Corgi Night Squad

 A few home snaps of my new Corgi Black Beauty, along with stablemates The Thrushbuster and Batmobile.

It's quiet in the city tonight!

Vintage Otley Outing

 With the Missus and a mate, visiting my favourite vintage toy shop round here, in Kirkham Arcade in Otley, I was really pleased to bag a few great collectables for the Moonbase collection.

The haul comprised of a smart loose JR21 FAB1, a neat re-issue Corgi Black Beauty and an Action Man Rifle Rack along with the golden grenade launcher. I had all of these as a kid and it was great to get them back and a snip at £30 the lot.

In the town's charity shops I bagged an old hardback copy of Brave New World, a paperback horror by Shaun Huston and a hardback Adventure Annual with Pyro toy designs on the cover. 

My final item was a cool multi-rotational tin globe. It rotates on two axes! 

All in all a great day out.

What do you reckon? 

More on all of them to follow.

THE GREEN HORNET LIVES!

 Junior gave his new Green Hornet Black Beauty the Sharpie treatment yesterday.

Not finished yet but Kato looks happy!

Groan Hornet

 Fixing up Junior' Green Hornet scrapper, before he colours it in in two weeks, has been as fiddly as Kato's cap.

The scanner and missile ejector mechanisms are groaningly temperamental and may yet spoil it for Junior. They do work now and then and when they do they fly! I just hope they work when he has a bash! 

Still, my part of the job is nearly done now.

I bought some plastic half-jewels for a squid and filed two down for the green headlights. Some of the Missus's red wire made the trim. 

I also re-chromed the grille.

Kato was missing so a small figure was cut to size, cap heat-flattened and painted.

A new windscreen was added using an old polypocket folder.

The Green Hornet was twisted inwards so some pliers dragged him round to the window again. He's lost his gun but that's life.

I just need to glue Kato in now if Bruce will let me! 

He did!

BEEN HORNET

 I recently bagged this battered die-cast Green Hornet Black Beauty for 99p on the Bay [postage £4].

I adored mine as a kid.

This one is a joint project for Junior and me to do up.

My jobs are the headlights, windscreen and missiles. Junior will colour it back to black when he's back on Moonbase. 

I ordered a cheap repro scanner offa Ebay too ...

... and a front missile.

Fortunately the rear scanner ejector works fine. The front one is temperamental.

No figures; Kato and the Hornet have left the scene.

Next, home made headlights.

Are you doing up a die-cast?

KATO'S CAR: GREEN HORNET BLACK BEAUTY REVEAL

 I love this 'launch' sequence of the Green Hornet's Black Beauty from 1966. What a car!

Do you have one?

SECRET SERVICE ACTION CAR

 

I always loved my die-cast Black Beauty as a kid, the Green Hornet's slick saloon.

Seeing this tin version from Japan online I know I would loved one too!

How cool is that!

Do you have one?

HORNET'S RING

I love this knockoff gumball Green Hornet ring.

Do you have one?

I saw it on Worthpoint.

Have you any TV or film - related rings?

A PIECE OF THE ACTION: WHEN THE GREEN HORNET AND KATO FIGHT BATMAN AND ROBIN!

Checking out the Batman Green Hornet crossover episode I found this short clip of the fight scene on You Tube. Who would have thought that Bruce Lee was in Batman! Hi-Ya! What do you think?

KNOCKOFF HORNET RING

I liked this knockoff Green Hornet ring I saw on an old sale.

Its simply called the Hornet and was available in vending machine capsules in the States. Did you have one?

Looks like it was a fairly cheaply made hornet insect. the vending card has the show's Black Beauty and the man himself in profile.

What do you think?

Do you have any knockoff rings?

GREEN HORNET BLACK BEAUTY TOY CARS

Some American crime fighters were a mixture of cop and super hero. The Green Hornet was such a one and a show I always enjoyed because Bruce Lee was Kato.  Here is Bruce auditioning for the part way back in the mid-Sixties courtesy of You Tube. The show was a hit and the Hornet produced a whole nest of cool toys on the States.
 

 

 

In the UK and the US the most popular Hornet toy of its day was the 1967 Corgi Green Hornet Black Beauty, a sleek and gorgeous die-cast car with great accessories. The Hornet learnt out of the window with his pistol poised, whilst Kato drove. The boot contained a nifty red spinner and the front grille opened to reveal a formidable red missile. It all came in Corgi's beautiful packaging and was topped with a fabulous Green Hornet roof transfer. I was always surprised it was never miniaturised for the Juniors range but nevertheless, the Corgi Black Beauty was and is for me quintessentially the Sixties. It was re-released and re-packaged for modern fans in the Naughties.

 

Fans in the States got the equally cool Aurora Black Beauty slot car in 1967 too, although the packaging wasn't in the same league as Corgi's. Polar Lights re-issued it in a new box for modern fans years later.

 

 

ASC of Japan came up with their own unlicensed tinplate Black Beauty, the Secret Service Action Car. The front grille is completely different and it would appear that only the car itself had any reference to the Green Hornet in the form of two transfers.

 

I had thought that countries like Argentina and Mexico would have had their own versions of the car but I've been unable to find any. I will have to consult my old Toy Collector Green Hornet magazine when I dig it out of the loft. There maybe some more info in the Model and Toy Collector Green Hornet issue. Maybe you have that one readers?

 

What are your Green Hornet toy and TV memories readers? 

 

 

[pictures: Vectis, various]