Sunday, 31 December 2017

Goodbye 2017 ......


.... and hello 2018!

Thanks for all your support, contributions and all round enthusiasm this year Readers!

See you in the New Year for more cool toys on Moonbase!


My fave image of 2017 ... Paul Kaiju's amazing find, a vintage box of Japanese hot chocolate powder with Probe Force 3 box art! What could be better!

Happy New Year From Tony K


Hiya Woodsy

Wishing you, your family, including the celebrity moon mutt; plus all personnel and visitors to Moonbase, a fantastic blastoff for 2018.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

from

Tony K :)

When Dinosaurs Ruled New Year!




Ask and ye shall receive, Woodsy!

This is my current collection of built up dinosaur models.

The big ones are all Aurora replicas, made by Revell, Monogram,and Atlantis.

The Allosaurus on the left is the oldest, built in the 1980's. The 3 small unpainted ones are newly built, awaiting some finishing touches.

The Corythosaurus and Triceratops on the left are Pyro/Realistic replicas, re-issued by Lindberg. 

The Triceratops on the right is a Tamiya, which looks very similar to your Airfix brand.

Sorry, no Volcano or Tar pit...yet!

Brian F
New Jersey

Oh Poop, Best Holiday Gift Ever?


Just think Woodsy, one day someone may think this is their best holiday gift ever! 

Terranova47
NYC

Happy New Year From Kevin


Hi,

A Happy New year card!

Hope 2018 is a good one!

Kevin D

did you slide toys down strings?

With the German New Years wish Ein Guten Rutsch reminding me of 'a good slide', did you ever slide any toys down a string or a washing line?

I suppose the actual toy that really did this as part of its operation was Flight Deck by Airfix. Now that was cool!

But it inspired me to send Action Man down various cables and strings including the nylon wash line in the garden!

With is gripping hands I can still hear him screaming weeeeeeeeeeee! ha ha

What did you do?

Saturday, 30 December 2017

QUESTION ABOUT THE LAND OF THE GIANTS.

Reader Eb Dawson has asked this question about Land of the Giants on TV:

Does anyone know what model car Inspector Kobick drives with the SID sign on the door?


outer space men box art by toyco


I've known for ages that this Alien Attack playset by Toyco contained miniature plastic knockoffs of Colourforms Outer Space Men.

What I din't know but have just read on an Ebay listing is that they also appear on the box art!

And yes they do! At the back are three Electron+ figures emerging from the ground and there are three more scattered around.

Front right is a red-headed Alpha 7 and there's one with its back to us on front left.

Last but not least is the arm of Colossus Rex front right.

OK, the illustration isn't very good but I'm chuffed about this Outer Space Men cover. The astronauts I don't recognise at all.

Has anyone got a complete set - 'over 60 pieces' ? Pictures welcomed for the blog!

the New Year bird


This is one rare bird I would like this coming New Year, the cream Spacebird no.3 by YT of Japan, a gorgeous variation of the Project SWORD Probe Force 3.


Anyone got one?

Friday, 29 December 2017

Brian's Nature Walk in the New Jersey Pinelands

All this Christmas cheese, chocolate and champagne has me feeling a little out of sorts!

I decided to hit the local Nature trail.

A frigid 22 degrees Fahrenheit this morning, but I need the fresh air and exercise.

Not much wildlife to see, some gulls, honkers,and quackers that stayed well away from me and a few voles rustling around in the leaves.

During the warm season this place has a primordial look and feel.

All it needs is some dinosaurs and a volcano!








*

Woodsy says: Dinosaurs and volcanoes? Makes me think of the La Brea Tar Pit Prehistoric Scenes model by Aurora! Can anyone supply a pic of toy dinosaurs and a volcano maybe?

Snow Joke Mister Tracy

I really did nearly need Thunderbird 2 this snow-filled afternoon!

Just had a winter nightmare of a dog walk with Blue boy!

It started badly and got worse!

1. Missus Moonbase took my house and car keys shopping by mistake
2. Spare house key found but the spare car keys only open the boot on my car so it meant climbing over all the seats
3. The country lane to the fields was covered in slush and black ice
4. It was unusually dark in the countryside but the dog walk was fine
5. Then I reversed to leave the lane only to get stuck behind a iced hump of ground!
6. No amount of revving worked. Rubber was burning.
7. The boot of my car was just three feet from a stream and pushed into brash and bramble
8. I wrestled through the bramble to get to two old large foot-well mats in the boot
9. I placed one tightly under each rear tyre
10. I revved again and thank goodness, the tyres bit and off I sped off into the pitch black leaving the mats behind!
11. I also left the boot door wide open but didn't know. Blue was in the boot!
12. I drove gingerly down the icy lane looking for somewhere else flat to turn around
13. I reversed into a farm entrance and heard a clunk but thought nothing of it [I'd reversed the boot door into a high farm gate]
14. I drove slowly back down the lane direction home
15. I passed two torch-bearing dog-walkers who shouted 'Your boot's open!'
16. I pulled up, looked at a cold Blue and shut the boot remembering not to shut the driver's door or else I'd be stuck outside
17. Got home! Adrenaline still pumping!
18. Had a beer! Blue had tea.

What would you have done?

Kev's Thunderbird 1 arrived just as I'd left!


[pic: Kevin's scratch built Thunderbird 1]

Knaresborough, Dean Koontz and Jack Davis

Just been on a festive drive out to Knaresborough, a beautiful local river town in North Yorkshire. It meant missing the 7th Voyage of Sinbad on the telly but it was nice to get out after all the Christmas feasting

full of small stores, cafes and to Missus Moonbases and my delight, charity shops. Not everyone likes charity shops in town centres but we do.

We didn't get much today as we're quite frugal these days. The Missus bought some wooden stars for crafting next Advent. I got myself a novel I read in the 90's on holiday on Greece called Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz.

Its an intriguing story if I remember right about a young boy who cannot go outdoors during the day due to an extreme skin condition. He goes on adventures at night.

During one such escapade he stumbles across a facility creating mecha apes I think but my memory's a bit blurred. I've no idea what happens after that hence my purchase of the paperback again! Have you read it?


I also saw an artist I recognised. I can spot his work a mile off. The art was on the cover of this Spike Jones LP record in a charity shop.


Yep, the artist is the great Jack Davis. You can see his signature on the bottom right. 

I first came across Spike Jones in the back of Creepy and Eerie magazines in the late Sixties and early Seventies. There was advert for a different Spike Jones LP called Spike Jones in Stereo but more commonly known as his Monster album.


As for Jack Davis I actually do have an LP record illustrated by him. Its called the Sound of Sight and is typical of his zany cartoony style, which was immortalised in MAD magazine more than anywhere.


Jack peaked for me, however, when he illustrated the wonderful cartoon run of the You'll Die Laughing Topps gum cards, which I adored. I still have a few stashed away in the attic! Hard to believe he did them in 1959!


Do you like Jack Davis?

SOON THEY WILL BE BACK IN THE ATTIC .....


.... but for a short while longer 
the lights and ornaments 
on the tree sparkle 
in the room like 
an ancient 
magic.

snow base central


Its snowing here at the Yorkshire Moonbase!

My nutcrackers are freezing.

Plans to go off-world to Moonbase Daughters put on hold.

BBC weather warnings ringing in our ears!

We need a Thunderbird 2 pod vehicle!

Can anyone send us a pic of any TB2 pod vehicles in snow?

supersonic

 There's just something magical about the SST.

Here's some art I saw on Worthpoint auction site.
-

This beautiful machine was painted by Warren McCallister I think, who also rendered the Dyna Soar is such a majestic way as well.



Do you like the SST?

Thursday, 28 December 2017

Atlas Is Go!

Its been a great season for vintage toys at Mars Base. Arriving just in time for the big day was this lovely MPC Atlas rocket. A very simple toy comprised of hollow tubular sections topped with a spring launched capsule. Dating originally from the late sixties and reflecting the Gemini programme, the toy has been reproduced often over the years due to its success as a toy.

Oddly, somewhere along the line, I had already found a red capsule from one of these toys, so I have a spare.

Both capsules have an open cockpit area, I'm unsure if there should be a window or hatch in place, so I fabricated a makeshift cover from a water bottle and slipped it in to both capsules to finish them off. Theres another Atlas toy of similar design I'm looking for now, with a small satellite on top. Watch this space!


DYNAMATION RAY

Ive just watched a brilliant documentary about Ray Harryhausen and his films.

It struck me that his name for his form of puppetry was called dynamation is similar to Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation. Did Gerry know about Dynamation?

I'm beginning to think that Ray and Gerry gave me my entire monster-sci fi education when I was a kid.

Do you feel like that?

the nasa lunar orbiter; the film, the toy and the models


This is interesting.

A You Tube film by NASA dated 1966.

Its about our Triang SpaceX friend the Lunar Orbiter. A fascinating space vessel.

The toy itself looks wonderful. I certainly never had one but you may have. 


I can't think of any other toy based on the Lunar Orbiter or even a kit for that matter.

Modelling luminary Matt Irvine described in his book how he painted his Spacex toy.


The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project [LOIRP] had some wonderful small models made for their subscribers in 2013. They'd have made great Christmas gifts! This LOIRP image could have come straight out of the Tri-ang SpaceX factory!


The Lunar Orbiter is infectious. There are tons of drawings, paintings, gum cards and stamps featuring it.

 I once had a go at a small model myself as well as pictured on my friend Paul Vreede's excellent Triang Spacex website.



and I wrote a short story about the lunar orbiter and Batman no less: the Shadow on the Moon!

You can make your own pro card model of the Orbiter too!  Check this out at  jleslie48

if you want to know the whole story behind the one and only Lunar Orbiter toy then read the various relevant pages on Paul Vreede's definitive Triang Spacex Toys.



Have you a Lunar Orbiter?

Wednesday, 27 December 2017

Super 8 tonight

Super 8 is on in half an hour here in the UK.

What do you think of it readers?

Kev's Windy Miller Scratch Model







Hi,

Final fling of model making for the year, I've made a replica of yet another TV icon. Windy Miller! 

This was made from a tiny artist's mannequin so he is poseable! 

Really must make a spaceship or mega-death-ray next!

Take care,

Kevin

TO US READERS

The UK News is showing record-breaking amounts of Snow in the Northern USA.

Its snowing here outside my house in West Yorkshire, Northern England .....


... but noting like the snow-dump I've just seen in Pennsylvania on the telly. HUGE amounts of the white stuff!

Stay warm and safe in the Big American Freeze guys!


Christmas Message from Mark J




Seasons greetings from slightly sunny Southsea, UK

Mark J and family X

matt finish

I managed to get a space sled, thus completing my re-collecting of the small amount of Major Matt Mason stuff that I had as a kid!


Take care,

Kevin