Galaxy 59

 

I love this Galaxy 59 cover art. Not sure who the artist is. The dark, light and shadowing is fabulous.

The spacecraft looks so familiar but I just can't put my finger on it.

You?

Horrible Histories: Freebie Skeletons

 After my true Halloween nightmare, a visit the the dentists this morning ( I had to ask for more numbing!)  I bobbed into the Posties to mail a congrats card to our nephew who has just had some good news.

Waiting in the queue I noticed the Horrible Histories magazine and ..... bam!

The free gift skeleton pen took me straight back to being a kid, buying gags and toys from Ellisdons of Liverpool.

It's not that it's a pen, it's because it's very similar to the plastic restless skeleton I had, a smaller magnetic scalliwag that just couldn't rest in its plastic coffin. It was superb and I adored it, now sorrowfully missing in traction.

There are very few pictures online of the restless skeleton but the, sadly, now dormant Cobwebbed Room ( what a fab site!) features these three scans, which I have reposted here (hopefully the Cobwebbed owner doesn't mind).

Similarly another Horrible Histories mag freebie, in the superb Victorian Gravedigger Set, gave me a thrill too. 

It's the skeleton with dangly ring joints! I had one of those! I think it was a key ring as well. Oh my, how I loved my skeletons back then.

Did you have either of these or any other skeletons in the cupboard readers?

Will's Boys Own

Hi Woodsy

Still clearing mum’s house, found some old Boys Own’s . Thought the covers on these ones were nice. 

Anyone got any others?

Will O.

CHILD LIFE 1979

 

I've never heard of this magazine before, Child Life. You?

I saw it on auction last year I think and saved the snaps for MC. This 1979 edition features Battlestar Galactica on the cover and inside.

Tri-ang Magazine 1964-65

A number of toy and model companies have produced a tie-in magazine to promote their products; or an outside publisher has launched a magazine carrying a famous, and well-established, brand name. 

Meccano Magazine (promoting Meccano engineering sets, Hornby model railways, and Dinky Toys) was launched in 1916; and Airfix Magazine (promoting Airfix plastic kits, model railways, and later slot cars) followed in 1960.

There was also a magazine carrying the Tri-ang name, but this only lasted for ten issues, between October 1964 and July 1965. It was published by Outward Publications Limited, on the fourth Thursday of each month, and sold for 1/6 (one shilling and sixpence, or 7 1/2 New Pence in post-1971 decimal currency).

It was available from newsagents, and also toy shops, or by subscription. Very few copies appear to have survived the decades, at least judging by the lack of sales listings on-line.

A feature of the magazine was a double-page centrefold - a bit like the Eagle cut-aways, but not as detailed, and only in black and white. Only the front and back covers appear to have been in colour.

These pages show the front covers of all ten issues. The magazine covered a wide range of subjects, and was clearly aimed at boys.

https://tri-ang.co.uk/OONew/indMaG.htm

https://tri-ang.weebly.com/tri-ang-magazine.html

The Editor was Douglas McHard. According to this article he had previously worked for Meccano.

https://www.maronline.org.uk/doug-mchard-and-the-somerville-bus/

Lines Brothers acquired Meccano in 1964, and soon set about merging various aspects of the two companies, to avoid duplication. Tri-ang Railways and Hornby Dublo became Tri-ang Hornby in 1965.

This also meant the end of Tri-ang Magazine, with the July 1965 issue. The August 1965 issue of Meccano Magazine announced that there was now just 'one BIG monthly hobby journal - The Meccano Magazine'.

The editorial stated that the black and white centrefolds had been one of the most popular features of the Tri-ang Magazine. It appeared to imply that the centrefolds would continue – or is that just my reading ?

In the event the centrefold in the August issue, depicting the Apollo Saturn C.5 rocket, was the only one to appear in Meccano Magazine. Obviously just using up a piece of artwork that had already been paid for.

This issue of Meccano Magazine can be found on the excellent Internet Archive site. Unfortunately, they do not have any copies of the Tri-ang Magazine.

https://archive.org/details/meccano-magazine-1965-08/mode/2up

Paul Adams from New Zealand

THE LAND OF NOD

 

I love this cover art on Nod, the gaming magazine issue 34 that I saw online.

It recalls the fantastic work of Kay Nielson, such as his Norwegian mythos and the Lad in the Battle, 1914.

How cool is that?

Santa on Mars

 

Could it ever happen, Christmas on Mars?

The Greatest Catch of All Time

 I saw this fabulous framed print in a Kingsbridge charity shop this week. I wish I'd have got it now! 

I was immediately drawn to it because it reminded me of series of Aurora kits that fascinated me since first seeing them in Rick Polizzi's Classic Plastic book, Great Moments in Sport, the box art of which is simply stunning and includes boxing, football and baseball.

My favourite is Willie Mays

 Famous baseball Catch, a beautiful illustration.

I got to wondering if they they were the same artist of both the print and the box art?

After some digging, sadly they're not but they are both very well-known American artists in their own right.

The top framed print is by the late Frank McCarthy. I found the same image in an old fictional story, the Take-Charge Guy, from a May 1952 Colliers magazine online. Looks like they issued prints of it judging by what I saw in Kingsbridge. I don't know if the play shown is fictitious. Do you?

The Aurora box artist on the other hand was Mort Kunstler, who is still around and creating art. From what I can see online no prints of the Willie Mays painting are available, which is a shame.

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153593459825036&vanity=mortkunstler

Willie May's incredible move is known simply as The Catch and is widely seen as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, baseball catch of all time.

Here it is in real life, an amazing shot borrowed from Wikipedia, showing The Catch for the New York Giants, New York, 1954.

Have you got any baseball art or collectables or even the Aurora sports kits readers? 

PROTECT AND SURVIVE MONTHLY SPACE FERRY COVER

I adore this magazine cover from 1981. Smack in the cold war it's got that ace space station and the super cool space shuttle, that's so reminiscent of the Nuclear Ferry front taxi.

Can you read the artist's name?

Do you like it?

2001 IN 1967

There's a great article on 2001 Space Odyssey in the Popular Mechanics magazine from April 1967. Have a read.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wNMDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA109&dq=%22moon+base%22+popular+mechanics&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJnfviq978AhXbgVwKHSqXB6MQ6AF6BAgMEAI#v=onepage&q&f=false

THE BIGGEST POSTER IN THE WORLD

Wow, look what you could get on page 190 from Popular Mechanics magazine July 1967! I would have given away my spare Action Man for that Saturn V poster!

Did you get one?

WILL'S MODERN WONDERS

Having a sort out at my mums, I came across these modern wonder comics of my fathers from the late 1930s. I just love the futuristic / retro designs of the vehicles. 

Will O.

UK

What do you think?

SOAR POINT

I love this magazine cover from 1963 I saw online.

Space World with the Dyna Soar.

The Dyna Soar was released as a toy in 1967 by Century 21 Toys as part of the Project SWORD range.

Coincidentally SPACE WORLD is the first part of what SWORD stands for, SPACE WORLD ORGANISATION FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT!

Have you got a Dyna Soar toy?

PAUL'S GOT IT COVERED!

When I got home yesterday there was a notification that the December 2023 issue of Diecast Collector is now out in Britain.

I have two shorter articles in it and I have also made the cover!

The Matchbox Bedford Duple Luxury Coach from the 1950s is from my article. Yes, very pleased about that!

Picture: Diecast Collector

Paul Adams

New Zealand

RINKY DINKY

 Just been looking at some old Meccano magazines from the mid-1960's. The Dinky ads on the back pages are great! See what you think.

THE GOGOS GORGO: ITS GORGO-EOUS!

We end our Gorgo week with the most Famous of all Gorgo portraits, the one and only 1961 Famous Monsters of Filmland cover by the mega-talented Basil Gogos [1929 –  2017].

Does it get any better than this!

Between the cover artist talents of James Bama at Aurora and Basil Gogos at Famous Monsters the monster craze was a dead cert, especially with the late great Forry Ackerman kicking it all off.

Do you prefer Bama or Gogos?

Here's the Gorgo spread in Famous Monsters.

ZEITGEIST

I've just got back from a close family funeral overseas in Germany. 

Its been a trying week for the family but we sent my wife's father off with quiet dignity, now resting with his own beloved in a peaceful Friedhof in the Ruhr valley with a glimpse of the church spire under which they got married in in the 1950's across the city fields.

Thank you very much for your words of support readers. It meant a lot at a difficult time.

*

As you'll appreciate there wasn't much time for toys and collectables, although there was some much needed relief now and then from the business of bereavement.

The local Bahnhof bookshop is always interesting and captures the Zeitgeist. There is a avid readership of magazines and comics in Germany and the store reflects this.

Lots of mid-sized pulps covering horror, cowboys and romance, all produced in the country and all long established titles.

Modelling is popular and the two stand-out magazines on the shelf were Modell Panorama ..

... and ModellFan.

There used to be German toy collecting magazines but I couldn't see any anymore. Car Booting/ Flea Marketing is popular and that hobby still has its own magazines.

I was well impressed with the range of home-grown horror comics still being published like Horror Schocker and Feral. I'm unsure f there are any modern horror comics being published in the UK. What about your neck of the woods readers?

Phantom was there too and all had quite wonderful artwork.

These were in the wider Youth section of publications. You can see Pokemon and Genshin.

Marvel, DC and Star Wars are always popular too.

I didn't buy any comics or magazines. They are, like here in the UK, all quite dear and to be honest I have stacks of comics, mags and pulps in the attic.

This old red Feuerwehr Wagen in an antique shop window caught my eye too. Dated 1935 it looks to be home-made to me and an excellent job some old Opa has done too!

My late Father-in-Law would have liked it. The handiwork and perseverance would have appealed to him, attributes that helped him survive the horror of World War Two as a young boy evacuee on a farm in Munster.

Finally in this post here's a small item I did actually buy in a Charity shop, as a gift for a German friend who collects small wooden games.

Having Google Lensed it, this one is called Crazy Fours and there are 14,000 possible combination of colours using the multi-coloured dice. Just the green face is shown here. Beyond that I'm unsure how you play it but my friend seemed pleased!

There were a few more purchases whilst abroad and I shall blog them later.

Till then, auf wiedersehen.

SEASTAR 5: TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!

Hi Moonbase, just a quick update for you.....my project storybook on Amazon Kindle ....has just received a helping hand on a magazine " INFINITY MAGAZINE " in the UK.....its a Retro Film and Tv monthly - issue 59.....on sale today at all W H Smith's stores across the country....I have a full colour poster of SEASTAR 5 on the Rear cover....and a write up and colour pictures on their "News Editorial" section in the magazine!

More to come,

Richard Dixon

Lancashire 

UK

THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH AND FRIENDS

 I was a monster nut as a kid.

My Brothers too.

The house was full of monster mags like Creepy and Eerie.

There were are also Warren's horror Photo-Story mags.

I remember them so well and I may have battered copies in the attic.

The internet saves the day again and here are the two classic covers.

The Mole People 1964 narrating the black and white B-movie of the same name from 1956.

The Horror of Party Beach based on the film of the same name from 1964. This magazine scared me to death as a kid. The film, which I've never seen, is meant to be rubbish!

Then there is Curse of the Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula, two classic horror movies given the black and white stills treatment too.

These photo-books or photo-stories are also known as Fumetti, which is news to me. oddly enough none of them are listed on Wikip's listing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_comics

Did you have any of these readers or any other Foto-comics or books?

WILL'S TOYS INTERNATIONAL SUMMER OF '69: MORE!

Some more ads from Toys International July 1969. You may have seen them before but I thought I’d send them anyway. Enjoy.

Will O

UK