our big brother, friend and teacher rolled into one.

Millions of us kids took him into our hearts back then, where I'm sure he stayed all this time, a flicker of more innocent times, a happy memory.

Alas, with John's passing a little bit of our own childhood has sadly died too.

God bless John,

We'll miss you

RIP.

Spacex Nightmare Factory

One of my favourite blog posts of Bill B's from 2009:

Ebay can certainly make work for idle hands and fat credit cards too - having gone from having a box of battered childhood toys from the sixties, I'm in the fortunate position of having enough Spacex toys to be able to happily pull them apart and remake them to my own design. 

Needle Probes, Explorer MEV2 and Crickets seem to appear in abundance on ebay, either battered and broken and only useful for bits, or minty on a card. I found myself a couple of summers ago with a few spares, a bottle of superglue and an overactive imagination. 

Consequently, I ended up with the attached models. The large Spacex Major oe with the balloon tyres came about in response to seeing the fuel carrying balloon tyre trailers in the Marx Moon Base sets.

Its basically a set of Capsela Monster Truck wheels, a bit of Robotix construction set, a spinning top and a few bits of a Micromachines oil rig. 

Hardest bit is matching the colours in paint! I find now that car paint works a treat if you can get just the right shade - trouble is you don't see many lime green cars these days!

Of mice and action men

Me n Missus Moonbase went to a car boot for the first time in ages t'other day.

It was in Cambridge at a park and ride site.

The sun was shining and it was all very peaceful.

I actually made a purchase too, a bag full of vintage Action Man clothes together with two figures. One had painted hair dared 1964 and the another headless body dated 1978. I eventually found the head too. It had real hair with those eagle eyes staring at me!

I may have also got some free mouse droppings. I noticed them in the bottom of the plastic box the clothes were in alongside modern Action Man stuff at the sale. The seller said they where out of his garage.

That's one enemy Palitoy never considered, mice!

Have you got mice where your toys are stored readers?

nitto space model

Another cool Japanese model video courtesy of You Tube.

A LOOK BACK AT FANDERSON'S TV21 GUESTS

Woodsy mentioned the TV21 Fanderson, which he and I attended, and took place in Bristol in 2010.

Well, as a reminder here's a few photos of some of the guests taken by my good friend and fellow Anderson fan, Andy Kerr.

The late, great Mr Gerry Anderson. Sadly, this was the last time I saw Mr Anderson, but in spite of his frail look he was still on top form, and took great pleasure in voicing his displeasure at the awful Thunderbirds are Go live action film.

The late puppeteer and sculptor, John Blundell. John liked to give his puppet sculptures heavily characterised faces which he believed gave them personality. This led to a few clashes with Gerry who wanted a more 'normal' look. One of John's last puppet creations for AP Films was Parker from Thunderbirds.

Australian actor and voice artist Gary Files, who first worked for Century 21 on the feature film Thunderbird 6. He continued as a voice artist playing various parts on Captain Scarlet and Joe 90, and is notable as the voice of Matthew Harding in The Secret Service. He also appeared in the live action UFO.

Yesterday's birthday boy, actor Shane Rimmer, who's always a popular guest. As the voice of Scott Tracy he's always recognisable. Shane worked on several Anderson productions, both as a writer and an actor.

The always entertaining and amiable Matt Zimmerman, well known to Anderson fans as the voice of Alan Tracy, but his appearances at conventions, along with his fellow Thunderbird voice artists always make him a popular guest.

Model maker Alan Shubrook, here on stage with designer Mike Trim. Alan appears to be doing his best puppet impression. Seriously, both he and Mike were super(marionation) entertainment and both remember Derek Meddings with admiration and affection.

Finally, two blokes who'd previously only corresponded sharing a common interest, but TV21 was their first proper meeting , with both sporting their SWORD badges with pride. Woodsy, pretty much summed up his first convention experience with one word - 'Champion!'

three legs make a stand

I saw this little cutie on EBay this year.

An LP three legged saucer.

I never knew that the legs were a separate stand until I saw this.

The saucer appears to be the standard issue with the wheels removed. 

The undercarriage is simply the two protruding axle braces.

We're all three legged saucers in two loose parts orwere some fixed?

MANY HAPPY RETURNS SHANE RIMMER

Wishing the charming and amiable Shane Rimmer a very happy birthday.

Shane, best known to Gerry Anderson fans as the voice of Scott Tracy, is celebrating a remarkable 88 years young today (although some sources have Shane down as being born in 1932 he assured me, personally at the recent Shadocon event he was born in 1929)

Shane, as many of you will know had a long association with Gerry Anderson's productions. He drafted the Thunderbirds story , 'Ricochet', and wrote scripts for Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons, Joe 90 and The Secret Service.

He appeared in UFO, The Protectors and Space 1999, as well as the un-aired Space Police pilot, and was the voice of John in one of Gerry's other un-aired pilot, The Investigator.

 Photo: ITV Studios

He also provided the voice of the stop motion character, Dick Spanner in the Gerry Anderson and Christopher Burr produced , 'Dick Spanner, P.I.'.

Classic Doctor Who  fans might remember him in 'The Gunfighters', which fellow Thunderbird voice artist,  David Graham also appeared.

One notable fact  I learnt about Shane is he has apparently appeared, playing different characters in more James Bond films than any other actor.

Here he is with yours truly, and I can quite happily say Shane is a man who never appears shaken or stirred.

Many Happy Returns, Sir.

P.S. Don't forget you can see Shane at Shadocon next week.
http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/special-event/shado-con.aspx

the paperwork is done

Spring cleaning Moonbase at the mo.

Here's a pile of one year's receipts and post office slips from ten years ago when I was a full-time Ebayer.

The hoarder in me wants to keep them but I have kept them for a decade already and its time they went.

Do you hang on to paperwork readers?

My grandson's amazing buggy

I've just been wheeling my grandson round the house.

His buggy is amazing.

It has two wheels at the back and a single double-wheel at the front.

It's so maneavrable it could turn on a Farley's Rusk!

Baby just loves being pushed into different rooms, taking corners with a flourish, reversing quickly and turning on a single point. I may have to get him some racing goggles!

I can't imagine my Mum and Dad having been able to zoom me round rooms like this back in 1960! Looking at old snaps of yours truly my Pram was a mammoth. One of those baroque Silver Cross vessels built like a galleon.

If they'd have caught the skirting board with that thing it would have ripped half of it off! Talk about bump'n'go ... go to the building supplies shop!

Only my old red Chopper was as nimble as my Grandson's buggy. Both were designed by the Flash.

I doubt if there were buggies in the Sixties but hey I was just a baby peering down ten feet from my Silver Cross ship!

Did you have a buggy readers?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COMMISSIONER SIMMONS

I was watching an old episode 'Murder She Wrote' on TV the other day and spotted the actor Roy Dotrice was among the guest cast (he played an eccentric vampire hunter).

Watching, I assumed that Mr Dotrice, best known to Space 1999 fans as Commissioner Gerald Simmonds, and seen in the episodes,  Breakaway and Earthbound was no longer with us.

Well, I'm happy to say I was totally wrong , and Roy, who's still working (the photo above is his portrayal as Pyromancer Hallyne in The Game of Thrones)  is celebrating his 94th birthday today.

So sir, we wish you many happy returns of the day.

(Roy was the subject of a 'This Is Your Life' show in 1974, when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews on the set of Space 1999 - here's a run down from the Space 1999 Catacombs site)
http://catacombs.space1999.net/main/crguide/vczrd.html

fading letters

A strange thing happened today.

My workmates were discussing higher education and someone said 'well no-one in this team has any A-levels so it doesn't matter'.

I do have A-levels and more than that. For what its worth I have letters after my name. But I chose not to admit it for fear of appearing a 'clever dick'.

When I did this I realised two things.

 - all those years of study doing A Levels, studying for a year in Snowdonia National Park, doing a further two years in Countryside Management in Farnborough and during a career in urban conservation sitting professional exams in Charity Fundraising Management giving me those letters, now fading, after my name, they had all become obsolete in the time it took me to say nothing.

- my old life as an ambitious young man in the late 1980's, 90's and 00's was well and truly over and that any notion of ambition at work had left me for good. 

Its a sobering thought to know that when I chose to end my 'proper' career in 2006 I was basically ending any need for all that study I did during the 1970's, 80's and late 90's. I had had enough of the politics and compromise.

I suppose its a sign of getting older having to let go of the past. I have now become rather sedate I have to admit.

I am now biding my time in a routine job, from which I hope to retire from in 4 years.

On the wrong side of my mid-Fifties my new ambitions are all largely emotive I suppose: I would like to see my new Grandson thrive, I would like to give my Daughter away on her Wedding Day and see her Mother's beaming but tearful smile as the happy couple set off on their new life together.

On a personal level I would like to write more, perhaps even a novel and maybe publish a book on toys. 

Oh and maybe own the metallic blue Stingray that's parked across the road like a life-size redline Hot Wheels!

What ambitions do you have readers? Or are they all realised?

SHADOMOBILE!

Here's a few photos of the excellent Product Enterprise Shadomobiles after they wisely cut down on the weathering.

Shado 2 - the perfect display model.

Shado 1- roof has concealed  machine gun and depth charge launcher, plus an additional longer rear aerial.

Shado Control - This is a nice addition to the set with that natty radar on top.

I believe Product Enterprise had plans to release many more models, including another Shado 3 mobile, as well as a deluxe set of Shado Interceptors. Sadly, as is well known, they ceased trading some time ago under that name. But, I think it's fair to say that the reasonably priced models (at the time) that Product Enterprise did release were some of the finest produced in recent times.

My toy cellar

I used to sell old toys from my cellar in the Nineties.

Sounds a bit weird but it was like a toy shop really.

Our old cellar opened out onto the garden at the back and was underground at the front on account of the house being built on the edge of a quarry. In fact it was one of a row of quarryworkers houses.

The garden door made the cellar and it was the 'shop entrance' really.

Hard to believe now but I did have some regular customers and they came from far and wide.

Once inside they were greeted by two aisles of old toys stacked on shelves. Some were in labelled plastic bins like loose action figures and die-cast cars. There were bins for other loose stuff from specific lines like Battlestar Galactica, James Bond Junior and Bucky O'Hare I seem to recall.

The best shelves had the boxed items and since it was the Nineties this meant lots of items from films from the past ten years, which often turned up at boot sales complete and still boxed for some reason.

There were the Ghostbusters firehouse, Ecto 1, Backpack, VW beetle, dragster and an electronic board game. These were joined by boxed Action Man telephones, Alien Hovertread, Captain America Coupe and tons more.

I particularly liked having duplicate boxed items on the shelves. It somehow made it even toy shoppier! I think the number one for this had to be a stack of Batman Animated Series batmobiles. They looked great in their boxes on top of each other.

These were joined by my favourite stock - any collactables from the 1989 Michael Keaton Batman movie, which in many ways kicked off my own collecting bug. For sale were loose figures, loose vehicles, McDonald's premiums, posters, jigsaws and cards, together with boxed items like a really cool batman desk tidy I found in a discount beauty store in Dewsbury!

Despite having a few regular shoppers my main outlet for the cellar inventory was mail order, which I adored having had so much fun as a kid getting stuff through the post myself.

Mail order in the nineties was all pre-internet and as such pre-eBay. It was done via snail mail, magazine ads and newspaper classifieds. My first lists were hand written and copied either using carbon paper or a photocopier. Those first lists had line drawings on them for extragarnish! I then advanced to typing lists of items and eventually printed folded booklets I could send out.

I sent all this lot to a growing group of mail customers and folks who responded to ads with their wants lists. It was all done using envelopes and second class stamps.

In 2003 we moved house to a place without a cellar. The cellar toy shop was no more and with the advent of EBay in 2000in the UK so were my mail order lists.

Still I'm glad I got chance to do all that and it was a huge amount of fun.

Did you send out mail order lists, wants lists or maybe even have a 'toy' shop at home readers?

THE NEW BOSS

With Shado Con just over a week away, I'm still filled with the spirit of UFO, so here's a couple of photos taking their inspiration from the  Countdown UFO comic strip   'The New Boss' which started in issue 12 (dated May 8th, 1971).

In the story, General Calper, has taken command of SHADO, and intends to reveal the alien presence to the world.  He pulls a gun on Ed Straker, who strikes him down, and steals a racing car from the studio lot.

Art: Gerry Haylock

The General issues orders for Straker to be found, and shot on sight. Paul Foster driving a Mobile, is first to track him down only to face a terrible dilemma!

ralph's interceptor

Enjoy your site: Thought you might like to see this one.

Bought this on Ebay for a tenner including postage.

The Angel Interceptors were supposed to be derived from a World Air Force design.

Curiously the 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 Morton

do you wear slippers?

Slippers are a strange thing. 

At once symbols of advancing decrepitude as we shuffle towards certain oblivion or snug heralds of a comfortable evening sipping Calvados by the warm hearth.

I just can't remember if I had any slippers when I was a kid. If I didn't then I don't know what I wore in my parent's house. Maybe I just wore shoes or perhaps ran around in my salty socks.

I can imagine that some slippers were emblazoned with TV stars but the memory eludes me.

I'm still not keen on slippers these days - like idle trilobites they are still irritating reminders of my inevitable slow down - but I have a feeling they have gained in popularity in the UK as people have discovered the exquisite laziness of wearing them with pajama bottoms around the home.

I prefer sandals [with no socks!]

Do you wear slippers readers and did you as a kid?

wednesday wednesday

Well its Wednesday.

Half way through the working week for me.

I always feel I could have done more in the first half and plan to get the most out of the second.

Then of course there is the weekend.

How would you describe the rest of the week? downhill? uphill?

How do you see it readers?

did hawkman inspire he-man?

Hawkman is an old superhero from the Forties.

Here he is in DC's first Hawkman in the Sixties.

I couldn't help noticing old Hawk's emblem.

It reminded me of The Thundercats from the Eighties.

Here's Hawkman's emblem.

Here's Thundercats'.

And what about that X-belt the bare-chested Hawkman wears?

I reckon He-Man swiped that idea straight of his super toned back!

What do you think readers?

Coincidence?

*

[pictures: Wikipedia]

CORGI BS1 FEATURING LORD BRETT SINCLAIR

As a small tribute to the late Sir Roger Moore, here's a few photos I've taken of Corgi toys 1: 36 Aston Martin DBS model from 2002, which came with a resin figure of 'Persuader!' Lord Brett Sinclair.

Here's another  photo I took of my old Corgi 'Saint' Volvo P1800 overtaking a Spot-On Jensen 541