POOLS VERNE: NEMO'S RC NAUTILUS

Wow! This RC Nautilus model by Essential RC really does submerge! Check out this clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB1cPRzpLsk

What do you think?

LOOEY'S SUTCLIFFE VALIANT

Hi Woodsy, great Jules Verne thread!

Speaking of Sutcliffe toys, I never had the Nautilus because I didn't like the mint green colour scheme (much like Dinky's SHADO interceptor!) BUT my father did pick up a Sutcliffe Valiant Battleship in an antique shop in Australia. 

It was always featured prominently in his living room. It was always agreed it would be mine one day and I even found a Sutcliffe gun boat to match at a Sydney swap meet.

All that nearly changed when my father took the photograph of a prominent (and particularly odious) NSW QC "Destroyer Lawyer". He posed the man with a chess board which perfectly summed up his attitude to his work - it was all a game that he intended to win.

My father often tried to ingratiate himself to the famous and powerful and asked me if I'd let him give the Sutcliffe to his latest buddy.

I replied with a resounding NO, which is why I still have it to remember him by.

Here it is alongside some pictures of my dad as a younger man and one of him with his long time friend Barry Humphries admiring one of my Art Toys!

Cheers

Looey

OZ

The Jules Verne Movie Reference Book

With all the coverage recently of the great Jules Verne, and his works, I thought this book might be of interest. I do not have it, but did borrow it from the library some time ago.

Hollywood Presents Jules Verne: The Father of Science Fiction, Brian Taves, University Press of Kentucky, 2015. Hardback, 370 pages.

This is a detailed look at all the film and TV adaptions of Jules Verne, from silent days up to the time of publication, and from around the world.

It can be a little heavy going at times, but there is a lot of information in here, which would be hard to find elsewhere in one place. Well worth reading.

One photograph, from Ebay

Paul Adams from New Zealand

THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE 1958

 For Looey and everyone!

PRECIOUS JULES: The Vernian Toy Designs of Libuše Niklová

In 2015 I posted an obscure plastic bubble bath toy inspired by Jules Verne's Nautilus. 

 

Peering further into Jules I discovered the designs and oeuvre of Czech Libuše Niklová described as the 'world queen of toys'. She is seen as an icon of accordion-based plastic toy design.

According to Wikipedia the Nautilus was a Vernian toy she designed for Fatra Napajedla in 1966. Niklová designed 3 toys based on Jules Verne’s novels: Nautilus, Albatros [from Robur the Conquerer] and Epouvante [the Terror from Master of the World]

Designed for Expo 1967 in Montreal, Canada, they didn't appear due to the previous Czech regime's politics [they were seen as too Western]. Eventually they got into production, the Nautilus in 1967, The Terror or Epouvante didn't get further than a prototype.

You can read more on the website devoted to this famous Czech designer.

https://www.libuseniklova.com/

There are quite a few video's featuring her work on You Tube like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MktMAQvd518

Here are some pictures of the beautiful blue plastic Libuše Niklová Nautilus from the net. 

Have you got one?

AN ISLAND CRAWLING WITH MYSTERIOUS TOYS

 I've just watched Jules Verne's Mysterious Island the movie from 1961.

I've seen it many times and despite crawling with the giant crabs and hungry rocs there are still a few toy related observations I can make.

One of the high points of the film is the appearance of Herbert Lom's Nemo and his futuristic submarine Nautilus. Nowadays they'd call it steampunk but back in the day when the first Nautilus appeared on the big screen in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, in 1954, a Leeds-based company got in on the underwater action.

Sutcliffe Pressings created the Nautilus tinplate toy, an icon of vintage play and a glint in the eye of most collectors. A beautiful toy pressed in various bright colours, what I hadn't realised was just how close Sutcliffes was to Moonbase. Literally half an hour away in Horsforth, Leeds!

Now the site of a residential car park, the Sutcliffe glory days are sometimes celebrated at the local Horsforth Museum and this is one of their past displays of submarines. You can also read about Sutcliffe's here: Sutcliffe Boats of Horsforth [there's a picture of the toy sub being sprayed in the spray shop!]. Did you own a Sutcliffe?

Watching Mysterious Island again I was also struck by Nemo's wondrous electric rifle and how it completely captured the atomic age vibe of many space rifles. See what I mean ...

There were many toy space guns like it and here's one off the top of my helmet, the sensational Pyrotomic Disintegrator by Pyro. Did you have one of these bad boys?

Can you think of a better space rifle like Nemo's?

The last toy link to the film and one I've blogged before is Ray Harryhausen's giant octopus and its influential suckers.

This large cephalopod slipped into the mind of one Mel Birnkrant back in the Sixties and its tentacles re-appeared in his triumphant Outer Space Men with Colourforms, one of my all time favourite toy figures as a kid.

The octopod of the Men was one Astro-Nautilus, perhaps the only figure of the original series I didn't have. Sadly all my Men have have left the ship but pictures still abound on the net. Here is the Man from Neptune.

Did any one you ever see the Nemo and Nautilus movies at the flicks? Has anyone got any other toys from the two movies?

HOLLOW EARTH ANYONE?

When I was kid I noticed one of the Colourforms Outerspacemen toys was from Hollow Earth. I think it was Mystron from Series II, which I never had. You?

I think the Hollow Earth also appeared in some way in a movie I adored in the Sixties, Journey to the Centre of the Earth. I can see the film's heroes staring out over a vast subterranean ocean, which was a startling image for an impressionable kid. Did you see it?

Recently I was watching another more modern film - I forget which - King Kong v Godzilla? - and the concept of Hollow Earth came up again. Anyone know what I'm on about?

So just what is the Hollow Earth idea? Who is meant to be living down there?

ILKLEY MOOR BOUGHT TAT? NEARLY.

We drove a friend who is staying with us to an old moor spa town today, Ilkley, about an hour and a half away. Besides lovely Christmassy Victorian shop fronts and independent shops there are a handful of charity shops too.

I was immediately drawn to the oldest bit of playful tat in one shop, a Cinderalla wedding cake topper. Its cute clean design reminded me so much of the plastic astronauts sold as cake toppers years ago. I did check the under-carriage for the LP logo! Sadly no logo at all!

It looked something like this but the white carriage was more of a multi-plated Pumpkin than a whole one like this. I didn't buy it as I thought the horses might turn back into mice at midnight! Besides, I don't think golden astronauts could use it on the moon.

In another charity shop my eye was caught by a book I may not have. I used to collect Jules Verne novels especially his fantasy stories. I have loads of them but this may have just eluded the net.

At £4.50 it was too dear for me and I may have it already.

Other than that I didn't see much to grab me. Besides, the winter weather turned bad and we had to leave the Yorkshire spa hills quickly behind for home.

GHOSTS FROM THE DEEP ON VHS

I've been thinking about a big box VHS video I have in storage.

Ghosts from the Deep.

A kids' cartoon from the Seventies.

I remember when I spotted it 20 years ago at a sale thinking I didn't recognise the cartoon.

Here's the cool VHS cover.

Reading this again I realise that its actually a cartoon called The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo.

I still don't remember it but then again I was 14 in 1975 and my eye was firmly on other things I imagine.

I do like the blue submarine though. It has a sort of classic design, which is vaguely familiar.

There's also a Wiki page with all the episodes listed. How many!? Ghosts of the Deep isn't an episode name though. It must be a compilation title for the VHS release.

Its ironic that I still have it on VHS, at one time the only way to see stuff like this but now dead technology whereas now its available whenever you want on the net! 

So in case it might jog your own memory readers here's a clip I found on YT of episode 1.

Know it?

Around the Blog in 80 Toys

A Jules Verne inspired Kinder Surprise toy, of Fogg's famous hot air balloon. Part of a series of three individual toys, the second one being the Nautilus, which ive flagged up previously.

MORE JULES VERNE TOYS

Continuing the Jules Verne theme, here's the Giant Squid from mysterious island released by X-Plus. As soon as I saw it I recognised the other toy connection it has, as the inspiration for Mel Birnkrant's Astro Nautilus from the Colourforms Outer Space Man range [purple squid head, back right].

Hakes

JULES VERNE TOYS

Hi Woodsy,

following your mention of Jules Verne, and there is a good clockwork submarine model of the Nautilus. see above. 

It doesn't get as much of a mention as 20,000 leagues, but he also wrote two books, Robur the Conqueror and Master of the World, which were filmed in 1961 as "Master of the World" with Vincent Price as mad inventor Robur. 

It has a great flying ship, "The Albatross". I would recommend the film, which I think is on YouTube.

All the best
Andy B

JULES VERNE NAUTILUS TOY

I was amazed to see this Nautilus bubble bath toy on a Spanish website! There can't be many Jules Verne collectibles like this can there?