Paul's Do You Know About 1

At a fair I picked up a paperback book, Do You Know About ? Space Flight, from 1962. A really nice volume, from the dawn of the manned Space Age.

Since I had never heard of the Collins Do You Know About ? series before, I decided to do a little digging. I could not find a lot of information on this series, but it seems there were at least ten titles, published between 1962 and 1964.

The series comprised educational books on natural history, science, and transport, aimed at children. They are very similar to the American How and Why Wonder Books series, some of which I had as a boy.

The Do You Know About ? series was published by Wm. Collins, Sons, and Co., of London and Glasow (the company had started out in Scotland, in 1819). There are not many on-line sales listings for these books, sometimes only one or two for each title.

I do not recall ever seeing these books. They were available in both hardback and paperback, although I do not know if this applies to all the titles.

The length was a standard 48 pages; page size 264 x 206 mm. The illustrations were a mix of colour and black and white artwork, by various illustrators, although one listing I found does mention The Stars having photographs.

All had painted, full-colour covers (some of which are signed), with the cover image repeated on the back. A red panel carries the words Collins Pageant of Knowledge Series.

One oddity is that the two space books (Our Solar System and The Stars) do not list an author on the title page, just the illustrator - Roger Hall. However The Stars does have a small copyright notice on the Contents page, which does name the author.

Given that both books are illustrated by the same artist, might the author of the books also be the same ? If anyone has Our Solar System, and can confirm or refute, that would be great.

I am guessing here, but might Our Solar System and The Stars both be parts of a longer, previously published work, or works ?

Publication Date 1962

Do You Know About ? Birds, by David Stephen, ill by Ralston Gudgeon.

Do You Know About ? Animals, by David Stephen, ill by G.W. Backhouse.

Do You Know About ? Aircraft, by Maurice Allward, ill by T.E. North.

Do You Know About ? Space Flight, by Maurice Allward, ill by I. Teece.

Publication Date 1963

Do You Know About ? Reptiles and Amphibians, by David Stephen, ill by Len Fullerton.

Do You Know About ? Our Solar System, by ?, ill by Roger Hall.

Do You Know About ? The Earth, by Maurice Allward, ill by W.L. Branton.

Do You Know About ? Cars, by Maurice Allward, ill by T.E. North.

Publication Date 1964

Do You Know About ? Railways, by William A. Porter, ill by T.E. North.

Do You Know About ? The Stars, no author is listed on the title page, but at the bottom of the Contents page is 'First published in this edition 1964' and '© 1964 Dr. H.C. King'. Ill by Roger Hall.

The photographs of Space Flight are of my copy; the rest are from Ebay - 14 in total.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Rooting for Cheroots

When I worked in Morley back in the 90's I'd scour the market and charity shops at lunchtime. On one rummage trip I was given an old sweet box for special agent chocolate cigars.

It was a great box with a picture of an agent or some spy kit I think. Like most things back then it went on my old toy stall I had at fairs or my mail order sales list.

Trying to find a piccy online I first came across this, Detective Cheroots.

It wasn't this I had so I kept digging. And I found it. In the Bristol Museums. Bingo!

Lears Secret Agent Cheroots!

Paul's Hot Wheels Batmobile Hauler

Most of the Batman models that Hot Wheels have produced over the years have been various Batmobiles, in either the Mainline, or Premium ranges. But this Super Rigs set is a little different.

Super Rigs comprise a large transporter vehicle, and a regular Hot Wheels Mainline car for it to carry. New for 2025 (copyright date 2024) is the Batmobile Hauler, and I snapped it up as soon as I saw it.

This is basically a Big Rig, with a cab shaped like Batman's cowl, right down to a pair of Bat-ears. The detachable flatbed trailer carries a 1989 movie Batmobile.

The Batmobile Hauler is matt black, with smoke-tinted windows, and a Bat-logo on the sides in semi-gloss black (yes, it is hard to see). The trailer is also black, and features another Bat-logo just above the trailer hitch.

The Batmobile is silver-chromed, with black plastic detailing, and red rear lights. The basic 1989 Batmobile model dates all the way back to 2004.

A great addition to any Batman collection.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Double Agents iD Unknown

I keep seeing these I Spy for Double Agents pun badge. I've no idea what it is.

I like the motif though.

Anyone any idea? 

Will's Thunderbird 6 Poster

Hi again Woodsy,

I've  Just restored an old cinema poster display. 

I've Put one of my old Thunderbirds quad posters in it …. I think it looks ok. Do you?

Will O

UK

Rob's Transportation 1957: Art Series 2

Woodsy,

Here are some more gouache sketches inspired by 1950s Japanese Transfer art.

Rob C

USA

Next up, I'm going to try some alien toy-scapes, courtesy of Ed Berg!

The Secret Agent Crashmobile

This is another unusual toy mentioned in Cramer Burke's Spy Toys book.

The Secret Agent Crash mobile.

 It looks like all four cars are from US TV shows. The Secret Agent car is on the left.

Secret Agent was called Danger Man in the UK.

Is it a show you watched?

Elementary my Dear Die-Cast

 I like this Die-cast set by Orli.

Sherlock Holmes!

Four cars in all.

There's a Wacky Races vibe going on to me.

Zowees even!

Not a set I know but I like them.

Do you readers?

Ed's Alamo

Woodsy,

While I have a bunch of VHS tapes here in the hoard, I only have photos of two. I needed these to post on The Alamo Meta pages.

From The Vegas Hoard

Ed

Junior's Flanimals are Tops!

 I saw these stickers today at Junior's house and instantly thought they were Ugly Stickers or Nutty Initials like my brothers and me had in the early Seventies.

They were neither, they're Flanimals, whatever they are. The took me back though when Topps were really tops!

Remember Ugly Stickers and Nutty Initials readers?

I wonder if there were any toy versions of these? Maybe a board game or kit?

A VISIT TO THE PLANET ZERO AKA BIRKDALE

 I recently visited my friend and fellow Zeroid enthusiast, Andy Shaw, who spends some of his time making and selling robots, including full size Zeroids.

Here's Andy in between Zintar and Zobor, with yours's truly on the end.  The robots are pretty much carbon copies of their toy counter parts, and it's amazing how Andy's ingenuity and creativity comes up with how brilliant  the robots turn out. 

Andy, who lives not far from me, in Biirkdale, a district of Southport, creates his robots in his small  workshop in the garden.

His favourite is the bronze Zeroid , Zobor, which was actually the first Zeroid toy  he got as a youngster. 

That was naturally the first Zeroid he built,  which was soon followed by the Zintar, the Silver Explorer.

He  has plans to build, Zerak, the blue Zeroid, at some point in the future, although he does have other projects on the go including his popular range of 'Planet Robots' based on the tin plate walking toy, which draws it's inspiration from the Robbie the Robot first seen in the film, Forbidden Planet.

There's even the odd Dalek lurking in the workshop, soon to be shipped off to a waiting customer.

My thanks to Andy for inviting me to visit  and take a few photos of his local Planet Zero.