TV TIMES THUNDERBIRDS PARTY

 Another page from the TV Times Christmas Special 1966.

Kev's Crate Idea

I wanted a suitable box to keep spare batteries in for my model room. 

I thought about vintage lunchboxes or pencil cases to fit the theme but couldn't get a suitable, cheap one. Instead, I scratchbuilt this small replica of a Moonbase Alpha crate.

Boxed off!

Kevin

TIVVY

 As our man, Mish wasn't familiar with TIVVY, the TV Times mascot from the mid sixties, here's a brief look at the magazine's advertising gimmick.

I can just about remember Tivvy and some of the toys associated with the character, as well as the accompanying  sixties Gonk craze.

The idea of a Tivvy character  began to formulate in the mind of  Paul Usher, creative director of the Erwin Wasey Agency , who found the inspiration for Tivvy's look in a Finnish toymakers workshop.

Tivvy is credited to Atelier Fauni, Finland, based on the Gonk figures which Paul Usher found in the Finnish workshop.

Unlike the traditional Scandinavian folklore gnome-like Gonks, with long beards and pointed hats, Tivvy has his own look. He has  round body, something like an owl, flat feet and a long beak, like a duck. He wears a striped vest, and sports, what is described as a Beatle-style hair cut. 

The Tivvy character had his own 'Tivvy Club' in TV Times, which resulted in several items of merchandise, like badges, annuals, a plastic money box from the Trustees Savings Bank, and even a record called Tivvy's Tune!

I seem to recall an animated TV cartoon, too

Tivvy had his own comic strip in TV Comic, and puzzle pages in the annuals. Here's a couple of  examples.

Anyone else remember Tivvy and the sixties Gonks craze? 

Customers!

 Over the summer the Grandkids enjoyed giving away junk from our shed to what they called their 'customers'.

They placed it on our roadside verge with a big FREE sign. Trikes, bust lawn mower, shelves, skirting, crates and more: the whole lot got taken!

The Kids' final offer was this basket of our baking apples. They went too, basket and all! 

Do you ever leave out free stuff readers? 

MODEL SPACE THUNDERBIRD 2

 Continuing with my Thunderbirds theme, here's another quick look at the Model Space 1:144 scale Thunderbird 2.

TV TIMES XMAS 1965

 I've been leafing through some old TV Times, and these pages from the London 1965 Christmas edition caught my eye.

Tivvy had his own page, featuring Jimmy Handley, and a couple of special guests.

For young Anderson fans, Christmas Day that year had a lot to offer. Check out these listings.

Kevin's Moebius Seaview Build

Hi,

I've recently completed this Moebius kit of Seaview. Great model but stupidly big!

Dive, dive!

Kevin

UK

AOSHIMA THUNDERBIRD 1 EARLY VERSION

It's been fun revisiting the Seaview and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, but I think it's now time to move on. 

Now, what to replace it with? 

I've got the Southport Airshow coming up tomorrow, so when it comes to Airshows, Thunderbirds springs to my mind.

Here's some photos of my Aoshima ( AKA DeAgostini or AIP) Thunderbird 1 kit. 

I've got a couple of examples of the kit, but for this I chose the earlier orientation of the wheeled landing legs for this version , as I prefer it's look, and model doesn't need balancing weights. 

I'll post some photos of the ski landing gear version later.

Looey at the Hurstville Fair

Hello Moonbasers! The Missus and I visited the Hurstville Collectables Fair and caught up with our old mate Glen Ware, who organised the Jonathan Harris "Never fear, Smith is here" Australian tour last century!

As a mixed toy and record Fair, the records seem to be rising in number, the toys were pretty thin by comparison.

The venue was the Marana Auditorium.

A full squad of hand painted Marx knights.

I actually found a Dinky Spitfire in pretty good condition (although possibly repainted) but as put off by the ugly Typhoon style lower cowling (I've just thought it might have been to accommodate the internal electric motor to spin the propellor)

There was a Corgi and Dinky arms race going on!

A brace of Dinky Star Trek ( later issue?) Ships and Geoff Love who was a big feature in my late teens! I had that Tee Vee Tunes 2 disc vinyl set on CD, back in the day...

The auditorium almost inundated with LP's rather than toys! (Who IS that woman on the scooter?

Is she really 69?)

Three strikes and he's out...

A vintage Matt Mason accessory, but nothing is priced -Strike 1!

It's been opened -Strike 2!

So HOW much is it? He can't tell me until he's Googled how much they're going for on Ebay!!!

$190, but he'll knock of a few bucks for the damaged pack...

STRIIIKE 3 -AND HE'S OUT!

I did get a bunch of vintage DVDs for $3, 2 &1 each and the Missus got a 1999 Cinefantastique Stop Motion double issue, with Ray Harryhausen on the cover!!

Oh, and NZ Paul, you know that Barbie Movie Corvette 4 pack?

...they didn't have it!

Happier Hunting in the Old Dart, Woodsy!

Looey

Oz

MJ's Joker

https://youtube.com/shorts/QoSgEDqjy7g?si=EnVVN-QkAOoAXCm3 

Hi woodsy my little tribute to Stars in Their Eyes 😄😄

Regards MJ 

VTTBOTS IN LOOK-IN

 

As I mentioned in my earlier Gold Key post,  there was a brief inclusion of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in Look -In comic, here's a quick look at the first instalments of the two heavily abridged black & white Gold Key reprints.

This first story,' The Great Undersea Safari, unsurprisingly about an undersea safari hunter first appeared in the Voyage Gold Key issue 5, and in the 1966 Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea annual, here in the UK. This began in Look -In issue 20, during 1971, and continued until issue 27

Following a short break, the second story, 'The Overland Trail', unsurprisingly about pulling the Seaview across land, first appeared in Voyage Gold Key issue 6. This began in Loon-In issue 32, and continued until issue 36.

In issue  24, Look-In carried a two-page feature on TV science fiction, which included a brief mention of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.  Interesting to note that only series that were shown on independent television were mentioned, as Look -In was affiliated to ITV and not the BBC, so no mention of Star Trek and Dr Who.

Ed's US Army GPA Amphibious Jeeps

While I don't have any civilian Aquacar's of the type recently posted, here's a couple of similar ones I do have.

The Ideal GPA in light blue SP has been in my collection for many years now.

The Marx GPA in hard plastic was added to the collection just this past week and has a story to it. I recently learned of the Marx version while perusing back issues of Playset Magazine.

 It mentioned that the Marx Amphibious Jeep was quite rare. Then, while randomly searching for things on fleaBay I came across three separate sales that would make a complete GPA! The body was on auction which I won for a whopping 5$. 

However, it had issues: there's a chunk missing out of one side and the axle supports had been removed (what the 'you-know-what'! Who would do that?) Then a set of five vintage Marx wheel sets came up (always useful having extra sets on hand) and I snatched those up. 

Lastest, but not leastest, was the repo cannon - correct for this vehicle. The repos were made of resin back in the '90s so it too is now a vintage piece.

 For the moment - and just to show what a complete vehicle would look like - I took the photos with the wheel sets simply inserted into the bottom of the hull. 

From the right angles, it still looks good.

From Camp Las Vegas

Ed