ALL ABOARD!

TOMORROW IS MOONSHIP DAY!

LAUNCH INTO DECEMBER FROM MOONBASE!

ESTRELA ROBO COM TELE VALIGURSKY BOX ART

I got excited about this rare Estrela robot when I first blogged it years ago

This Brazilian Horikawa-Estrela robot is the only one I know with Ed Valigursky Spacex-related imagery on the chest TV and the box.

There's a Booster Rocket on the box front and a MEV-2 on the TV!

But this is only the second decent box, albeit a repro on Ebay, I've seen on all sides online, I think, so I saved the pics.

Its this side that's just brilliant.

Closer we can now see that its the MEV-2 and the Booster Rocket on the side.

How cool is that!

You got one?

For much older posts about this including the TV drum and a similarly illustrated tin rifle then click on the labels below.

Here's an older pic of this box art from the blog years ago.

RUSSIAN TANK WITH ROTORS

Hi Woodsy Have you come across this? MJ  Southcoast Base   View photo

TOMORROW

IS MOONSHIP SUNDAY!

MY TOILET ROLL SNOWMAN AND ME

Among all the Christmas memories I half have, among the crinkled paper tinsel and the fat plastic snowmen on pedestals, among the silvikrin cocktail onions shoved into half a grapefruit, among the black and white sci-fi serials like Flash shown on TV, amidst the crib on the monk's seat and among the multi-coloured fairy lights plugged into a lamp I still see a toilet roll snowman.

The toilet roll snowman was a school classic when I was a kid at Sacred Heart Primary School in the Sixties. Much toilet activity went on in the school's parents' homes in order to supply every kid with a loo roll tube.

The creation of the snowman was ludicrously simple; the roll was glued to a circle of card to act as its base and then the roll was blathered with paper glue, onto which we stuck tons of cotton wool. The roll was then filled with the sweets of the day; maybe smarties, maybe dolly mixtures, maybe liquorice allsorts. The sweets probably should have had wrappers inside a loo roll tube but I don't think hygiene was at the top of the Christmas list back then.

Certain sweets had to be avoided like sherbert and kali as these would have been hard to to handle in a toilet roll and you would have needed a whole Ilb of them.

The whole cottony column was then topped off with yet more cotton wool to create a head. For that finishing touch eyes could be added and maybe a paper scarf and hat. And that was that!

Our names were scrawled underneath in crayon and we took them home at the end of the day usually for the first of advent.

I can still see that woolly pillar stood proudly next to the portable black and white telly in the breakfast room. 

Did you make a toilet roll snowman readers or something else for Christmas?

ALPHA STAR UPDATE

Not sure I've blogged this advertising sign before. Its one I saw the other day when searching for Langnese Alpha Star.

Langnese is like Walls when it comes to ice-cream in Europe.

Alpha Star was their rocket-shaped lolly a bit like Zoom or Sky ray here in the UK.

I've blogged about Alpha Star before and of interest to readers will be the use of LP-clone astronauts in marketing packs.

I've come to the conclusion that LP-style astronauts were the go-to toy spacemen for generic space toy sets and campaigns for lots of companies in the 60's and 70's. Just think of cake decorations!

Have a look [or lick!] here: 

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2018/02/alpha-star-lp-astronauts-on-ice.html

MY NEW BOOK: TOY BUNNIES ON PLASTIC SCOOTERS: VINTAGE JACK ROSENTHAL TOYS

I've published my new book!

Toy Bunnies on Plastic Scooters!

Yay!

Its been 8 years in the making! I started it after publishing my last effort, The Art of SWORD.

It was fun to research and I'm glad its published now.

It's published and available through online self-publishing outlet Blurb

Here's just three of the 40 pages.

Our own Bill B took some of the photo's.

Its more expensive than I would have liked but that's Blurb publishing.

I've reduced the page number by half since i got my proof copy last month, so its now a slimmer coffee table book and as a result a bit less pricey.

If any of you should wish to check my book out further on Blurb then here's the link:

https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/9738228-toy-bunnies-on-plastic-scooters-vintage-sixties-pl

Should anyone actually want to purchase this book after you see Blurb's prices then don't forget to use Blurb's current offer promo code if there is one.

By all means ask me anything you want about how this thing came about or what it covers.

THE HITCH HIKERS "GUIDE" FROM SCRATCH

Hi,

Can't remember if I sent you these pictures earlier this year. This is my scratchbuilt replica of The Guide from the tv series of The Hitch hikers Guide to the Galaxy. I put a digital photo frame into it to give a convincing screen look.

Always know where your towel is!

Kevin D

LIGHT RELIEF

Catching the odd few minutes of Space 1999 now and then on TV this month I was really impressed with the lamps on the desks of Moonbase Alpha.

Turns out they were design classics by Nemo Sorella.

They really added extra futurism to the space-age sets of Space 1999.

I wonder which shop got the order from Century 21?

Do you like them?

Another 'famous' lamp is one I actually found at a car boot sale and later sold as part of a vintage lamp sale I had on Ebay in 2005.

It was a white telescopic plastic lamp which folded together into a handy brick that could be carried.

its finest hour has to have been shedding light on Freddy Mercury's piano keys during his Bohemian Rhapsody promo video. You can it here to the left sticking out like a an antenna.

It wasn't my personal lamp on Freddy's video I hasten to add! If only!

Do you like it? Alas, I don't know its designer's name.

Have you any classic lamp tales?

MONKEY BUSINESS

This bagged COMET toy ray gun I saw online has had a long tradition as a design.

One of the first vintage toys I ever bought as a collector was a version of it at the Normanton evening toy fair in the ear;y 1990's. It was a Monkey Division toy gun.= like this one I saw online.

It came in a closed box I think, The word Okinawa rings a bell but that maybe because Remco issued the name under the Monkey Division brand, which I might have wanted rather than what I got. Wishful thinking.

Remco were good at recycling. The same design ray gun popped up in the Hamilton Invaders  .....

and their Star Trek line, along with other recyclers like the 'cricket' style Jeep vehicle.

I do like this ray gun design for a toy. Do you?

BAZOOKA JOE'S RING

Do you remember this little plastic ring from Bazooka Joe bubblegum? 

I can so well I can still hear it now - a sort of zzzzswooohhhuh! 

And ahhh, that delicious pink slab of gum that came in a cool waxed wrapper with a little comic inside!

God they tasted so good and the comic was just ace and had to be kept safe!

Bazooka Joe for Prime Minister! 

Anyone got that cool ring still?

Can anyone find an audio file or video of the ring and its sound?

JACK DAVIS ALBUM COVER

An LP cover of mine by one Jack Davis. Who else!

What's your fave Jack D artwork?

Did he ever illustrate in Creepy and Eerie for Warren Publishing anyone?

MONSTER PRINT PUTTY

I saw this on Ebay in the US.

I didn't have it as a kid but I would have loved Monster Print Putty by Colourforms.

The illustrated paper included is fantastically illustrated. I love it!

I think I recognise the artist but just can't put my finger on it.

You?

LEW'S SCRATCHBUILT S P V

Here's a short clip kindly provided by Lewis of Australia of his fabulous home-made SPV toy.

COLLECTING JAMES HERBERT

I've just bought a second-hand copy of the Magic Cottage by the late James Herbert.

James Herbert was the wunderkind of British horror writing in the 1970's. Our very own Stephen King. I remember reading The Fog, The Rats and The Survivor in my teens. All very enjoyable and well written fear tales, at least one of which has been put on film.

The Survivor movie starred Robert Powell I seem to recall but it has not left a great impression on me. Maybe I ought to revisit it.

I wonder if many more of his tales have been made into films?

Herbert also penned Fluke about a dog that recalls its previous life as a human.  I never read Fluke but its on my bucket list. I often got it mixed up in my mind with a book I did read called the Plague Dogs, one of the icons of Nineteen Seventies animal writing by Richard Adams, author of Watership Down. I was a keen anti-vivisectionist in my teens and the Plague Dogs caught the mood perfectly.

Herbert also wrote many other novels, which I'd like to read. The Dark, Moon and The Spear. I don't actually know why I haven't read them bearing in mind I'm a horror novel nut and I have a huge collection of horror paperbacks. They just seemed to pass me by for some reason. I did read Sepulchre and recall one particularly grim scene in it which has stayed with me ever since!

And so to the Magic Cottage. It's on my small reading pile at the side of the bed. When I've finished Dead and Buried again, it'll rise to the top. I hope to have it finished by Christmas when I think the Missus will ask Santa to get me Starve Acre, the third creepy tome from the new wunderkind of horror, Andrew Michael Hurley.

His first two novels were real slow burners so I'm hoping for more scares in third one.

Have you read any James Herbert or Andrew Michael Hurley or Richard Adams readers? Do you collect books?

ON TOP OF THE CHRISTMAS CAKE PERHAPS?

Hello Woodsy,

Here is a current set of Cake Toppers.

The Scalex Lift Loader is for scale.

Times have changed. Not US markings but Chinese. I wonder of the tall one is a Satellite launcher?

Regards,

Terranova47

USA

STEED'S ROLLS: AN UPDATE FROM OZ

I'm hard at work on Steed's Rolls, which turns out to have been not glued together, but soldered!

I've decided to do a DINKY arbitrary colour choice. Instead of Steed's original Primrose Yellow, I've decided to go for a richer Naples Yellow, simply because I can! - And if Corgi could produce his Bentley in red, then there are no hard and fast rules anyway. 

All this toy modding has inspired one of my friends to try his hand at it. He felt a Adams Probe 16 would be great as a Durango 95 from Clockwork Orange... All he needed was one of the original Corgi Whizzwheels versions...

- Guess what I bought 50 years ago and still have in good condition?

Of course I'll have to drill out the rivets and mould the components in silicone rubber, but hey, I'm sure there are better examples out there, so mangling an original doesn't really trouble me. I'll be producing copies in urethane resin and my friend will make the boxes (and no, we won't be selling any, so no copyright problems there!)

Anyway, lots to do. Cheers, 

Lewis

OZ

DO YOU NEED A BREAK AFTER WORK?

Do you need some space when you get home from work?

I know not all MC readers will work in the conventional sense in the way I do, leaving the house 5 days a week at 7.30am and returning later in the afternoon, but maybe the question still applies if you work from home or at home maybe.

Do you need a break between work and what comes next?

I do.

I call it the flashpoint. Expectations can be high on all sides when someone gets home and they may not be the same for all concerned such as the person 'at' home. Hence the flashpoint, when things can go south real quick if expectations aren't met.

If I don't get at least a half hour off - a sit down with a cup of tea and maybe some blogging or googling - when I get home before domesticity rears it ugly head then I'm grouchy as hell and feel hard done by.

Its a silly thing I know, a stupid thing and possibly a very selfish thing, but with me staring down the barrel of being Sixty years old in 12 months time I feel as though domestic matters have had enough say in my life already and my own sh*t can take priority for a half to a full hour when I get back home.

Don't get me wrong, after my 'break' I'm up for anything the house can throw at me - cooking, household admin, wrapping Ebay sales, washing up, dog walks and so on - until later in the evening when me and the Missus are done with everything and settle down to watch telly or blog or whatever.

My 'need' for time-off or me-time causes trouble and is often not possible as a tsunami of admin, deadlines, commitments and OTC [other people's crap] smothers me and the Missus to the point where I have to get involved straight away.

I can't decide if I'm being awkward, unreasonable, childish or God forbid, chauvinist.

I'm in delayed 'me' time at the moment, as I had to help sort out some serious stuff when I got home today.

What are you like after work readers?

TANKS A LOT

Longtime blog friend Rob Godwin sent me a link to an amazing bulk lot of store stock toys in Malta.

Here we have a pile of the Space Tank 2001 Century by the mysterious "L".

There's just something superbly satisfying about seeing multiples of minty boxed space toys like this.

Its not a toy I have but there are echoes of Gerry Anderson's universe in it I reckon: the astrodome, the tracked wheels and the odd jet stuck to the front.

This lots on Ebay.

What do you think readers?

THE GREEN MONSTER

I've been aware of Karloff Frankenstein's make-up being green for ages but this footage on You Tube is just fascinating.

It shows Karloff and make-up maestro Jack Pierce fooling around in 1939.

And yes, Frankenstein is green!

KEN STRICKFADERN'S ZAPS AND SPARKS

I'm just enjoying hot tea and Frankenstein.

The UK Horror Chanel are running an day afternoon marathon of the five classic Universal monster films.

Its started at 1pm with Dracula, which I missed because we had a visitor.

Frankenstein is on now and during the break I've found this short film about the amazing electrodes used in the film. They were biult by one Ken Strickfadern of the USA.

Amazingly Ken's electrodes and sounds were later re-recorded and used in films like Star Wars, Brainstorm and Raiders of the Lost Ark!

I wonder if Century 21's Derek Meddings ever considered using them?

Have you ever made an electrode or its sound?

A New Sub Standard........

Hi Woodsie, 

"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things... well, not really..." 

One of the odd things about being a cashed up (relatively speaking) retiree, is I can now sometimes have those things that were denied to me as a kid. I remember standing in Boots Chemists looking at a Corgi Yellow Submarine toy. There was no way I could afford it, so I ended up making my own -out of balsawood!

The real thing eluded me however. It is far too expensive to buy on eBay or from antique shops, but Corgi has reissued a 50th Anniversary Edition and at around AU$ 52 it's sort of affordable, so I got one.

As a toy, it's very nice compared to previous versions, it has both hatches in their correct colours, and the red pinstriping that has been absent from past issues.

However, there are a couple of details that really annoy me. One is the Smarties like portholes and the other is the fact that it only has one propellor!

I've decided that as it's a brand new model, I'm not ruining some antique by "improving" on these shortcomings.

Here is the actual toy...

and here is my version which required a bit of metal grinding, repainting and propellor moulding!

The decals for the portholes featuring the Fab 4 are a little small, but what the hell! I was going to make them as waterslide decals but ended up just printing them on glossy paper so they look like factory applied stickers! 

The base references the original vacuum formed plastic seascape, but is actually just paperclay on a wooden plinth.

The Corgi banner is based on the original box art (I have a DVD of die-cast toy boxes which is wonderful, although the image quality is generally poor) My Corgi font is not 100% but it's close enough! 

So what's next? Well the other Corgi set I never had as a kid, but I would love would be The Avengers!

These are of course prohibitively expensive, so I'll make my own (I'm actually already in the process!) however, I thought if I'm going to all that trouble, why not do something a little different, so my set will feature Steed's Rolls Royce and Tara King's Europa!

Stay tuned...... Cheers, Lewis

MESSING AROUND ON THE WATER

Hi,

Took this Triang boat to the beach in the hope of getting a nice picture. 

Quite pleased with this one.

Take care,

Kevin

ATARI VANGUARD ART

I love the box art for this old Atari 2600 Vanguard computer game I saw on auction.

Painting from the perspective of the aft engines is a common device in sci-fi art and this is a great example, the ship cruising down what appears to be a fire-lit tunnel. I like the blue scart-like engines a lot.

Does anyone know about Vanguard?

SIGHT FOR TOR EYES

 

One of these handsome fellows is me and one is Tor Johnson, that giant of schlock-horror flicks.

Can you tell which is which?

THE MUMMY'S BANDAGES

It was unusual last night. 

I saw a Hammer horror film I've never seen before. It was called the Mummy's Shroud.

A bandaged gothic classic Hammer, alas I fell asleep as I can]t seem to keep my eyes open past 11pm these days. It had it all: pharaoh kings, vast deserts [that looked like a quarry] and a loathsome tycoon funding the expedition.

I think I read that it was the fourth Hammer Mummy. 

My favourite Mummy is Blood from the Mummy's Tomb, from which Valerie Leon's severed hand made the cover of my number one horror book as a kid. I still have that book, battered and loose like an ageing bandage.

[I always got Valerie Leon and Caroline Munro mixed up as a kid!]

There's another colour flick in a similar vein I'd like to see, The Curse of the Crimson Altar, as it featured in my film book too. I must remember to watch it! I think it had has Barbara Steel in it painted green.

Do you like Mummy movies readers?

TOY TEMPTATIONS

We've been wandering round Charity Shops again today, me and the Missus. Forget de-cluttering, we want more stuff!

But there is some will-power there as I did 'walk' past a few nice games I would have snapped up back in the day.

These were:

Telly Addicts, Peter Pan Playthings, 1980's [Tom Baker on the cover]

Cube Fusion, Waddingtons, 1970

Spy Ring, Waddingtons, later version, 1978

Waddingtons Playing cards in box with Knight embossed onto a metal badge on the box

Would you have bought any of these readers?

I did get some die-cast cars though ..... to follow!

SIXTEEN 12 EAGLE HANGAR: DIRECTOR'S CUT

The new Sixteen 12 Deluxe Eagle Hangar diorama is definitely a winner and great fun, but for my purposes a little small, so I've built a set to extend the size just a little so I can incorporate even more Eagles!

The Sixteen 12 set features a corner of the Eagle hangar, a survey Eagle with additional boosters; a freighter Eagle with pallet and removable winch motor; Eagle pod access stairway, and in-scale hangar personnel.

I decided to add a slightly larger floor, a roof, and some extra walling.