BoostED

Woodsy,

Here's a little something extra for Moon Base. I had to use Photoshop to add the shuttle at the tip of the rocket because my Booster Rocket didn't come with it.

From Vegas Base

Ed

More Rockets and Space

Hi Woodsy

You recently posted a picture showing the cover of the Rockets and Space Coloring Book. I thought you might like a few extra details.

It was published in 1960 by Treasure Books of New York, with a US cover price of 29 cents. There were both US and Canadian editions.

No artist appears to be credited. Illustrations are of real existing spacecraft and missiles, and planned designs for the future.

The book comprised full-page line drawings, with captions. Note that this one says ‘The Mercury capsule will probably carry America’s first astronaut into orbit around the earth.’.

Which turned out to be correct, as Mercury made its first manned sub-orbital flight on 5th May 1961; and its first orbital flight on 20th February 1962. The last Mercury mission was in May 1963.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2026/08/rockets-and-space-coloring-book.html#comment-form

Four photographs from Worthpoint

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Grime Lord: Looey's Dr.Who Dust Cover

It's Garden Show time here at Oz Base and the Missus suddenly hit me with a big printing job for the handouts.

My ageing laser printer couldn't cope with multiple prints at such short notice so I fired up a brand new printer I'd bought specifically to print DVD discs.

Having to put it somewhere in my crowded studio, I devised a sliding shelf in the foot well of my desk.

A shiny new printer is a magnet for dust, so it really needed a dust cover. I remembered years ago how one of the fabric stores had advertised Star Trek Wrath of Khan printed fabric. I knew that would be unavailable now, but the Missus and I went in, each of us looking for bits for our current projects.

She held up an almost used up bolt of fabric and said "Isn't this funny?"

It was perfect!

( see how I just used an AI writing style?)

It actually had a 1996 copyright on it, so maybe it has been hanging around for a bit!

By that evening, I'd whipped out the sewing machine and my dust shield was operational!

Does this stir any memories of printed fabrics for you, Moonbasers?

Looey Oz Base

Sindy, Incidentally

 We all need stuff to occupy us in retirement. One of my distractions is repairing toys, even if they don't want to be!

Deploying my usual 'use what's lying around' philosophy, here's two doll-related repairs I've done this summer. Not perfect but they'll dolly well do.

First up we have this quaint lady. Sadly she was missing her right foot stroke shoe after too much dancing with Action Man.

The Missus' stock of Fimo came to the rescue and old dolly can dance again!

Next up, Sindy's Range Rover.

I picked an incomplete one up probably twenty years ago at a boot sale.

It's huge!

Here's a complete one with its box off the net.

Alas, mine was missing those important rear black struts supporting the roof.

Keeping things simple I cut a 12 inch ruler into two parts and once snug, I glued them in position at the bottom. The tops were left free so the roof can be removed. 

Painted black they're not that bad.

Sindy can rove the range once more!

Do you like 'repairing' toys or maybe something else readers?

Kevin's Scratchbuilt Blake's 7 Security Robot

Been meaning to make this model for years, so I finally forced myself to concentrate on this one and build nothing else until it was done.  Finally managed it.

This is the Federation Security Robot from Blake's 7. It must've been an unbelievably unwieldy  prop because it only features in 2 episodes of the first season,  despite featuring heavily in pre publicity (it even made it onto a badge!). 

Not the most terrifying of designs  but it did boast a scary flamethrower which must've been fun to film.

I elected not to put a working one in mine!

Model by the way is 5 foot tall.

From strength to unity,

Kevin

UK

Matteline 1967 Video 22

Hi,

Matteline 1967 has just done another video of fantasy kit box art, for kits that were never produced, but might have been. Films, cartoons, and TV shows from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Mostly from the lesser known examples, but still an interesting selection of models-that-never-were. Matteline is now up to video number 22.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aZD4fnchLI

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Looey's New Batmobile

I was in The Reject Shop -what we Aussies still call a "$2 Shop".

I went in to buy jam jars, I came out with a Batmobile!

A Hot Wheels Armoured Batmobile.

At first I thought it was just a plastic shell, representing the parked mode as featured in the Tim Burton movie -and it is, but if you peek under the package, there's a complete car inside with gold rimmed wheels.

The cocoon has hand dry brushed highlights to enliven what is otherwise a single lump of black plastic. I can't see what the deco on the actual car looks like, but it's good to have a little mystery in one's life!

-Oh, and it actually cost me $2! 

That's a Quid, where most of you come from!

                        Looey in Oz Base.

The Glowing Dutchman!

Check out SpongeBob Squarepants Movie Flying Dutchman's Ship Playset with 6 Figures on eBay!

https://ebay.io/m/5i1pVc

This is fantastic, reminds me of those old Aurora kits of the 60's.

Keep on glowing!

MJ

South coast Base

Rockets and Space Coloring Book

 What a cover! 

It's a fabulous Booster Rocket lookalike! 

I wonder what else is in there?

Ed's Watches

Hey Woodsy,

Got the time?

No?

Neither do I. I have the watches, but the batteries are all dead, LOL!

I have ended up with a few odds-&-ends of watches as well as a couple of clocks. Here's the few watches I do have:

-Lionel wristwatch

-Lionel pocket watch

-Harry Potter pocket watch

From Vegas 'Watch'-Tower

Ed

Watch This!

Woodsy,

In keeping with your current “Watch” theme, here’s an old painting of mine.

Rob C

USA

Best Timing Ever!

https://www.bbc.com/videos/c29ww26l3e0o

one for the blog.

Via Paul V.

😂

My Life in Watches by Brian B

Hello Woodsy

As a child I had a series of wristwatches from around age 10.

Early ones were Ingersoll which claimed they were indestructible, they weren't.

On a holiday in Switzerland in 1962 as a teen I was given a watch, brand unknown, that came from the equivalent of a Woolworth Store.

That survived through college until 1971 when my parents gave me a Tissot Sidereal watch. The attraction was a fiberglass case and plastic band as my skin was reacting to treated leather bands and some steel watch cases. The disadvantage was the band wore out frequently and was replaced free of charge by Tissot. Careless technicians would break the fiberglass case and when replacing the case, dirt got into the movement effecting the self winding mechanism. Tissot claimed that was my fault. That so annoyed me that I avoid Swiss made watches and switched to a mechanical TIMEX made in the US.

Working in the advertising industry I would wear different advertising watches and when my daughter was born in 1984, I was wearing a mechanical TIMEX Heinz Ketchup watch with a ketchup bottle as the sweep hand. I now wear it once a year on my daughter's birthday.

As an uprooted Londoner, on trips back to London I might wear my quartz London Underground watch.

Some years ago I discovered a company that customized watches to supplied designs. For a small charge they would make one sample so over a few years I made first a Desperate Dan watch and then my Dan Dare watch.

On a daily basis I wear a cheap Casio quartz watch which keeps good time and the only attention it requires is putting the time forward in the Spring and back an hour in the Autumn, with a new battery around every 18 months.

On remembering these watches I recalled a watch that I bought for a young cousin in the UK as a gift. I kept one, it dates from the early 80's, made by GameTime in Hong Kong it played video games like Space Invaders. I played mine on the flight to the UK and it put me off video games for life. Just brain numbing play. I dug it out for the attached photo. I think the then 10 year old cousin enjoyed it.

Brian B

NYC

Petronas! Harry Potter's Whomping Willow Game

I recently picked this 2002 Harry Potter game up in a big Pontefract charity shop. 

Having built it I have to say it's one of the fiddliest games I've set up. With 22 pieces needed to be in place just for the tree before the motor even engages, it is an endurance test and I can well imagine it was too much for many original wizards at the start of the Millennium. 

Here's the old TV ad from way back. Once built the tree is pretty dramatic I must say!  

What do you think?

https://youtu.be/152mPfElE5c?is=myZZvfHrb7xxcY1P 

Time You Got a Watch

 I used to love my Timex watch as a kid.

I dunno, there's something a bit James Bond about a watch.

Here's a few I spotted online. 

This is like Mother's. Watch with Mother!

Ha ha

The glorious Gilbert 007 boxed watch. Shaken, not wound.

Some chunky walkie watches for the local militia.

A modern Spy X.

A gorgeous old FBI timepiece. The eagle's carrying dynamite! 

A not so secret MI6.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service wrist.

Not so clandestine CIAs.

Do you wear a watch?

Did you as a kid?

One Small Brick

 

The Grandkids recently visited a Lego Cafe in Bingley. Yep, they exist!

This fab Apollo Saturn 5 was on the shelf.

Have you made a Lego space rocket? 

Ed's T. Cohn (aka Superior) Space Port

Woodsy,

What if? That was the premise behind this composition. What would my T. Cohn Space Port (with Lido figures and space vehicles) look like if it was transported to its home world?

Ed

From Vegas Base

Kung Fu Summer

 Over the Summer a friend performed a Praying Mantis kata or kwoon in our garden. It was utterly fantastic!

It took me straight back to those heady Kung Fu days in the early Seventies, when I couldn't get enough of it.

My fave mag was Inside Kung Fu from the States and this early issue really stayed in my mind, with that superb Sifu Quentin Fong cover.

I have a lot of martial arts books from back then but this Praying Mantis by HB Un isn't one of them, although I clearly recall it.

Published by the fabulous Paul H Crompton publishers. I could happily collect everything they published from those glory days!

Do you have any martial arts books?

Bandai Captain Scarlet DX Cheetah 2004

 I never saw the New Captain Scarlet series and the toys seem very elusive. I've hardly ever seen any in the last 22 years car booting since they were released.

They are intriguing reshapes of the boomer classics, an unenviable task for the designer I bet, considering the ubiquitous love for the original Scarlet SPC and the rest of the fleet.

Anyways, I spotted the Bandai Cheetah on Etsy's CapowSciFishop. It's not something I would buy brand new, but I thought I'd post the listing's pics, as its part of Gerry's expanded universe.

Looking at it I guess it's an update on the SPC. I do like its sleek lines and red, black and silver palette. Do you?

It's smooth curves echo the later sweep of the reimagined FAB1, an upgrade that's starting to slowly grow on me and a Vivid toy that I'd probably pick up at a boot sale if it was going cheap.

It sort of reminds me of the 1997 Power Rangers Lightning Cruiser, another fantasy red roadster, but there'll be lots of other designs like this.

Have you any of the New Captain Scarlet toy vehicles readers? 

*

Terranova47's image of the car from Demolition Man 1993. Similar to Bandai's NCS Cheetah?