Hi Woodsie, I wasn't aware of your Moonship legacy before your latest post. It seems this lump of plastic/tin has a long Moonbase history. Will you be rechroming your nosecone? I noticed you mentioning some mock up packages you'd made for it. Will you be doing the same for your new acquisition? Speaking of packages, did your Mattel Chitty come with one? My eBay buy isn't going to land until after Xmas, but I'll be able to make a repro pack if needed. I'm also trying to buy a Molto version from Todocollecion but it's proving difficult...
Anyway, I may have mentioned one of my favourite Antique shops in Mittagong is closing down because of stupid rent increases. This place has been there forever and is a welcome journey's pause whenever I'm heading to Goulburn, Canberra or Bowral. I'm really going to miss it. They're having a long closing down sale and Marilyn has bought two lovely Arts and Crafts (Art Nouveau) pieces of furniture on our last trips through. I was a bit miffed when she bought a large wardrobe and as we wrestled in into my SPV sized station wagon, I noticed a full glass display cabinet for only £40 -no room left!
The next week or so we were passing again, but of course it was gone. We walked through the thinning stalls and I spied a glazed cabinet with LED strip lighting for £10 reduced to £5!!! Could you believe it? It weighed a ton, but I got it into the SPV -of course Marilyn also had to buy an Arts and Crafts Smoking cabinet, but it was mercifully small this time.
£5... can you believe it? It needs work, but this gift horse would be great for my own design Art Toys.
Here's Marilyn's cabinet in our bedroom beside my self built bedhead.
And here's my bargain cabinet hiding in my home cinema until I can work on it...
P.S. as an idea of the stupidity I have to put up with for Australian Antique shop pricing, here's a Dinky at that very shop. Priced at an unreasonable £35, I Googled it and discovered it was a reissue, Code 2 all of nine years old!
Looey
Oz Base
That bed is stunning. It belongs in a Hammer film. You are a talented man.
ReplyDeleteThe Dinky van is nice. I recall going to a small local fair a few years back and they had a mix of old Dinkys, and modern re-issues at about the same prices. Really ? The racing car next to the van has 2017 on the box (so it is only six years old), and carries the Mattel name (because Matchbox bought the Dinky name, and Mattel now own Matchbox).
Well spotted Paul!
DeleteDe Agostini are going to have a lot to answer for once these reissues get a little knocked around and indistinguishable from the originals.
As far as parity pricing with true vintage pieces goes, how dare they?
Sadly it's a feature of our lower hemisphere, 200 year old cultural heritage. They think anything older than the bargain bin at K-Mart is Rare Vintage Antique!
As an indication of what I'm talking about, a knocked around loose Corgi Yellow Submarine has a A$400 price tag on it!
As they said in that great Aussie film "The Castle"...
"Tell 'em they're dreaming!"
Yes, the bed is amazing. Looks like something from Middle Earth to me. How do you get that look? Do you sketch up a plan first?
ReplyDeleteA long story to that one! I was going to make a bedhead out of pine planks and Marilyn rightly pointed out the design was a bit uninteresting. She was going away for a few days so I got to work with the express intention of out "interesting" her expectaions!
DeleteIt's inspired by a 19th century Biograph cinema facade I saw in a book about Fairground Art. It's actually 9mm plywood cut out with a jigsaw. The curved side sections are made out of thin cardboard! The whole thing is aged with faux woodgrain brushwork to make it look old.
I think I outdid myself and it certainly surprised the Missus when she came home!
Huh. Back in art school we made furniture with plywood and a jigsaw. Ours all looked like crap. You have real talent!
DeleteStunning craftsmanship Looey! Do you this for a living as well or is it just a hobby?
ReplyDeleteUh, yeah... No fair!
DeleteI used to work as a prop maker in the film industry so I used my "on the job training" to good effect here!
This is before my stint on The Matrix trilogy in which the scenic artists taught me the magical effects you can get using humble shellac!
The bed is excellent.
ReplyDeleteIs it Frodo's or Bilbo's?
Clearly its the Lord of the Springs Mish!
DeleteStunning work Looey, I have read how you did it and I still don't know how you did it, its just so damn good! Mere mortals would spend decades chipping away at it in a shed! Stupendous!
ReplyDelete