Looey's Christmas Strip

All the best to you Moonbasers everywhere!

Looey,

Oz Base

A Blue Space Glider Comes to Moonbase

I'm chuffed to bits as I've just bagged this snazzy blue 2001 NASA Space Glider for my fleet.

I first saw one about a year ago and now, I'm pleased to say, a good example is on its way to MoonBase from Austria as we sprach. 

Here's a picture of a similar blue one in a minty box. Mine's not as good but I'm thrilled nonetheless.

This means I'm now just three* short of a complete collection. As always when collecting anything the "missing" ones are the hardest to find and these are no exception!

With Spirit of America and flame livery, the elusive three all came in a box unlike the rest, a photo cover box depicting a sort of launch bay. 

Here they are: white, orange and green.

*

* Technically I'm also missing a variation of the elusive Space Tract. Normally a grey MEGO model, the missing version is a very rare orange Hover Space Tract.

*If I'm being picky I'm also missing an American Tarheel version of the grey British Century 21 Space Glider, but they're essentially the same toy.

It's Time to Leave the Capsule

Hello Woodsy

Today I saw the latest space toys, the latest 'Rover' and 'Capsule'.

NASA must be in a bad way if this is in their future!

Terranova47

USA

The Thing with the Titles

 I caught The Thing from Another World last night, the Howard Hawks original from the 1950's.

Its years since I've seen it and I'd forgotten how good it is, despite falling asleep towards the end, more to do with my age than it's quality!

As always when a film has been remade it's fun to spot where stuff originated and I was amazed just how much John Carpenter paid homage to Hawks.

For me the most astonishing comparison are the films opening titles.

They're practically the same! 

Here's the 1951 original, courtesy of The Art of the Title

 https://share.google/gp6c3rz6ql0f1vbwV

And here's the John Carpenter remake title, courtesy of You Tube 

https://youtu.be/m8ShlmUBTdA?si=G3rG7spXANwmF02G

How fabulous is that!

There are loads more connections between the two Things. Do you have a favourite readers?

Is it just me or do you think both films are under-rated?

*

For more Thing Titles fun, have a look at these modern effects guys recreating the burning letters!

https://youtu.be/wGRPK22yvko?si=-Nww9Mxf1TT_FjjW

Monstrous Movie Music

I saw these amazing CDs for sale, all monster and sci-fi movie themes.

I assume they're copies of much older LP records. 

Does anyone know? 

MARINA COMIC STRIP OPENER

 Marina comic strip opener from Lady Penelope issue 1 drawn by Rab Hamilton.

Happy Christmas from Will

Hi Woodsy,

Neil and Buzz have to re-evaluate their belief in the non existence of Santa! 

A Happy Christmas to one and all!

From 

Will Osborne.

Northamptonshire Moonbase.

THE HOUSE OF PENELOPE

 As a youngster I didn't read Lady Penelope comic as it was obviously aimed at young girls. However, some  of it's content would very much  have appealed to me , The Man from UNCLE in particular. and the Lady Penelope comic strip would occasionally  include Thunderbirds, and to some extent as I'm a big Stingray fan, the Marina comic strip.

The down side for me would have been cooking tips, pop pin ups and fashion. 

However, I did find this feature on Lady Penelope's fashion style in the Lady Penelope holiday special of interest.

Rob's Century 21 Letter!

Woodsy,

I recently got back in touch with an old friend, Doug, who lives in Canada, and who is without a doubt the biggest Supermarionation fan I've ever met. We had corresponded for years.

Today, he sent me a screenshot of something I honestly thought I had thrown away at some point, but apparently I bequeathed it to him. Thank goodness!

After Thunderbirds started airing in US syndication in early 1968, I was so thrilled by it, I decided to try and write a fan letter to Gerry Anderson. How I found the address? From the side of the box of a Lincoln International model kit I had recently purchased! The address I used was: AP Films, Slough, Bucks, England. And darned if the letter didn't get there, eventually.

Along with the letter was enclosed a print-out about the Thunderbirds characters and craft, plus two small black and white photos, all long gone, I am afraid.

When I look closely at the letter now, I think it's fair to say it's not signed by Gerry Anderson himself, but a proxy, but still! How cool that this was saved from the ravages of time by a dear friend?

Rob C

USA

Trackside Nostalgia

After seeing Robs gorgeous depot model, I was reminded of some shots I took years ago of similar kit based buildings - probably Heller brand. My dad built me a layout one christmas for my Matchbox Motorway and put some of the buildings on the diorama. Years later, I bought a joblot of models on Ebay, which included one or two that I had, including the semi with the greenhouses and the Cafe Rose.

I took the individual buildings and paired them with tiny models from the Kinder Egg selection, of continental vehicles such as bubblecars.

One or two were used with Kellogs snap together kits from the sixties too. 

The little Esso Service Station is a wooden kit, rather than the usual plastic.

The figures are smaller than the usual 00/HO size and come from Galoob Micro Machine playsets and are just under a centimetre in height, but sit better with the cars.

The inspiration and nostalgia for these models comes from the old Triang-Hornby Railway catalogues from the sixties, which always had wonderful photographs of lavish layouts of railways and roadways, with huge amounts of detail packed in to a small space.

I always wanted a layout like these, but somehow it never materialised, as I never had enough space to build something of any size. Still its fun to get out a model or two and make a small temporary tableau on the kitchen worktop now and again!

AMT REFIT ENTERPRISE

I really like Star Trek: The Motion Picture , or as some people like to call it The 'Slow' Motion Picture mainly due to it's over reliance on special effects.

But one thing that I really loved was the refitted USS Enterprise, re-designed by Andrew Probart following on from Matt Jeffries' original iconic TV version.

I've collected a few slightly different versions of the AMT refit USS Enterprise over time, beginning with 'The Voyage Home' Enterprise, which oddly enough only makes a brief appearance in the film as NCC 1701-A  right at the end!

Anyway, here's a look at some of the box fronts.

 STTMP was released on December 15th, 1979 in the UK, shortly after the American release.

Rob's WIAD Lagerhalle

Woodsy,

Here is another nostalgia trip for me, the WIAD B1060 Lagerhalle (Warehouse), a German HO scale model building kit I first built in 1970 - 55 years ago!

A quite basic kit, first issued circa 1965, and designed primarily for adding “color” to a train layout, I built the first one in the original plastic colors it was molded in, as shown on the box, but decided to gussy up my 2nd attempt as best I could. The fun part was getting all those bulkhead pieces to align properly around the concrete foundation. I don’t think I even bothered to do this this first time around!

No train layout to show them off, but I still love these German railroad structure kits. I even decided to put the WIAD* logo on the front, as this was my favorite brand of plastic RR models back in the day.

Rob C

USA

* WIAD stands for Willy Adler, the founder of the company!