Aces In Action Lenticular Cereals Cards

Hi Woodsy,

Here is another set of Lenticular cards from packets of breakfast cereal. This time from Nabisco Spoon Size Shredded Wheat.

From 1980 (40th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain), the 'Aces in Action' Magic Picture Cards. A set of five cards depicting famous RAF fighter aces shooting down enemy aircraft in the Battle of Britain.

Each card shows the action in three stages. Honestly, the images are not great, and the aircraft are not well drawn, but a very interesting set.

This You Tube video from Cerealmad shows all five cards, as well as the front and back of the boxes. The back of the packet even had a mail-away offer for two Airfix kits.

For £2, plus two box tops, and 60 New Pence postage, you got a Spitfire and a Messerschmitt Bf-109. The offer closed 31st December 1980.

The kits are described as the 1/48th scale Airfix Spitfire Mk.Vb, and the Messerschmitt Bf-109E. but Airfix did not do a Bf-109E in 1/48th scale at that time, only a Bf-109F – both this and the Spitfire Mk.Vb were far too late for the Battle of Britain.

Both the Spitfire Mk.Vb and the Bf-109E were available in 1/72nd scale, so something is amiss. Does anyone have any further information on this mail-away offer ?

The advertisement says 2 Models for Only £2, Save £1. This does indeed suggest the 1/48th scale kits, which were in Series 4, rather than the cheaper 1/72nd scale models which were in Series 2.

But neither of the 1/48th scale kits depicted aircraft from the Battle of Britain era, as both the Spitfire Mk.Vb and Bf-109F entered service in 1941. I have no idea what sort of packaging the mail-away kits came in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX-_W2dGGR4

Paul Adams from New Zealand

LIGHT UP THE CLOWN! WATCHING MY CORGI LINCOLN CONTINENTAL TV

 I adored my Corgi Lincoln Continental die-cast as a kid in the 60's.

Everything about it was just the best. The atom symbol on the rear window frames were just fantastic.

The bestest of all though was the TV screen at the back! Yes!

Mine was the clown picture - at least that's the one I remember [I must have had them all though!]. 

You could illuminate the lenticular picture and I would have loved to have sat in the back and watched it as a little Woodsy!

I liked my own 'clown' TV screen so much that I melded it into a radio story about ten years ago called Sarge, which was brilliantly produced and aired by Bill Everett and Dave Carrington over at Celtica Radio [were you a listener?]

Looking further into that TV screen I thought I'd change channels and see what the six pictures were in the Corgi Continental.

Despite reading they were everywhere on the net, I found finding pictures of the whole lenticular strip of six not easy to find.

Here's what I did find, courtesy of Ebay, Worthpointt, various auctions and Planet Diecast.

Here you can see the uncut strip of five mini TV screens resting on the front blister plinth, with one already in the rear of the car; the boxers.

All six were: clown, racing car, Mexican [or is it a US General?], rocket, galleon and boxers.

Here's a similar strip placed in the screen aperture [Image: Planet Diecast]. Again, the boxer is in the hole.

Here are three of the screens cut from the strip; boxers, rocket and Mexican/ US General.

The best thing though is seeing the screens in situ and ideally illuminated as they were meant to be seen when we were nippers.

Which was your favourite?

Clown [my own fave!]

Rocket

Racing Car

Boxers

I've been unable to find any images of the galleon or the Mexican/ US General in the TV screens. Can you help?

My final shot was one I saw on auction recently and captures for me the fabulous simplicity of play;

some of the TV screens cut and stowed in the boot of the car!

How cool is that!

Is this a car that you had? Which lenticular screen was in your TV?

Do you have all my six Sisters?

We've spoken about 3D pictures on MC before. Chiefly the ace reliefs offered by toy masters Eldon.

Here's Kresge's vintage 3D offer, the Six Sisters! Talk about creepy D.

Do you remember anyone having this 'sister' on the wall?

I assume the doll could be removed from the frame to be played with.

Can you think of any more 3D pictures?

A FLICKER OF RECOGNITION

 There's loads of lenticular cards online. Lots on auctions. Here's a typical space one involving a LEM and a capsule.

These are obviously models but how have the makers achieved the fabulous glowing exhaust effect?

This card is part of the MOON LANDING series of 3D cards. Some other lenticular lines are associated with Major Matt Mason no less!

My own childhood included flicker rings and mini TV's, which were a similar 3D technology. Do you like these lenticular cards? Do you have any?

SATURN V ROLL-OUT IN LENTICULAR AND MINIATURE FAKING STYLES

My good friend Arto recently donated this lenticular postcard of the Saturn V roll-out to the Moonbase collection. Its the one on the left. On the right is the original Bob McCall painting of the roll-out, which was used for the Project SWORD Cape Kennedy Set box top.

The content of the lenticular card fascinates Arto and me. We are convinced that its a model. It certainly isn't the Project SWORD toy that's been used. So who made the model and where is it now?

To get my head around lenticularisation of images, I have turned to a modern field wholly new to me, miniature faking, a technique whereby the content of normal images is made to look like a model. The makers of the Roll-out card in the Sixties couldn't have done this but it might be interesting for me to do now because I can't lenticularise!

Using the free facility on a miniature faking site I have 'faked' two old NASA photographs of Saturn V's roll-out. One of them actually has cars and a helicopter like the McCall and lenticular images above. Here they are. What do you think?

Below are the two original NASA images that I used.

Any thoughts readers?

WHAT'S NEW?

What's new in your collection readers? A new toy? A new comic? A new DVD?

My collecting has slowed to a snail's pace but I did receive this lovely lenticular postcard depicting the front of the Project SWORD Cape Kennedy Set [thanks Arto!]. Its the picture to the left. The right picture is the SWORD Cape set box art. Gorgeous model on the postcard!!

POST SCRIPT:

Tony K's new Sky Ray Moon Fleet Badge!

CAPE KENNEDY SET LENTICULAR POSTCARD

Hey Woodsy

Don't know if you've seen this? I found it on ebay. It is a 4 x 5 lenticular postcard from Japan, mid 60s. Very, very fine lens, extremely detailed. Thought you might get a kick out of it. Here it is side by side with Bob McCall's artwork. It looks like someone actually built a toy/model to stage the exact image in his painting. It could just be a very, very realistic painting, but it looks like a toy or maquette of some kind.

Cheers

Rob Godwin

Canada

Woodsy says: Amazing! is it really a model? For more of these lenticular cards then check out John Sisson's fab Dreams of Space blog.