DOCTOR McCOY'S SWEETENER

 

I always loved Bone's Tricorder on the original Star Trek.

Shaped like a medical cassette player, it was the little probe I liked the most, whirring up and down patients diagnosing cosmic aliments.

Well, I had to look twice at our new Hermesetas dispenser. It looks a lot like that Tricorder probe! 

Sweet! ha ha!

Have you any household objects that look like TV and film props?

Johnny Lemon: Another Squeeze

 This old lemon bottle reminded me how I used to do up Johnny Sevens.

These empty plastic lemon juices made ideal replacements for the top of one the Johnny Sevens missiles.

Have you any parts replacement hacks?

With blisters on my mind I be been thinking about mineral water. Bottles to be exact. The bulb headed ones offer plenty of curves for cutting out for those missing car domes. The bases too, a ring of mini domes! 

Your Captain Scarlet action figure may me missing his cap but never fear, the toothpaste cap replacement is here! 

Operation Soap Dish: The Moon Base HQ Computer Room

Progress on my home-made Triang Spacex Moon Base HQ. 

I give you ..... The Computer Room Module.

Lid to follow and more pods.

One small step.

See what you think.

DIG FOR VICTORY!

I'm always on the lookout for replacement Action Man equipment!

Made in Hong Kong for Hallmark of Kansas City, here's a bag of nifty plastic party picks that would sit well in Palitoy's Fighting Man's footlocker! A spade with a bayonet!

Can you think of any 'replacements' like this?

ROLL-ON NAVIGATOR

 

The Flight of the Navigator ship is on my mind and with Junior coming to Moonbase this week's half term break I need a quick method for him to make one up.

An empty Sure Deo-roller seemed an idea and covering it in tin foil was easy.

It was carried off in my Super King artic.

JOHNNY HEAVEN?

 I'm torn about military toys these days but as a kid in the Sixties I was as gung-ho as the next young sapper. 

My inner-child is still drawn towards any toys that remind me of those glory days doing battle with my friends with our plastic bazookas, mortars, grenades and Johnny Sevens. We were war-like baby boomers and that's the way it was.

I still have a Johnny Seven like I had back in 1965 or 6.

Its the most expensive vintage toy I've ever bought as a collector. It was in the dying moments of an NEC memorabilia fair circa year 2000 and having seen it earlier in the day I found myself back in front of the seller, a kindly young Yorkshire chap from Snape I think, asking that classic punter's question: what's your best price mate?

£300 later I walked off with a minty boxed One Man Army! I mean, just look at the old TV ad and you'll see why!

Did you have a Johnny Seven or any army toys?

So when I saw the Dorset Tank Museum Shop's online plastic arsenal I couldn't help enjoy a frisson of that old guilty pleasure recalling past bubblegum skirmishes in the back garden, where we just counted to ten if we were shot.

The Tank Museum offers cost a lot lot less and here's the best of the bunch. What do you think?

I had a mortar like this back then. Oh what fun we had.

This Bazooka looks terrific I have to say. In '67 we would have stormed the sandpit bunker to get it! There's been lots of bazookas over the years, many using ping pong balls, including a rare Dr. Who version we've covered before on MC. Did you have one of those?

The symbol of a Sixties childhood, the plastic GI helmet.

and maybe the best till last, this toy missile gun recalls my Johnny Seven's green massive anti-tank shell. With plastic ammo like that our frenemy opposition, hiding behind their deck chair barricades, would have surrendered before they could say Sekiden.

See anything you like in that Tank Museum shop?

Are you torn about military toys nowadays? Would you buy them for your kids/ grandkids for Christmas?

MAJOR REPLACEMENTS

 I've been thinking about cheaper replacements for Major Mat Mason Parts. 

Not that I have any Matt Mason anymore but I adored the Major as a nipper.

Consider the cool Matt helmet with that glorious visor.

Well howzabout Playmobil's Mars astronaut's helmet. OK its too small but darn it, that's the same visor design!

And what about Matt's wonderful little chrome tools like those binoculars.

Well, Playmobil have some Mars bins ready to go too!

Larger items are trickier and may need some proper upcycling to replace them. Take the Recono-Jet, that neat zip-line sled.

Well, you could always repurpose an old hairdryer like this Moulinex Jet.

and a base from an old calculator maybe.

The classic Moulinex drier gives further possibilities.

The fab MMM Space Bubble, the Major's posin' globe, could be made from a variety of clear spheres.

Here's some Amazon. Or maybe even find an old Ferrero Rocher gift ball. 

The white frame is a lot harder. I was thinking of a toy wheelbarrow frame?

What do you think?

Have you got any more Major upcycling ideas readers? The wackier the better!

THUNDERBIRD 2: PROJECT BODGE

Recently I had an incomplete JR21 Thunderbird 2 very kindly donated as a fixer-upper during our isolation.

I've never really 'restored' an actual toy like this and knowing how skilled you have to be to do a decent job its a daunting prospect!

I'm more used to making creations from scratch after a stint at SpaceX II last year, so fiddling with a real vintage toy is quite a challenge for me!

My initial thought was to take the easy way out and find real spare parts on Ebay but I couldn't find any and I imagine they'd be too dear anyway.

So, opting for the harder route and scratch-making what's missing, I've set to and jumped in with both feet! No doubt they'll get covered in glue!

I'll keep you posted if I dare!

CANOPIES ANYONE!

Its not often I see a full sweeping canopy on an old plastic toy car online.

This is a Prefo Ferrari slot car from the former East Germany, DDR.

The classic full canopy of my generation was of course the one gracing Lady Penelope's FAB1.

Here's a super cool JR21 FAB1 I saw on auction, which many of us will have had in the Thunderbirds heyday in the Sixties.

There was also an earlier sweeping canopy in the worlds of Gerry Anderson, Supercar.

Here's one on the Fairylite toy Supercar

Can you think of any more sweeping full car canopies?

THE WILKO BATH

Shopping at Wilkos over the weekend I had to chuckle at something I saw.

Its their ultra-inexpensive - £2 - plastic see-through toiletries-tidy in the shape of a 12" doll-sized Victorian plastic bath.

I immediately thought how much my daughter would have loved that bath for her Sindies and Barbies in the eighties. The real doll bathroom showers and baths cost loads back then.

Then I thought how comical it would be to photograph an Action Man lounging in the bath after a good skirmish!

As with most comical ideas someone has already thought of it.

Here you go!

Flickr

The only Action Men that entered my bath as a nipper all had jobs: the Frogman [and his pet shark], the Deep Sea Diver and the Jungle Explorer River boat with its outboard motor.

Did you have Action Men in your bath?

Did it damage them?

LIPSTICK LUNAR TRANSPORTER: CALAMITY AND RECOVERY

Disaster struck my lipstick transporter.

I thought I'd struck gold with these orange plastic ties.

But super-gluing them round the cockpit proved too much for my meagre skills. The glue has also fogged the inside of the translucent cockpit which there's nothing I can do about now.

It looked like a dog's dinner!

I ripped it off, cleaned off the dried glue and started again with the pesky cockpit border. 

In the end I used an elastic band. Not brilliant to look at but simple to use!

With a decent second wind I replaced the plastic exhaust with a metal one purloined from an old e-cig my Missus chucked.

I also began the chassis for the wheels using orange plastic from a Jaffa Cake box.

I also took Wotan's advice and ditched the original long nosecone and created a new shorter one using another Sharpie pen lid.

This session's efforts were rounded off with a metal ring edging the main fuselage,

Next,

the wheel braces and the wheels. Blimey!

Wish me luck!

LIPSTICK LUNAR TRANSPORTER: TIDDLYWINKS

 My home made LT10 is taking shape.

The blue blister is on and the lime green nose cone but I'm not happy with it. I've cut the pen top too long. I may have to shorten it.

To cap off the ends of the body and the engine I looked everywhere in the house for two orange counters - you know, tiddlywinks, but to no avail. Red ones had to suffice but again I'm not overly happy with the colour change.

To get a feel for how the body and the engine will look here's the two parts balanced next to each other.

The engine isn't ribbed like the original so may not make the cut.

Finally, I've found some orange plastic off a Jaffa cale tube to experiment with in making what I reckon will be the hardest part, the wheeled chassis.

What do you think so far?

[my old and cool die-cast cars courtesy of Missus Moonbase and her car boot jumble buys this week!]

LIPSTICK TRANSPORTER: THE BODY AND COCKPIT

My scratch LT10 Lunar Transporter model project has begun.

I've removed all the silver lettering from the lipstick case.

I've taken the silver cap off it and found some pens that will come in useful.

The blue pen did. I cut off its rounded end and split that in two. 

It'll become the blue blister cockpit.

and finally, I've inserted the two lipstick case ends together to create the basic body shape.

More shenanigans on the workbench soon!

OPERATION EYELINER: SPACEX LT10 LUNAR TRANSPORTER FROM SCRATCH

I'm beginning a poor man's SpaceX II LT10 project.

Having scoured the cosmetics department of Ebay I've chosen this as the basis of the Lunar Transporter.

I'll keep you posted readers.

Anyone else building anything?

DIY SPACE TOY SPARE PARTS?

After an enquiry for SWORD antenna spare parts I had a look round for possible DIY replacements. On my Googling I found some interesting objects that would do for general space toying.

Here's some cool plastic disks, domes and tyres at EMA Model Supplies. I haven't bought any or used them so this isn't a recommendation, just a glimpse of what's out there.

What do you think?

LOOP GURU

I noticed these Archer spaceman slot-hand repro parts online.

The looped parts reminded of old plastic bag loops.

they came in two parts with a loop and a seperate collar.

For the life of me I can't find any pictures of these old loops!

They'd be cheaper than repro parts!