Blast-Off Space Rocket: Pumped Up!

 

There's a lot going on on the card art of this air and water rocket and that's just the bit we can see.

There's a powerful looking space plane bottom right, which looks great, but it's the two firing units further up that intrigue me. What are they? Nacelles? They look like they're contained within a gantry of sorts.

And I wonder what that craft is behind the toy. There's a hint of Thunderbird 2!

Do you like it? Anyone got one? 

*

Postscript,

Mystery mostly solved!

Thanks to eagle-eyed Looey and Arto (thanks!) we now know the main image of the structures was by Patrick Woodroffe, as it appeared in his 1976 book, Mythopoeikaon (which I've got! Doh!)

It also graced the covers of Space Wars Worlds and Weapons.

That just leaves to space rocket bottom right to ID now.

Piz Gloria: Double O Heaven

Piz Gloria is the revolving restaurant as seen in James Bond's On her Majesty's Secret Service with George Lazenby.

I visited it on the Swiss peak of Schilthorn a few years back. 

The journey to Piz Gloria begins with the unbelievably sheer Stechelberg - Birg cable car, a nightmare if you've height fright like me. Unlike the Missus, I kept my eyes shut! 

https://youtu.be/Rrq0viEiVFw?is=H3xxG_NWuKYoCsHb 

The restaurant is perched on the mountain top and is a must-see for 007 fans in the Swiss Alps. It really is the cherry on the cake.

I don't own any OHMSS toys, like the Corgi Rockets set, so I put together a few other Rockets with a Faller Alpine cafe by way of a albeit rickety tribute to the amazing summit restaurant that is Piz Gloria.

Have you been?

Have you any On Her Majesty's Secret Service collectables? 

Sky Ranger Airship: We're Going to be Golden

 I dunno, I kinda like this golden Sky Ranger. OK, it's not subtle and beautiful it ain't but there's enough space styling to give it a look.

Or do you think it's ugly? 

It's actually called an Airship. 

There detailing in the blister would sit well with LP or Project SWORD.

It reminds me of the Moonbus canopy.

Do you like this golden oldie? 

Cable Car Capers: the Rigi 900 and Co.

I recently saw a loose cable car set at a flea market. I've seen similar many times over the years and found them gracing model shop window displays too. 

They do look great.

The set I see the most is the Lehmann Rigi boxed toy like this I saw on Last Dodo. The simple box is quite lovely.

I think Blue Box made a version of this too.

I have visions of shoving Matt Mason in one. For some reason it reminds me of the Major. 

Whichever brand, folks love their toy cable cars, as you can see from the many videos on You Tube, where a Rigi set can be found traversing gardens and as shown in these two, a fab Christmas scene and an interesting old toy room.

https://youtu.be/zJx7zVDHe84?is=jqWfl7ZXhttps://youtu.be/35LJobilXgk?feature=sharedB7LjgvoZ 

https://youtu.be/35LJobilXgk?feature=shared

Checking for modern versions I found a fantastic looking set online by Jägerndorfer. I adore the big square box ( it reminds me of Aurora models) and the cable station building is out of this world!

There are multiple variants of this lay out available including a whole flotilla of cars going up and down.

See what you think readers.

Did you have a cable car toy? Do you still?

Do you like riding them? Where have you been?

Case in Point

 I like this International Secret Agent Set.

There's everything in there except the cloak and dagger.

The Clint Eastwood lookalike mashes up the genres too. Dirty Harry gets the case and is running point.

The Dinner Club and Bank Bright Star credit cards date it to 1979.

I'm wondering if Bright Star is the maker.

It's educational too. There's a world map and national flags!

Is this a set you would have enjoyed as a kid? 

Ed's Diorama: Dark Side of the Moon

 Woodsy,

Here's a few shots I did the last day or so on the new diorama base.

 I went into The Cave and pulled the easiest spaceship I could reach (Masuya's Moon Rocket) and snapped a few pics (more than a few actually - these are just the ones I like best). 

The very first photo I call "NASA's secret dark side of the moon launch post Apollo 17".

 The last photo is more-or-less to show the surface texture, but it works well as a spaceship landing. 

The stars are all Photoshopped in vs. me inserting a star field photo from the internet.

Hope you Enjoy!

From Vegas Base

Ed

E C L I P S E

Will you be watching the solar eclipse today?

Have you already seen it? 

I'll be trying the colander technique at tea time.

See you on the other side.

🌘

Blue Box Blues

Referring back to Woodsy's earlier post about the Blue Box Missile Bases, here is a shot that I originally sent him, decades ago when I first made contact, looking for Project SWORD and Spacex info on the web. The image shows the bare remnants of my old space toy collection, including the Blue Box Atlas Rocket Transporter, some Apollo Moon Exploring miniatures and the Hover Space Glider and Moon Rover. Shortly after, these items were sold off to a collector in the states, as at the time, I had little hope of ever replacing them with newer versions.

Little did I know that a few years later after discovering ebay, the toy cupboard doors would be flung wide open and all manner of vintage toys would begin to appear. One nice example is this boxed Rocket Base by Delaware, which uses bits and pieces from other sets such as the LP space series, but is in itself a direct lift from a larger Remco space palyset available in the states.

The Topper Rocket Base or Cape Canaveral set as its sometimes known, is the basis for the Blue Box series and is an 00/HO scale toy, with a missile battery, ICBM launcher and rocket transporter. Each of the rockets were about 11" high and seriously powerful!

As was always the case with popular toys, the Hong Kong makers copied the toys to make cheap alternatives and one of the more distinctive missiles from the set found its way into a small rack toy, along with a Matt Mason Moon Crawler copy and a crew of Giant Brand spacemen.
 

The real stars of the show were for me, the Blue Box series, which were scaled perfectly for the Golden Astronaut and Apollo Moon Exploring series models. The Ap Ex set also included a radar station at slightly smaller scale. 

The Blue Box sets had the triple missile launcher with distinctive chrome dials and three non firing rockets.

The crescent shaped Atlas Rocket base did actually launch the rocket with a small spring and came with a couple of crew members, usually glued to the inside of the box. Lastly, we have the long rocket transporter lorry - this is the one rescued by Woodsy from the junk shop in Ponty!

A lovely little set, which was capped off by the Blue Box helicopter, itself a copy of the Triang Hornby model, which appeared on a low loader railcar in the early sixties, proof that you can't keep a good toy down!

I M P K O monster decals

 I saw this tattoo in a seaside tat shop.

It instantly reminded me of those fantastic IMPKO transfers which were advertised at the back of Creepy and Eerie magazines in the Sixties.

I never had any Impko's but the decals were imprinted on my brain. For me, seeing them became as special as the magazines themselves.

The advert above says the seller is the famous Captain Co. Ive always assumed they got their decals from Impko.

(That Horrorscope is darn brill too! Cor!)

Amazingly, Impko is still going! Do you remember their decals?

*

"Welcome to Impko! Home of those great old decals. And now, T-shirts!"

 https://share.google/Q0gXs6dReWm6IhzNd

CROMFORD MILLS COMIC CON 2026

https://mikeburrowsphotography.co.uk/project/cromford-mills-comic-con-2026/

Some photos from the recent Cromford Mills comic con.

I hadn’t intended to go to this event, as the Space: 1999 convention is coming up next month.

But as I can never resist yet another social get together, I happily made the journey.

I’m glad to say the usual suspects were displaying a wide selection of models and kits from some of my favourite TV series.

Richard ‘ It’s an Ashton’ brought along a lovely 44” Eagle Transporter he’d built, fitted with a rescue pod. The model, which has already been sold, also comes with an additional standard pod.

Amongst, his other builds was a set of Master Elevator Cars, from Thunderbirds, ‘Trapped in the Sky’.

Mamas Pitsillis, and his wife, Linda, of Studio 2 Models displayed his studio scale SHADO Mobile & Markers Universal truck.

The Spectrum Helijet & Spectrum Hovercraft.

David Sisson, assisted by Alison Thorne had a large display of Anderson related models, including Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Terrahawks and Space Precinct.

As a change from models, Simon Rhodes showed off his collection of original Look-In Six Million Dollar Man comic strip artwork, drawn by Martin Asbury.

Original Space:1999 storyboards

Simon also brought along a couple of original screen used Star Trek: The Next Generation uniforms.

Tony Groves showed his collection of model kits from various TV series.

New Battlestar Galactica Viper Mk II

Babylon 5 'Starfury'

Carl & Doug Stirling Stewart had a large display of their models and puppets.

Although I spent most of my time in the model room, there was a few things going on outside.

There was a full size replica of the Batmobile from the Michael Keaton ‘Batman’ movie, and a ‘Scooby Do' Mystery Machine.

Inspite of the hot weather, plenty of people turned up in costume. Two cosplayers stood out for me.

An impressive looking General Klytus.

Equally impressive, Braman from Thunderbirds.

Illustrator, Graham Bleathman was in attendance, chatting and selling copies of his artwork.

Benevelent Daleks collecting for charity.

Pit Droids from Star Wars.

Some other candid shots I took during the day.

David Sisson and I wearing David’s altered toy Luke Skywalker helmet. 

Some photos of those fine folk who displayed.

Below Mamas and Linda Pitsillis posing for the camera.

Richard Ashton 

Tony Groves.

Carl & Doug Stirling Stewart.

David Sisson and Alison Thorne,

See you all at he next one!

Anything can happen!