Get a Grip!

Hi Moonbasers! I've always loved the 1960s Edai Grip toys and their lovely blister packaging. I think they are actually the best packaging (apart from Eaglemoss) ever made - fight me!

Anyway, I've wanted to make my own version for years now and making a nice presentation for my friend's Chitty chitty bang bang Code 3 was the perfect excuse. Long story short, this is how you (with a bit of effort!) can make your own in the comfort of your own garage!

1) My home built Suck-O-Matic vacuum former built from a thrown out vacuum cleaner complete with retractable flex. Most of the structure is made out of 3mm MDF laser cut, but you can do the same with a drill and craft knife. It isn't pretty, but it's very adaptable with bed sizes of 140 x 140mm and 270 x 175mm instantly available.

The package plug is made from 3mm MDF and thick cardboard, coated in polyester resin, sanded and the dings filled with auto putty. You can see the different colours in the putty batches, tinted with spray enamel that allowed me to ensure I had a nice smooth finish. Everything was polished to a high gloss.

2) My heat box is an electric bar heater with the overturn switch disabled so I can lay it on it's back! Over the top is an MDF hood and tapering chimney (covered in reflective aluminium foil to reduce absorbed heat) the double frame on the top, held tight with 9 butterfly nuts has a 1/2 mm PETG plastic sheet securely clamped inside. You could probably salvage some suitable clear sheet from modern packages as PETG is hard to source (mine is leftovers from the Sci Fi film "Infini" that I worked on almost 10 years ago!

3) After a few attempts, I got a Hero grade moulding. You can often reheat your mistakes and try again if there aren't any holes in the sheet plastic.

I had to release the clear bubble from the plug by pushing ice lolly sticks between them and using an air dust-off tool to blow it clear!

4) I already had a scan of a vintage Edai Grip package from my Joe 90 car. I laid out the artwork in Corel Draw or a similar Graphics program. I wanted a painted image of the castle and surrounding lanscape for the inside card. Being not so good at painting AND JUST BLOODY LAZY I went to the Dark Side and prompted some examples in AI them fixed them up in Photoshop. This is a test print on A4 light card from my laser printer. I'm testing staining it with coffee for an aged look, but this is a bit too over the top.

5) Taa Daah! The finished item looking just like a bought one -except that you can't buy one!

Oh what fun I've had!

Looey

Oz Base

" Up in the sky... It's a Husky, it's a Corgi... I'm calling a Code 3!"

Apparently amongst the die cast Collector community, an altered original issue is called a Code 3. I've wanted to get a James Bond Mini Moke and repaint it and put it in a new package as a "Spy Who Loved Me" Stromberg Lipparus support vehicle. That would be classified as a Code 3 model.

Well, thanks to Woodsy's Chitty chitty bang bang adventures combined with my Husky toys fever, I've made my own Code 3!

Original Husky Chittys with complete family figures are going for stupid prices these days, so I got a new Corgi Mini version and sculpt 'n scanned my own Potts family! I won't go into that process here, as Moonbasers will have seen my Husky Batmobile and how I made replacement figures there.

1) The original Corgi Mini in it's package

2) The car with it's missing family and a slightly yukky shade of yellow metallised brass fittings.

3) I didn't like the lemon yellow wings (they should be more Chrome Yellow, but you work with what you've got...) I masked off the wing pieces, note how the translucent tape allows me to see the etched lines, so I can cut the lines perfectly.

4) Painting polythene is a nightmare. So I use ESP prep fluid to make the paint stick better and spray acrylic Graffiti paint rather than enamels or auro lacquers.

5) Peeling the masking off a perfect job is always edifying!

6) I wanted to use clear plastic jewels for the head and taillights, but the only suitable ones in my wife's findings box were the traditional glass cut cones, so I'm grinding out recesses in the headlights using a 3mm twist drill in my Moto-tool.

COURAGE, LITTLE ONE!

7) 3D modelling the spare tyre with tread patterns to match the other tyres was a bit fiddly. Here I've painted all the wheel hubs red. I've also overpainted the the brass pieces with Tamiya clear orange to get a nicer brass tone and filled in the empty windscreen with PVA glue (next time I'd use a piece of celluloid as this result isn't fantasmagorical)

8) The end result -Even nicer than a Husky original if I do say so myself!

I'll sign off now, Moonbasers, tune in again when I go crazy with an Edai Grip style package for this little baby!

Looey

Oz Base

Truly Scrumptious!

 I picked up a scrumptious Mattel plastic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car recently.

Completely new to me. Mines incomplete but here's a complete one online in all its glory.

Are the four figures from any other Mattel toy?

Has anyone got those four figures going spare? A swap?

ROWLAND EMETT: TOTTERING DESIGNS

Hi all,

Here are a few items on the Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Railway, designed by Rowland Emett, and built for the 1951 Festival of Britain.

It was a mad set-up, based on cartoons that had appeared in the magazine Punch. There were three different locomotives. One actually looked like a railway engine, another like a paddle steamer, and the last like a steampunk airship.

Built to a gauge of 15 inches, and towing passenger carriages giving rides to the public.

Emett later provided the inventions of Caractacus Potts in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tct3ly_qyG8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxN_2TkzAyk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O6UI8fSvAM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKOeP42Z2nA

Paul Adams from New Zealand

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Terranova47 from the US adds: another great site https://www.smallbrookstudio.uk/

HANSONS CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG FILM PROPS SALE

Check out this June auction of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film props! Its fascinating to see it all including the famous snake car horn and even the famous car itself!

https://hansonslive.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk/m/view-auctions/catalog/id/59

Would you buy anything if you could?