EASTER BREAK IS OFFICIALLY OVER!

Well, my two week Easter break is more or less over and its back to big School tomorrow.

During that time Scoop has returned to blogging, which I'm sure you'll all agree is just great. His posts are always superb.

I've also made contact with a toy designer and photographer, who'll be delving into his vast archive and sharing stuff on Moonbase from his days with Bluebird amongst others over the next few months, which I'm really excited about.

Its been a great time for gifts from fellow bloggers and friends too: a rare Project SWORD type sticker from TH; an old cherished book from my youth from TK; a couple of vintage mint Leeds United gum cards from BB and a gorgeous DVD boxed set of the french Il était une fois ... L'Espace cartoon we recently featured from AH. Thanks guys! Much appreciated and more to come on these soon.

Its also been a productive period for working on my next Blurb book. Its years since I published a limited edition of The Art of SWORD on Blurb and I've been scribbling on another tome ever since. Its a field guide to certain old toys and in case I get advanced writer's block I'll say more about it when its done I reckon!

I've also managed to acquire something for my own Project SWORD collection, which is unusual for me these days. My collection is nearing completion now as I've drawn a line on what I want to collect and what I want to leave out. Otherwise I'll need a second mortgage to get everything out there! When my new collectable arrives I'll blog about it fully then.

Bill B and I also managed to record a new Spring radio SWORDcast as well, which is currently on his cutting room floor!

Me and the Moonbase mutt Blue have also watched a lot of films. We've seen Black Panther at the flicks [Blue abstained], Spontaneous Combustion on You Tube, The Kindred also on YT as well as San Andreas. We caught Bigfoot on the Horror Channel [on again now! a sad modern Sasquatch flick in which they bomb Mount Rushmore] and my single monetary purchase, for £2.49, the film Bug, also on You Tube.

The last time I saw Bug was in the Seventies on the telly here in the UK when we had just 3 channels. Released in 1975, for some reason its just never shown on TV anymore. It was like being re-united with an old friend, albeit a somewhat gruesome one. 

The story of Bug is essentially about a crack in the Earth's crust, from which pour a new species of what look like woodlice [what do you call them? latin - porcellio scaber].

Alas, these are not your average cuddly woodlice as they have evolved the ability to create fire from their behinds, with universally dire consequences for everyone in the film's chosen desert town. I have to admit it is quite harrowing.

The leading man is Bradford Dillman, a scientist whose secret tinkering makes the monstrous critters even more lethal. 

Bradford starred in one of my favourite creature features of all time a few years after Bug, Piranha, in which he plays a grouchy recluse living in the shadow of a mountain army base where, yes, they've been secretly tinkering with the monstrous critters to make them even more lethal**

Sadly, after a long acting career in film and TV, Bradford Dillman died this year aged 87, as reported on Wiki.

I have an original cinema poster of Piranha on my bedroom wall and I would like to think Bradford is still fighting his swarms of critters.

Have you seen Bug? What are you watching?
Have you seen or bought anything interesting?

*

** is this grammatically correct? more lethal?