MOONBASE CENTRAL: October 2024

Thursday, 31 October 2024

LUSTIGE GESPENSTER PARADE: GERMAN HORROR STICKERS

I recently saw this sticker set online.

Horror Parade and Lustige Gespenster Parade.

By Americana of Munich.

The albums look great!

Fantastically detailed cards and pages.

They came in 10 pfennig packets. You got three sticker pictures.

Well over a hundred!

The art looks original and not lifted.

What do you think?

Anyone got a set?

It's In the Trees!

These lights hung in our garden reminded me of My favourite horror film, Night of the Demon. What's yours readers?

Halloween Movie: Impulse

I always liked Tim Matheson in National Lampoons Animal House, so when I came across the movie Impulse years ago his face felt familiar.

Impulse is an eco-horror/ sci-fi film from 1984 about a small American rural hamlet where the good folks turn nasty after some even nastier chemicals get into the water.

It recalls movies like The Crazies and The Andromeda Strain.

I've only seen it the once but really enjoyed it, so for Halloween it's my film recommendation.

Impulse, 1984.

Background:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_(1984_film)

The full Movie:

https://youtu.be/2dIo3d2mS6A?feature=shared

There were some really strange toys around in the States in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies. So strange that I've always been fascinated by them. You might even think them ugly. Did you have anything like these or any other strange toys?

First up is Vincent Price's Shrunken Head set! You could dry out apples and attach hair and key chains. I didn't have one but oh I wish I had! A classic from the late monster craze.

Next up and the first in an atomic theme is this incredible Atomic Reactor with battery. Made by Marx Linemar it involved heat, steam, a battery and fuel tablets. Not sure where atomics came in. My Mums Prestige pressure cooker was probably more dangerous. You can read all about Marx's reactor here

https://www.atomictourism.us/2019/12/24/atomic-reactor-steam-plant/

Gilbert got there Atomic Energy Lab in first though, in 1950. Just 5000 were sold. With it cloud chamber and uranium ores the set allowed kids to see alpha particles collide. Not a great seller but what a toy! I'd have blown my room up!

You can read more on Wiki

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_U-238_Atomic_Energy_Laboratory

Dark Shadows has always been on my bucket list of shows I missed and want to watch. One of the odder playthings to emerge from it in 1970 was Josette's Music Box. I've listened to the tune and can imagine it giving young kids the creeps to be honest. Still, a fabulous bit of Dark Shadows kit and I for one would have loved it!

Back to atom splitting, this Lone Ranger Atom Bomb toy ring is from the 1940s and maybe the first toy to dabble in nuclear physics.

On my target list for my collection, I'm unlikely to ever own this beautiful oddity.

The 'bomb' on top allowed kids to peer through a spy hole to gawp at the thrilling mysteries of polonium.

You can find out more - if you can take it - here:

https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/spinthariscopes/lone-ranger-atom-bomb-ring-spinthariscope.html

Perhaps my favourite odd toy is Horsman's Self Propelled Action Bed, released on the success of the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

The bed had mystery non-fall action and came with a doll which was supposed to look like Angela Lansbury but didn't. A strange item for a toy don't you think?

Beneath the bed lay the battery case, motor and non-fall device.

I wonder if the Action bed sold well?

Oddly enough, I'd love one. You?

Which strange toys have you come across?

The Dry Grimoire

Whenever I stay away from home for any length of time I write a short horror story.

Returning from the Continent on a long ferry voyage I wrote The Dry Grimoire.

It's quite a grisly tale so be warned if you do choose to indulge.

https://thegargoylesdispleasure.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-dry-grimoire.html?m=1

The Bandaged Imp

The Ghastly Ones - A Very Strange CD

I found this music video on You Tube, an instrumental, by a group called The Ghastly Ones (there was a movie called The Ghastly Ones, directed by Andy Milligan - which was banned in Britain, where it was classed as a Video Nasty).

The interesting part is that the video features a make believe Aurora box top of a grave digger - or a grave robber.

Apparently, this is the cover for their 2005 CD All Plastic Assembly Kit. Some photos of the cover show the Aurora name spelt as Augora.

Very weird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GbXQvUArdE

Here is some information on the group and the CD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghastly_Ones

https://www.discogs.com/release/2700700-The-Ghastly-Ones-All-Plastic-Assembly-Kit

Paul Adams from New Zealand

NO2

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Well done - the answers are:

1. I Married a Monster
2. Thermians from ‘Galaxy Quest’
3. The Glob – Outer Limits ‘Don’t Open Till Doomsday’
4. The Invisibles – Outer Limits
Inseminoid (misnumbered!)
5. Calvin from ‘Life’
6. Beachball Alien ‘Dark Star’
7. Zandozan – ‘Last Starfighter’
8. ‘Fiend without a Face’
9. Carpenters ‘The Thing’
10. Quatermass II
11. Sil from ‘Species’
12. Andromeda from ‘Andromeda Strain’
13. Chewits Monster from TV Ad
14. Martian Camera – ‘War of the Worlds’
15. Demogorgon ‘Stranger Things’ Season 1
16. Quatermass Xperiment
17. Martian from Quatermass and the Pit
18. Cloverfield alien ‘Cloverfield’