It's Alive! My Overnight Remco Mini Monsterizer

 Last year I rescued some trash from Aldi, a bunch of plastic toothbrush displays.

Considering what to do with them I toyed with perhaps some Action Man raft crates or maybe a Corgi lion cage.

But then I saw this!

The Remco Mini Monster Monsterizer!

Yes!

So, overnight I've whittled and spittled and fettled my own monster machine using one of those toothbrush racks.

It's been fun and Baron Frankenstein lent a hand (and a foot and a head!)!

Oven-ready, a willing creature, old Burger King Frankie, stepped up to test it out.

Dr. Bones threw the switch.

Monsterizing in progress! 

And the final stage ...

Hope you like this home-made, quick and easy Monsteriser folks.

I've got to go. Villagers are mobbing with pitchforks at the door! 

Rebel Yell: My custom Johnny Yuma Toy Scattergun

 In 1993 I bought the brilliant American toy reference book, Toys of the Sixties, by the great Bill Breugman.

Among it's many many treasures that made an immediate impression on me was the Johnny Yuma Rebel Scattergun by Kilgore from around 1961.

A double-barrelled cap pistol with a distinct shape, it came in at least two dark shades, all of which appear to be very collectable.

It emulated the scattergun prop used by Nick Adams in the popular TV show The Rebel. Anyone know it? Here's Dell's comic version.

Here it is as well advertised top right complete with toy cap, belt and revolver.

 Always intrigued by it's design I thought I'd have a bash at a custom job.

I first took this cheap fancy dress toy flintlock to start with.

After some sawing and stripping, I added two barrels, a new silver panel and a Fimo stock. I then, opting for a darker look, painted the whole thing black.

See what you think.

Home Run! Our Secret Sam Bazooka Bat

 Here's our latest custom.

Topper's Secret Sam Bazooka Bat.

The wonderful card art is by Bill and I sourced a modern plastic beige baseball bat and white ball, emulating as far as I could the originals. 

This custom take on the bat concludes our Secret Sammery and, together with the Cane Shooter, form our personal homage to the mighty Topper.

Here they are as a pair. See what you think.

Now in the transit station - our bookshelf - before going into storage, here's one more Topper shot.

Next up, the Man from UNCLE Pistol Cane.

The Lone Star Custom Armoury

 Before they all go into storage, here's a final group shot of our five custom Lone Star swords. 

Which is your favourite?

Secret Admirers: our Secret Sam Cane Shooter

 With our Lone Star swords done and dusted, here's the first of our two Secret Sam homages.

This is our updated Topper Secret Sam Cane Shooter.

Rather than a golden lion's head, this cane has a rather snazzy modern golden snake's head.

As usual, Bill's wonderful card art makes all the difference. I sourced the pharaoh's sceptre from a joke shop on eBay and shortened it.

Hope you like it. The secret's out! 

Sherlock Holmes Gift Set

Mine and Bill's latest creation, an original custom 'toy' of our own:

The Hound of the Baskervilles Two Pipe Problem Gift Set! 

Card art by Bill, pipes sourced by me.

Elementary! 

Operation Lone Star Customs - The Five Toy Swords: 5. Dick Turpin

 Our final Lone Star custom, Dick Turpin's sword released between 1979 and 1982.

Again, with reference material kindly supplied by John Buss of Murdersville, Bill was able to create a really fabulous backing card and I was able to get the sword guard gold colour right.

So here goes, the latest of Lone Star's swords and the last of our customs:

Hope you like it.

In the catalogue picture provided by John there was an image of the sword along with a neckerchief and what I assume to be Dick Turpin's black cap. I think they came with the sword sold in toy shops.

Here's my rather shoddy imitation of it.

That's it, we're done with Lone Star's swords.

Hope you enjoyed the journey.

Next up, Secret Sam!

Monster Shorts

Here's my Mod Monster holding up some snazzy material for his new underpants, which the Missus will fettle.

It's all part of a new custom project in the pipeline.

My old late mate Pete looks on, considers and takes a drag.

Did you have a Mod Monster?

Operation Lone Star Customs - The Five Toy Swords: 4. Sir Francis Drake

 This is our fourth custom 1960's UK TV toy sword and special thanks must go to Murdersville's John Buss for supplying us with a very rare catalogue image* of it, along with an old TV Times cover:

The Lone Star Sir Francis Drake sword and matchlock.

Lone Star issued the sword on its own, the gun on its own and both together, which is the set we've gone for.

It's unclear if any real examples have survived.

Our constituent toys were via eBay: the sword is a modern basic toy rapier from the Rubberplantation and the pistol is a genuine vintage Lone Star, albeit a Captain Cutlass/ Buccaneers matchlock, but the same design nonetheless

Colours were taken from the catalogue text.

Again, star billing goes to Bill for the card art. Having pulled out all the stops and sprinkled some magic dust I'm sure you'll agree it looks fabulous! Believe me, he didn't have that much to go on! 

So, here goes. Hope you like it.

*

* The catalogue image that John provided is from his new book on Robin Hood and ITC Swashbuckling Collectables, which I have just ordered ( John has written lots of collectables books such as The Saint and The Avengers)

Drastic Plastic: The Bride of Frankenstein and Dracula's Daughter

 Continuing my project to make mini monster customs, here's two I've blogged before, but this time they're all boxed up and accessorised.

Hope you like them.

Using empty fig boxes, I've gone for a sort of clear coffin look, Snow White style. The Bride comes complete with an electrode for mobile charging and Drac's daughter got a stake and a black cross.

The labels I printed on our micro printer and the price tags are courtesy of Bill.

These two Universal femme fatales are off for some beauty sleep now.

Rack Toy Recess

 With the Missus happy gardening, I've taken a break to bag up my latest mini monster creations for safe-keeping.

Not good enough for the full packaging effort, I've placed the Cronos bug and the Lifeforce ship in simple cellophane bags.

Then I added small 'movie' labels,  which we can print at home and a custom Zodiac price tag each courtesy of Bill. The missus's stamp set provided the price!

Complete and punched, here they are hung on my kitchen 'shop' rack! 

What do you think readers? Mom and Pop store material? 

My Mini Lifeforce Vampire Spaceship

 Here's another of my new horror mood home-made minis.

This is the vampire spaceship from the '80's Tobe Hooper sci-fi shocker Life force.

I made mine using a small paper umbrella from MoonBase Miss's bits chest and some wire all trimmed to shape and painted black.

I took a few shots of the ship in Earth's orbit.

This is an original still from the movie. Have you seen it?

My Toy Cronos Device

 Spring sunshine seems to have lit the last sleepy chamber of my noggin and I'm dreaming up lots of new customs.

Here's one, in a horror mood, the dreadful Cronos bug device from the movie Cronos, a fantastically stylish 1993 debut flick from maestro Guillermo Del Toro before he got famous. Ron Perlman lumbers through it too.

At it's dark clicking heart is a 16th Century gold scarab. It contains an awful creature both wildly animating and terribly vampiric in nature. Hapless victims grasp it at their peril. 

An amazingly vivid film with an iconic prop, there are many pro models and beautiful replicas of this clockwork jeweled wonder online, so many in fact that. I found it hard to locate the original film prop!

This is my much simpler effort using one of Junior's beetles to create a sort of toy finish! 

And here's the hungry golden bug as seen in the actual film.

Have you seen it readers?