THE NEW ART OF ACTION FIGURE PHOTOGRAPHY

One of the modern off-shoots of action photography is to photograph action figures in realistic situations. These often involve capturing what appears to be movement and its this sort of shot that I find particularly stunning when done well.

Our own Wotan is an action figure camera Jedi and here's my favourite snap he's done and posted on the blog so far. How he got the illusion of flight I just don't know but I love this picture.

Ace toy photographer Hot Kenobi does similarly amazing things with Marvel and DC action figures and you can see dozens of his pics on the Bored Panda site.  Hot's images are a mixture of serious and novelty poses. I prefer the serious ones. My favourite is this fantastic gritty bike skid with Captain America. 

Another photo guru is Johnny Wu. You can see a smattering of his superb work on Bleeding Cool. My personal favourite is this Samurai skirmish, which reminds me greatly of happy times messing with Samurai models and line drawings like Sensei Roald Knutsen's when I was a young teenager.

My own paltry efforts have been sporadic and I've not ventured into action figure photography really. I did enjoy snapping my old PINO in a new light.

Do you like action figure photography?

Have you had a go?

RED SHIFT HOTZENPLOTZ AND A MYSTERY ACTION FIGURE THROWN IN

Once a year Bill B visits Moonbase and this weekend was that time.

I've known Bill for well over twenty years and corresponded online with him first way back in the early 1990's. The subject that brought us together were Project SWORD and SpaceX.

At each visit we usually have a number of tasks to do which help me with the blog and also my own collection and research.

This year we tried to fix a remote-control Probe Force Three but the nose and engine were tightly glued onto the body. Freezing it in the freezer overnight didn't loosen the cement and it remains on the workbench. 

Missus Moonbase also very neatly cut up some scratch SpaceX cards created and donated by kind reader Kevin D for this years 10th Birthday bash goody bags, which are currently in production!

Missus Moonbase was busy too making natty new clothes for her old wooden-headed puppets like Robber Hotzenplotz, the blue and red number to the right.

We also had a go at downloading my old hard-drive onto my new laptop using Bill's drive-reader but it didn't work. There are 20,000 old emails of mine on that old drive, which I'd like to get at. I may need an older laptop with an older version of Windows for the reader to work. Dunno. Ideas?

We also proof-read my new attempt at a book about old Hong Kong plastic and I managed to talk Bill into taking a cover photograph and writing a forward for it. After 6 years work in progress - snifter below - its new cover is in the pipeline and my second BLURB book's nearly ready for launch!

There's usually a car boot sale and some charity shops involved on this weekend and Missus Moonbase joins these trips too.

York Car Boot is always great value and stacked with fine vintage toys and books. As I like a bargain I always look for pocket-money stuff and this year found two items I was pleased with:

Red Shift, a 1973 paperback fantasy novel set in Cheshire by Alan Garner, who also wrote the Owl Service. Now I've personally not read any Alan Garner so this will be my introduction to his works. I knew about Red Shift already as its a well-known folk horror TV play from the 1970's and as readers will know I'm a folk horror nut. Have you read any Alan Garner?

I also found an unusual action figure, which I didn't recognise at all.

The makers' mark on the body said 'TONG IND.CO'. The soft rubber head came off.

After some searching online I identified the body as that of Batman. The black hands and legs helped a lot. A new one on me! Was it released with clothes? My own Batman clearly had a substitute head from another figure though!

But what? 

Do you recognise this soft rubbery head readers?

Bill "Wotan's" First Ever Post on the Blog 18th September 2008

During the space age of toys, rubber monsters were popular as a pocket-money collectable. Among these, I found as a boy a range of six space creatures. These were apparently sold in the US as 'Moon Goons' or similar and in the UK alongside the 'Teachers Pets' monsters. 

Each one had a suction cup under it and was generally molded in a browny gold coloured silicone, and painted greens and blues and yellows on top. Among these six was one large 'bell shaped' alien that I as a kid always thought would be the boss!

As more and more space toys hit the market, i began to find these same aliens in other guises, as tiny chrome coloured figures to threaten the golden astronauts in Apollo Moon Exploring sets and also on keyrings and other knock off rubber toys. 

Recently I decided to immortalise my favourite alien in a painting, the classic space creature of my childhood. Having so many different versions of the same toy, I wonder if he appears anywhere else - maybe as a cereal premium ? 

The picture shows my painting above and original alien on far left, silver Apollo set aliens and various copies. Large yellow figure is a solid plastic keyring.

Posted by Wotan

18th September 2008

SUPER SATURN DAY

Just two short years ago it was the blog's seventh birthday and we showcased the wonderful Tomy Interplanetary Space Rocket and as it was a Japanese release, marvelled at its rarity.

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/seventh-birthday-sword-news-tomy-apollo.html

Imagine then, my surprise when one appears on ebay UK recently at a very interesting starting price, as it was slightly damaged and being sold as parts. I sat back, snuck in a cheeky bid and waited for the inevitable. 

A day or so went by before, as suspected, my meagre covering bid was knocked off the top slot. Irate, I immediately emailed Woodsy for a moan and to point out this veritable treasure. Rather than the expected oohhs and aahhs, I received a tirade of abuse from the Lord of Sword as it was he who had outbid me! 

I was taken aback to say the least, but it turned out that Sears Rocket owner and space enthusiast, Rob Godwin, tipped off Woodstock to this rarity and he had quickly stepped in.  

With the news that the rocket had been spotted by a viewer in Canada, I fully expected a shower of bids to arrive from other specialists, eager to bag a bargain. None came however. Woodstock, being the wonderfully selfless creature that he is, argued that I should try and step in last minute to reclaim the beast. 

After several seconds of heartfelt wrangling and soul-searching, I agreed and when the closing moments arrived, I struck with pityless zeal. Amazingly, having bested Woodsy's maximum by a pound or two, no other bids arrived and I won the toy for under £25! 

Naturally, I was beside myself with pleasure. So a big thanks once more go to Woodsy for stepping down on something which would have graced his far superior SWORD collection and letting me take the prize.

As we have seen in previous posts, the Tomy (and SEARS version) is considerably taller than the C21 version and the motor also includes a smoke generating device. 

My model was damaged by heat and the battery case will not close, so I am unable to test it, but the box proclaims that 'smoke comes out very heavily' along with flashing lights. 

As I can't start the motor, I am reliant on just the static good looks of the toy and the launching capsule action, as seen in the videos!

So until my mechanical and restorative expertise improve, or I find a second fixer-upper, I have to be content with a static display model, which in itself is still fabulous.

birthday wheels: The Die is Cast

Its unusual to find anything worthwhile in a charity shop, but recently I came upon a small box of die casts in a corner of a local store. 

Whereas its usually Macdonalds and Malaysian Hot Wheels, this box had clearly been donated by an older collector and was full of early Matchbox, Dinky and Corgi Rockets.

At a pound each, it would have been an expensive trip to clear out all the good examples, so fighting off a grandma eager to tempt her charge with a pocket money toy, I dived in.

There were a lot of early 60's Matchbox models, most of which I have already, but one took my eye immediately. 

The Scammel 6x6 Tractor and Low Loader was one of Lesney's early Major models which came in a much larger box. 

The 12 wheel loader always put me in mind of the rocket transporters from Gerry Anderson and the box also had the silver container trucks that often appeared in Thunderbirds, but they were missing the cab.

The other model which immediately caught my eye was the Alfa Romeo OSI Scarabeo, which complimented an earlier find of a Dinky Fiat Abarth 2000, both classic examples of late sixties, early seventies toy design.

A HUGE THANK YOU TO SCOOP AND BILL

After a couple of months absence from the blog I would just like to say a heartfelt and massive thank you to Scoop for holding the fort whilst I've been occupied with other things. 

If it wasn't for Scoop's titanic output, all of which has been of the highest quality as per usual, the blog would have withered away.

I would also like to thank Bill for supporting Scoop's watch with his own unique posts.

My full return to the blog may take some time as Summer means summer holidays but I plan to post the odd thing again to add to the fabulous mix being produced by Scoop and aided by Bill.

A HOPE OF SUMMER SWORD

SWORD the summer sky

[photograph by Bill B in the Moonbase garden]