QUASAR ROBOT

 This thing intrigued me.

I saw it on Worthpoint and saved the pic.

Have you come across one readers?

Here's the long item description on Worthpoint from ages ago linking it to Klaatu!

This is a hard plastic toy robot bank, with a soft plastic / vinyl / rubber "bubble helmet" head. It is marked: "QUASAR INDUSTRIES, INC. 1975...R. DAKIN & CO...SAN FRANCISCO, CA...PRODUCT OF HONG KONG." This little fellow has QUITE an interesting history! (I encourage you to Google: "Qausar Robot" and read many of the fascinating articles!) It seems, that in the mid seventies, "Quasar Industries " implied that in the near future, they would be offering "domestic servant robots" that could cook, clean, baby-sit and do other household chores. The robots would be offered at a cost of $4,000. They released publicity photos of this fellow, dubbed "Klatu." (No doubt named after "Klaatu" from the 1950's Sci-Fi film: "The Day The Earth Stood Still" - although "GORT" would have been a more appropriate name!) Many of the old photos, that can be seen online, show "Klatu" vacuuming, cooking, walking the dog, dusting or acting as a butler. It seems that the prototype, used in the promotional photos at the time, was nowhere near functional, and of course the robots were never produced. One theory, was that this was a ploy to get "gullible investors" to sink funds into the company. Another theory, was that it was all a hoax, or perhaps a publicity stunt, or MAYBE the company REALLY thought they would be able to produce working "servant" robots. The toy / bank offered here was part of their publicity. It stands almost 7 inches tall. He has movable arms. The condition is VERY GOOD, with a bit of paint wear to his round head and a little residue, from a sticker, on his chest. The bottom stopper is still present, and it displays very nicely. Look him up, online - then come back and enter bid! This item is guaranteed to be old & original - made in the mid 1970's.

GEMINI: IN TWO MINDS

I watched Gemini Man last night. I like Will Smith and the idea of clones. It was OK but nothing to write home about.

Like the character he plays in Suicide Squad, The Gemini Man is a a crack shot. he never misses and can hit a target on a moving train from miles away! he's so perfect in fact that the clandestine agency he works for want more just like him. Send in the clones.

Alas the cloned Smith just looked off. The CGI was awry. There was something really unnatural about his mouth and it was a distraction. It reminded me of the terrible upper lip of Henry Cavill in Justice League, where DC had attempted to CGI out a tash he had to have for another film.

The Gemini idea has a long history on film. The Janus project springs to mind in Demolition Man, where Sly Stallone is brought back to fight his brother[?], a brutal criminal terrorising a gentrified future. I wonder if there were toys?

I'm sure you can think of more cop-agent clonings readers?

Old Toys 1930's Onwards

Here are some more TV commercials from the 1960s, this collection being devoted entirely to space toys. Wow.

HQ Classic Space Toys- Remco, Ideal, Mattel Billy Blastoff and more! - YouTube

This video is actually a collection of still photos of toys and boxes, from the 1930s onwards. Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Robby the Robot, Dan Dare, and more general toys. The space helicopter is a little bizarre. No idea what the 1950s War of the Worlds box contained. Top class photographs.

What do you like?

Vintage Space Toys from the 1930s to 1960s HD - YouTube

Paul Adams from New Zealand

TINY COSMICS

 We were discussing the merits of small things the other day.

Have a look at these beautiful and tiny space creations I saw on Etsy.

How cool are they!

PERFECT THINGS

I watched Man of Steel and Justice League again this week. DC stuff is just ace.

I must admit I adore Man of Steel. I think its a masterpiece of filming. The global hope that Superman brings is palpable and maybe its because the last two years have been a covid nightmare I am noticeably susceptible to beacons of hope, even when they're on film.

Snyder, Cavill, Adams and company strike just the right tone to make this a serious bash at bringing Supe to life on screen. No high camp, no daft jokes. Its like entering a glorious Alex Ross painting. 

And the score is just terrific; the snarling world-engine rev keeping us on our toes and the two-note Superman melody reminding us not to give up. Its just superb.

Justice League is good but not the icon that is MoS. Having said that I haven't seen the JL Director's Cut.

Absent here is Dawn of Justice, as its not on Netflix. I saw it several times last year though on Prime I think. It is without doubt one of the finest Super Hero films ever made and as Batman says in the first minute, it is a perfect thing.

What do you think readers?

Have you any DC toys and games?

ALPHA EXPLORERS

Here's another Explorer 12 relative, the Alpha Explorers.

Unusually its coloured black.

Looks it was released by Supertoys.

I've also seen Manley Toys involved.

Do you know either of these companies?

B-25 Group Build Photos

Hi

Did you know that there is a real Fireflash ? It was an early British Air to Air guided missile, test fired from the Gloster Meteor, Hawker Hunter, and Supermarine Swift. Weird looking thing.

The B-25 Mitchell Group Build is now up, from Max at Max's Models. My photos are in the first of the two clips, but there is a great model in the second - Max's Minions, which has had a few modifications from a standard B-25 - note the wings. Great fun.

Hope you enjoy them.

B-25 Group builds - YouTube

B-25 Group Build Part 2 - YouTube

Paul Adams from New Zealand

 

THUNDERBIRDS GUMMED PAPERCRAFT: THUNDERBIRD GLUE

 This is the sort of Thunderbirds set I would have had as a kid but I just don't recall, dammit.

Gummed Papercraft, which I saw on auction so saved the images a while back.

The thought of cutting out gummed pictures of Thunderbird 2 and sticking them down in a scrapbook is even now supremely appealing. You even got scissors and a sponge!

Did you have this set?

There can't be many around intact.

LEGENDS OF BATMAN

The other day I nearly bought a loose Legends of Batman figure at an outdoor sale. I say nearly because for a moment nostalgia overcame me and I was right back in the thick of my collecting bug, when I first discovered the wonders of plastic super hero action figures.

The figure itself was the Power Guardian from Kenner's Legends of Batman line 1994. Not particularly old but for me very nostalgic as it features in my loose Action Figure book I bought at Memorabilia 2000 at the NEC.

Here it is loose and incomplete like it appeared on the stall.

This is how Bats looks complete and poised.

Here's the original Power Guardian TV ad from 1994.

Do you like the Legends of Batman? 

COUNTRYCIDE

I watched Torchwood's Countrycide last night on BBC iPlayer. Have you seen it?

I can see why this Dr. Who spin-off was originally on at 9pm after the TV watershed here in the UK. Gore, swearing and violence. I doubt if anyone ever told someone to F Off in Dr. Who!

The story reminded completely of a monster of the week X-Files episode. A lonely farm, a family of cannibals and Government agents caught up in it all. It had Mulder and Scully all over it.

I liked it though and the Torchwood team make it there own. Captain Harkness revealed some very nasty traits as a torturer and the team's doctor and welsh bombshell Gwen began a steamy adulterous affair. I wonder if it lasts?

The family of cannibals were well done [excuse the pun] and for horror buffs out there it had a definite whiff of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre about it.

All in all I enjoyed Countrycide so thanks to the reader who recommended it.

I'll return to the last couple of parts of Children of Earth next, though I don't relish seeing Harkness making life or death decisions for the human race. He's somewhat unhinged!

Have you seen Countrycide readers?

Godzilla Movie by Mr. Max

Hi all

Over at maxsmodels, Mr Max made a Godzilla movie back in 2018. Godzilla vs die Wehrmacht 1946 is the best Godzilla movie ever made, and great fun. A mix of wartime newsreel and 1950s monster movie. 

He combines model shots and wartime or movie footage perfectly. In case you have not seen this before, have a look. It will lift your spirits. There is also a trailer, and a gag reel.

Godzilla vs die Wehrmacht: 1946 with required muting. - YouTube

Trailer: Godzilla vs Die Wehrmacht 1946 - YouTube

Godzilla vs die Wehrmacht: Gag Reel and Out Takes - YouTube

Paul Adams from New Zealand

A FEW MORE 16/12 SWIFT PHOTOS

 Here are a few more shots of the great looking Sixteen 12 prototype Swift, the featured guest spacecraft in the Space:1999 episode ‘ Brian the Brain’.

As it’s a prototype I imagine, like several of the other 16/12 models there are bound to be improvements and alterations until its official release.

I’ve no idea what those modifications might or might not be, that’s up to the 16/12 team to decide. We know the final model will be die-cast and will come with its own launch pad display plinth.

I don’t know whether it’s planned, but I’d love the large rear engine bell to be alloy like we have on the 16/12 Eagles.

One thing that we don’t see on the prototype is the small green and silver mechanism fitted in between the two top mounted storage tanks. Maybe that’s something else that might be added.  We do get a look at this briefly in the episode. I can’t say what its purpose is. It looks like it’s got small rocket nozzles at the back so maybe it’s intended as some guide clamp when replacing the tanks while in space.

This garage kit appears to have overlooked them too; I have to say the build still looks good though!

These photos I took of the original Martin Bower built prop shows it with the tanks removed. This was apparently how designer Ron Burton originally intended the model to look as the Altares spaceship landing craft if the one-off pilot show, Into Infinity- The Day After Tommorrow had made it to a series.

Finally, here are some of the publicity flyers that Sixteen 12 has created using some of my photos.

OLD SCHOOL TECH

Having just placed an announcement in a newspaper for an elderly relative's 90th birthday, it reminded me of some of the old school tech that's been and gone. I imagine placing announcements and messages in papers will be a thing of the past one day too.

Regarding messages, I do recall sending the odd telegram. You rang the GPO and later BT to tell them the message you wanted sending on nice paper to someone, maybe for a last minute wedding wish or exam congrats. I'm not sure how much notice you had to give the GPO/BT but the message arrived like a letter and probably went first class. You could choose different backgrounds in the paper and envelope too! How cool was that!

Someone once told me you could stick a stamp on anything and shove it in a post box. As long as it wasn't dangerous it would be sent in the post to the address shown. I think a banana was the example used as it has its own handy packaging. I've never tried it and I digress unless of course you have readers!

Fax was a thing I enjoyed doing. Faxing stuff. It was an essential business tool when I worked in a company in the 90's and 00's. You could also photocopy a single sheet really quickly which was very handy if the big office copier had run out of toner! The advent of email made faxing redundant but it was great fun. Did you like faxing?

Telex was and is a mystery to me and I've never telexed anything. Have you readers?

Electric typewriters were superb things I remember, especially with the typo-correct facility, a sort of machine tippex. I actually think the letter was lifted back off the paper rather than being painted over. The sound of the electric typewriter was pure magic. What do you think?

Carbon paper goes right back to my childhood and I really loved copying stuff via the blue sheets of waxy carbon. A carbon copy was a lovely thing, slightly foggy and smudgy. When I first started doing old toys mail-order sales lists to send out in the post in 1990 I used carbon paper to increase the stack and somewhere I still have one or two of those early lists when I was called Moon Zero Toys.

Last but not least on this mini-journey into long lost behaviour are those tasks you could ask the house phone to do. Most often was the speaking clock, which was sponsored by Accurist I seem to recall. You could also get a wake-up call anytime of the day or night, which I did now and then in the late 70's and 80's. My Missus even asked for a bedtime story for our daughter in the mid-80's! You could probably get the phone to do other things back then, sort of smart after all! What did you do on the landline readers?

What other old school tech was there?

SMALL AND EXSQUISITE

 I picked up a little tin of nik naks today at a car boot sale.

I love small tins and boxes of trinkets and tiny plastic things like this: charms, cake decorations and small toys. Fabulous!

I even like those small sewing repair kits! 

I can imagine a SpaceX toy repair kit looking like this!

Grandmother Stover dolls house suppliers released the most fantastic little packages of plastic toys in the US in the 60's. We didn't have anything like them in the UK but I would have adored them as a kid, especially since some of the sets combined horror with gags.

We created a small bagged set of Project SWORD and related what-nots on the blog a few years back in 2012 and I think we sort of captured the spirit of little repair kits and Grandmother Stover! 

Do you like small plastic sets of tiny toys and parts?

NO TIME TO DIE!

The Bond is back! No Time to Die is coming to a cinema near you soon. Its Dan Craig's last throw of his double O and will no doubt give it all he's got.

Is it a film you'll be going to see readers?

Do you think there'll be toys and merchandise?

THE DEFENDERS AND THE CRIME FIGHTER

These two toy pistol sets on blisters caught my eye. Both on old auctions I thought hmmm, the blonde guy in the Crime Fighter has aged a lot from when he was a Defender! Another Klaus Kinski lookalike!

The graphics on the targets looks familiar in some way. To you too?

PS.

Looking at the running target man I then remembered an illustration of a running man [with a stick] in my old Terror! Illustration book by Peter Haining. Its not the origin but I am exercising my brain!

Zero In

Very far removed from actual dioramas, here are some simple desktop tableau that I have made featuring BlueBird Zero Hour, Matchbox Mission Bravo and similar futuristic army toys.

 

DOCTOR WHERE

I've just been skimming over the long Wiki page about missing Dr.Who TV episodes. My head's spinning like a Dalek on ice! Its a fascinating and convoluted tale of chance and passion as the missing episodes have been searched for across the globe over the many decades and fortunately with some success.

A chap called Ian Levine seems to have been the springboard for early finds in the late 70's and 80's and there's an amazing tale about two BBC staffers buying episodes off each other and giving one or two of them to Ian Levine as they were part of the lost! 

I do love stories like this as many people must do as well judging by the numbers of documentaries and TV segments there have been on the subject. There's even one called The WOTAN Assembly about retrieving that particular series. I haven't seen it.

Finding missing TV reminds me of finding missing toys. I imagine finding anything at all thats been missing is just as exhilarating.

Have you been involved in looking for the missing Dr.Who episodes readers or indeed any missing artefact?

PLASTON SOUTH AMERICAN SUPERCAR CLONE

Browsing the fab Mike Mercury Supercar site I noticed this cool Supercar toy from Argentina. I must admit I like the colour scheme! What do you think readers?

Its at the bottom of the page.

http://www.mikemercury.net/page15.html

Topping Models

Hi

Just found a very interesting video on You Tube, from Max's Models, on Topping Models. This US company made display models for industry, mainly aircraft, missiles, and spacecraft (including a massive 19 foot long B-70 jet bomber), other models included engines, boats, tractors, a washing machine, and other less common items. Really interesting to see modelling at the professional level, as apart from movie and TV effects work, the professional side of things is rarely covered. Do you know of them?

Topping Models, a brief history - YouTube

Paul Adams from New Zealand

DIRTY LOOKS

 

I saw this dirtied down Task Force 3 last year on auction. I kept a pic because I wanted to ask you if you liked the effect its created, the dirtying down?

Personally I don't like it and prefer to see toys left alone but that's the collector in me. As a kid I also messed with stuff like you will have done. Maybe a kid did this?

MEN IN BLACK: KOLCHAK?

Reading further into my TV Horror book I was amazed to read something about Kolchak the old American TV series. It says that there was an organisation in it called Men in Black. is that right? Is that where the comic version and the later Will Smith film comes from? Do you know readers?

BATMAN'S PORSCHE

Being a fan of both Batman and sports cars I thought this Argentinian Carrera was a cracker!

Bats looks so relaxed in his comfy seat under the canopy.

I suppose you could stick a Batman decal on anything and make it a Bat toy. Argentina produced hundreds of presumably unlicensed plastic Batman cars of different types and this is just one of them online.

Do you like it?

Have you stuck a Batman sticker on anything?

Zero Sum

Well it was interesting to note Woodsy's comment the other day as to what we were collecting. I said that I had moved away from most space toys due to their inaccessibility. This happened a while ago, and to fil the gap, I sometimes bought unusual army toys. One line which I really enjoyed was the late 90's line from Bluebird, 'Zero Hour'. The basic line was a range of armed forces facing up against a renegade terrorist group, called Bad Brigade. The toys took cues from M.A.S.K toys, allowing commercial vehicles to transform into fighting machines.

Recently, I was really pleased to hear from Richard Dixon who was the chief publicist and photographer for Bluebird and he shared a lot of the displays he built for the model shoots. Richards work can be seen on the blog and on his site which is recorded here:

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2018/05/richard-dixons-zero-hour-in-beginning.html?m=1

It was great to hear Richard's story about how the line was publicised and through him, I was able to get a better picture of the full extent of the line. As a result, I finally managed to secure the last set in the line, a Bad Brigade Ambulance which can be converted into an assault craft for amphibious attacks. The set also comes with troops, a frogman, a sea scooter and an inflatable power boat.

So with this line finally under wraps, I can concentrate on maybe building a diorama like Richard's!