Mystery Lady Kung Fu

 I saw this lady action figure in a cabinet.

Anyone know who she is?

She's got Kung Fu slippers on.

Kung Fu International*: my Custom Jager Kung Fu Doll

Recently I found my old Kung Fu figure header card, which Is archived in a frame with my old Kung Fuey crisp packet from the early 70"s when I was Kung Fu mad.

Alas, the figure I had is long lost in the Shaolin landfill but the header remains and reminded me that it was a cheapo male doll in a karate suit made by Jager [anyone know them?]

So what if I just remade the doll again? 

A few shuriken's later and hey presto! 

I give you my El Cheapo Enterprises Kung Fu figure rack toy with it's nice original header.

 Hi Ya! 

Did you have one of these readers?

I made the suit from a spare and battered 1990's Action Man Hasbro astronaut outfit languishing in the loft. A really rough and ready job, 'cos that's how I remember the figure; rough, ready and cheap. I loved it.

The doll is from my Hong Kong doll stash and suitably basic I thought. The belt is from the Missus's ribbon jar.

I've attached the header with double-sided tape in case I ever want to get it off. Originally it would have been stapled to the bag.

Looking up this figure online, I can only find a blister carded version by the US's Durham toys, with the same graphics however, but appearing in a kimono with a belt rather than a karate suit. 

I recall a suit on mine for some reason but I maybe misremembering. I know I had a life size Karate gi made for me by an aunt, before my Mum bought me a proper one!

I have no idea where A&O is as on the original price tag. Maybe the petrol station where I got my Kung Fu LP at the bottom of our road in Preston in the early 1970's? It cost 55p.

Now where are my nunchucks! 

*

* the title celebrates Salford's great John Cooper Clarke's poem of the same name!

HI YA! OUR CUSTOM MULTIPLE TOYMAKERS KUNG FU TARGET SET DONE!

  I'm pleased to show you our latest team effort readers, a custom Kung Fu Target Set finished.

Here it is booted and suited.

Bill created the fabulous graphics based on the original card by Multiple Toymakers released in 1975. It required some custom artistic licence on Bill's part on the 100 section, as the original was hidden from view and no loose card could be found online so it could be seen.

I had fun sorting out the toys and the blister; the horse and rider were from my bits box and needed a little tinkering; the toy revolver was from the local farmshop and got a lick of paint and a white grip; the target card clasps were plug fuse covers from the DIY box [the target cards were part of the backing card and had to be cut out originally in 1975].

As always the blister was tricky and in the end I used the original blister off the farmshop cowboy set I bought and cut it up to create two suitable shapes to glue down.

Here's a comparison with the the original toy; 1975 on the left and our 2025 custom on the right.

I forgot about the dart! Doh!

Hope you like this latest effort from ..... "Moonbase International"!

Toy Fu 2

I've done a more accurate draft mock-up of my custom Kung Fu Target Set with suitably sized panels like the original by Multiple Toymakers.

Hope you like it.

I picked up a small cowboy gun from the farm shop, shortened the barrel, painted it and glued on a new white grip trim.

The card target holders are old fuse covers painted yellow.

I like the horse and rider the most.

I cut up an old Leeds Film Festival programme for the two mock pictures and title.

The wild boar panel is from Razorback for our Looey, who worked on the film!

Here's a plastic bag over it.

Bill will kindly fettle the card art later this month I'm hoping and then, hi ya!

I seek not to know all the answers but to understand the questions!

TOY FU: RE-CREATING THE MULTIPLE TOYMAKERS KUNG FU TARGET SET

 My next toy project is inspired by various nostalgic neurons firing at all once:-

my memories of the beautiful white plastic horses included in Waddingtons' Battle of the Little Big Horn we had at home in the Sixties. God I adored those horses and figures, that came in that terrific box ....

and then there's the really gorgeous Planet of the Apes Target Set by Multiple Toymakers, which I bought for a very pretty penny at Memorabilia at the NEC around the year 2000 for my toy stall, which sold ... sadly!

With all these horses galloping I thought I'd have a bash at including one in a mock set of my own and settled on something I've always loved, Kung Fu.

So, Master Po, here's the similar Multiple Toymakers Kung Fu Target Set they released to cash in on the fabulous TV series starring the late great David Carradine and summoning my inner chi the toy I'll attempt, without spending more than a fiver, to emulate next!

I started with a loose Britains Deetail horse and a spare tractor driver. They got a little re-shaping, a lick of paint and a PVA glaze to imitate Kwai Chang Caine bareback on his white mare.

With three rough yellow card bases, an ersatz Lugar and dart, I mounted the horse and rider on a mock card and blister to see what I'm dealing with.

I've ordered a cowboy dart gun for £4.49 on Ebay including porto, which I hope is as small as the one Multiple Toymakers used. The yellow card stands need to perfect for this so need further thought, as does a decent dimply blister.

The backing card will be courtesy of Bill's wunderbar graphics skills.

Something a little different and one which taps into my love of the Kung Fu TV series. Did you like the series readers?

Master, watch this space!

[top three images: Worthpoint]

DUNKIN MY MEMORY IN KUNG FU

 I've been basking in nostalgia looking at Dunkin martial arts gum cards  this morning.

I had a small collection as a teenager back in the mid-Seventies.

I so remember the orange packet with the two kickers in front of the Torii gate.

I'm hoping I still have a couple of these cards in my Kung Fu box.

Seeing Bruce Tegner's books took me right back too.

Bruce was an early American pioneer of paperback pugilism. He covered virtually all the martial arts back then between those soft covers and always opted for a distinctive single colour cover like this red Complete Book of Karate.

and the fabulous Aikido Holds and Locks, which I devoured back in the day.

Probably most nostalgic of all for me was seeing these Kung Fu slippers again. Available aplenty still on Amazon no less, I wore mine out as a youngster! 

After seeing Enter The Dragon in the early Seventies aged 13 [yes, an X certificate film!] I had them on all the time in the house and garden and the Wing Chun class I'd joined. So comfy back then, I doubt I could wear them now. I have an excruciating corn, which I have to pamper with padding. I really must deal with it! Hi Ya!

Anyways, happy days back then Kung Fu fighting!

Were you part of the craze readers?

Cost me a Packet

 I dug this JAWS 2 crisp packet up in the 90s near our house. The dog sniffed it out.

I had a big pile of packets and ephemera like this in my old toy stall.

It's old but not as old as my Golden Wonder Kung Fuey snack bag from the early 70s. I scoffed the bacon and mushroom snacks and framed the empty bag at the time.

The packet is displayed with my Jager Toys Kung Fu doll header card. I think it was a simple hollow plastic 12 incher with a basic cotton karate suit and belt.

Sadly the doll walked.

Did or do you have any interesting crisp or snack packets?

JUST WHERE IS MY LOOK-IN KUNG FU MEDALLION?

Finding our old metal star again in the garden in a rare ray of sunshine this month, I just had to throw it at the shed for old time's sake.

Back in the early Seventies I made tons of throwing stars, or shurikens, out of tin cans and loved whizzing them at my parents' wooden fence in the back.

I was a bone fide martial arts nut and devoured the whole scene back then. 

Finding our rusty shuriken has reminded me of another lost treasure that's languishing somewhere in the loft.

It was a free gift with Look-In comic back in May 1974. I was 13 and wanted desperately to be a Shaolin monk like Kwai Chang Caine!

It was the metal Kung Fu dragon medallion, as seen on the comic's fantastic cover.

Somewhere up there is that medallion and cover!

Did you have one too readers?

Kung Fu Dolls From Hong Kong

From Toy-Ventures comes this You Tube video on Kung Fu and other martial arts 12 inch dolls. Mostly Made in Hong Kong. I thought this one would be exactly your cup of tea!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGeaodmiS4U

Anyone got any of these?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

HUMBER AND TRENTING

 The Moonbase Missus and me have just got back from an overnight stay in our new fave town, Barton Upon Humber in North Lincolnshire. An hour away from Moonbase down the M62, its old and pretty enough to keep us both happy and enough charity shops and cafes to make a sound Saturday morning.

 We also went to a Friday night gig, the main reason for going, to see one Nick Harper at the Ropery Hall.

Nick Harper is the son of folk rock legend Roy Harper, as in Hats off to .... by Led Zep. It can't have been easy forging a musical career in such a legendary shadow but Nick, who we only discovered last month, is enough of a songsmith and above all a guitar virtuoso to completely hold his own and being now 58 has done for decades.

Mind-blowingly original in both voice and guitar you can catch up with Nick Harper here. He's playing Birkenhead tonight!

Mr. Harper was ably supported by a fabulous warm-up act, Patrick Duff. Another fabulous singer-songwriter and guitarist, the small Barton crowd were definately blown away with his seasoned talent and incredible set of lungs! As a teenager he was the frontman of indie band Strangelove, compatriots of Britpop founders Suede and hailed as the next big thing before rock 'n' roll took its toll. You can read about Patrick's life here. We bought his biography for a friend.

After a decent kip overnight we hit Barton's church museum and shops this morning, fuelled by coffee and a Lincolnshire sausage butty.

St Peter's Church is a medieval structure now run as a museum by English Heritage. Full of preserved skeletons of dead residents, ample diseased bones, split skulls and burial artefacts from its hundreds of graves, its one of the most dug-up and researched places from the Middle Ages anywhere. Well worth a visit especially if you're a member of English Heritage, its a grounding pile with its many dark spaces like this, the bell tower.

The charity shops were reassuringly full of the living residents of Barton and proved bountiful too. Well at least I thought so. See what you think in the snap below.

The K-Tel 40 Supergreats double album, £1, is in near mint condition, a gift for a mate; the JLA novel collection I'd never seen before and in very good shape for £1 each too; the Dr. Who VHS tapes were a punt to be honest - being from the early 1990's they're not old enough for my own VHS collection but maybe of interest to a buyer on Ebay. £1 each, the double set £3.

There were lots more Dr. Who VHS tapes - should I have got them all? -  and a huge collection of hardback books called the History of Dr. Who, each book sealed in plastic and unopened and probably a part-work. At £3 each they were too rich for my purse. What do you think? 

I also snaffled this Dragon magazine from the hey-day of Kung Fu.

With the great Jimmy Wang Yu on the cover and also the centrefold, I so remember these mags and had them all as a youngster. I still have a quite a few now boxed up with my Inside Kung Fu pile in the attic. Did you have magazines like this as a kid?

I was also tempted by this Starline LP of TV Themes from the 1970's, which included the wonderful Catweazle [was it shown were you are?], the classic Please Sir and the Fenn Street Gang, which I think was a Please Sir spin-off, is that right?

Being by the Pandora Orchestra I didn't succumb as anything might happen once opened!

We then set off and toured down the Humber and its tributary the Trent on the eastern banks around Alkborough. Have you been there?

Alkborough Flats is an ethereal drenching of three rivers meeting in the mud. A primitive place complete with an ancient circular turf maze, Julians Bower.

The land and villages around Barton on the Humber and the Trent all seem ancient. Its like stepping back a few hundred years just being there. Flat vistas, distant rises, red brick hamlets, russet soil, wide long rivers, aged trees and empty lanes all give the area an other-worldly feel..

My final shot is a return to St. Peter's. As soon as aI saw the ladder propped up against a bare medieval wall I thought of that scene in the Stone Tape.

You know the one, where a young girl's ghost lets out a blood-curdling scream as she stands at the top of a set of stone steps next to an ancient bare wall!

BBC

Shown to a snug, festive but unwary British public on Christmas Night 1972, the BBC and Nigel Kneale created one of the scariest TV shows ever made. I had just turned 11 and it frightened the bejeebers out of me, as it did Jane Asher's character pictured below near the dreadful steps to nowhere. I hope the Beeb shows it again this Christmas, do you readers?

BBC

TRAILER KOMBAT

I've just half an hour watching new movie trailers on You Tube. Separation, Shang-Chi. Suicide Squad. Loki. Army of the Dead. In the Earth. The Convent. But the one I liked the most by far was Mortal Kombat. The opening scene between Scorpion and Sub-Zero was fabulous, especially if you're a Kung Fu nut like me!

The original film passed me by in the mid-90's and I don't think I've found any of the action figures at car boot sales, which is strange.

I seem to recall that the figure line was somehow associated with Hasbro's mini GI Joe range. Is that right? I can see the blue guy with the orange hair. or is that Street Fighter? I'm confused.

Anyway, I watched the trailer for the upcoming Shang-Chi, a Kung Fu comic character I adored as a young teenager. I had some of the comics and copied the drawings over and over. I may still have some drawings somewhere, so I was so eager to watch the trailer. 

Damn, I was disappointed. I think I expected Bruce Lee himself to be in it! The last time I read my comics was in the early Seventies when Bruce was still alive! Still, the whole film might be brilliant so I'll just have to wait and see.

Anyways, I then saw the Mortal Kombat trailer. Bam! It did everything the Shang-Chi clip didn't. It excited me and the fight scene was stupendous. The Japanese master Scorpion even uses a variant of one of my all-time favourite weapons, the Kusarigama or rope sickle. Scorpion's weapon is a rope dart or kunai, which the film's director uses to devastating effect. The Kunai is the film is essentially a gardening trowel and the tool was sometimes used by stone masons.

When I was a young Martial Arts nut I made my own Kunai rope darts using bricklayers' line pins - pictured below - which usually came with a ball of handy string too and seeing Scorpion brought it all back, chucking my Kunai against the shed side. Happy Days!

Do you know much about Mortal Kombat?

HI-YA! THE 1975 KUNG FU TARGET SET

Hi Woodsy

Not certain exactly how a target pistol shooting game ties in with Kung Fu but it must be a rarity. Maybe when you get really good you can deflect the projectiles with just a wave of your hand when your kid brother or sister is shooting you.

Regards

Terry H

*

Speaking of similar simians, compare the Multiple Toymakers Kung Fu Target Set with their much earlier Planet of the Apes Target Set from 1967. Looks to me like good old recycling! Woodsy

Have you anything like these sets readers?

WE PLAYED WAR IN THE GARDEN AND DRANK TIZER

Lockdown means I can spend a lot of time in the garden now its Spring. I can't see my Grandkids so I've got to thinking about what I did as a kid lucky enough to have had a garden. It certainly wasn't the gardening that I do now! My Mum and Dad would have done all that boring stuff!

Looking back, like many kids in the Sixties and early Seventies, I spent a good deal of time outside in Spring and Summer. After long winters stuck inside playing with every toy I had to destruction it was great to spread wings wide and get out in the Sixties sun with the family dog Shandy.

What went on outside changed as I got older. As a small nipper I will have stayed near the house taking my toys outside in the garden. I remember playing with Action Man with a mate called Vincent. We would spend hours dressing and re-dressing our 'men'. A favourite of mine was the German Stormtrooper. I still feel the 'click' as the stick grenade pushed into his hand.

Another favourite was the Airfix wonder called Flight Deck. This was basically a flying plane that landed on part of an aircraft carrier. I'd attach the nylon line to the washing line and watch that fighter zoom across the lawn onto the deck, where I think a hook stopped it dead. It was inspired toy by Airfix. Did you have one?

Sometimes we made up outdoor games. Grass slides were fun. We'd slope old planks in between bushes and send tons of grass clippings down them. It was even better with water from the hose. I don't know why but it was just fun. Like farming!

Sometimes I'd geek out and make a ghost train for friends and family to scare themselves silly in. The 'train' was really a group of old doors leant up against a fence to form a tunnel. Victims had to stoop and crawl through it whilst I dangled rubber spiders onto them from holes and made wailing noises. For some reason they always asked for their money back! Just kidding!

Robin, my best mate back then, really did charge for going in his garden. I think it was more his Dad than him. They'd set up various fun fair type stalls like pulling matches from sand and hook a duck and charge a penny for the privilege! I can't remember what happened if you won. Probably a kick up the Arsenal!

Robin and me did everything together. You know what its like with bezzy mates. Besides driving round the streets on our bikes, we played 'kick the can' a lot in the road and as we approached our teens we went up town on a Saturday morning to the Top Rank disco, where we discovered, girls!

I then discovered Bruce Lee. I'd seen Enter the Dragon circa 1973 and I became obsessed. Robin just didn't get 'it' and when I joined a local Wing Chun club it was the final straw and we weren't mates after that. A shame really because the next few years were huge fun with all mates kicking the hell out of each other!

Our garden came into its own during the King Fu craze. It was a big oblong lawn with hedges round and flower beds. It was big enough for decent war games. We mixed things up between large scale western battles, using deckchairs as barricades and wooden rifles sporting gate-bolts and big Samurai skirmishes.

These skirmishes were something else. Armed with bamboo wooden 'swords' we'd attack a sleeping band of enemies, who always woke up in time to give us a decent fight! Proper skin contact was avoided but stick on stick fencing was what we were after, the longer the 'fence' the better! Fatal blows meant falling to the floor and counting to twenty before resuming the fray!

The real ronin action took place when we made Japanese bows and arrows. Somehow it all worked and we even had fancy arrowheads like true Samurai! In reality these where tennis balls so we could feel safe firing them at each other. To gain authenticity we also made armour out of carpet and string chicken wire for the the head and torso. I can still feel the thud of that tennis ball arrow as it hit my chest plate from the other side of the lawn. God, those were good times.

So as I got down to some grown-up gardening and made a veg bed today I threw a surviving shuriken against the shed like I did so long ago when I was 13!

Did you play outside as kids readers?

CASTS OF FURY: BRUCE LEE RESIN FIGURES

Hello Woodsy,
These cast resin figures were on sale in New York's Chinatown last year. They might be an interesting post when delving in Kung Fu again.

Terranova47

USA