L'IL SHADO 2

I see this Lil Playmates Commander toy vehicle all the time online. Its from 1984.

Would you agree its likely to have been influenced by either the Dinky SHADO 2 vehicle or Matchbox Adventure 2000 die-casts?

SENSOPOLIS!

This amazing spaceship is part of Sensopolis!

You can read about it here! https://theelusivefamily.com/sensapolis-germany-largest-kids-indoor-playground/

WAITING FOR PREY

Me and Moonbase Junior love spiders.

We call them Spider Brains. Anything they leave behind we call Spider Guts.

Spider Brains are divided into Thinnies and Fatties. 

Thinnies have taken over most houses here in Northern England I reckon. They've eaten all the old fashioned house spiders, the Fatties.

Thinnies rule the house and preside from high corners.

Apparently they have terrible venom but don't bite people!

Fatties are rarer. Usurped.

We look for them in the garden and using a torch ...

the shed!

This big fatty was sat on his web in the corner of our old shed. I've no idea what he or she eats since there are no other insects in there!

Their patience in waiting for food reminds of those other stoics of nature, the Venus Fly Trap.

These were dead popular when I was a kid. I was fascinated by them. I remember feeding mine bits of meat like sausage and liver! I think I made mine ill.

I doubt this stimulated its carnivory as they eat only live insects. Movement is part of the dance, the twitches of death!

Despite garden centres being choc-ful of Fly Traps they are endangered in the wilds of Carolina.

Native American Indians knew them as Tippitywitch. What a brilliant name!

I've been reading that the closed trap forms a hermetic seal and becomes a small stomach, where the doomed flies are blended. Yuk! Just the kind of stuff I loved as kid!

This just has to have been the inspiration for Sarlac's pit in Star wars do you think?

The Fly-trap is deffo the inspiration for Mickey Rourke's tyrant king's helmet in the film the Immortals do you reckon?

So, did you like spiders, insects and Venus Fly Traps as a kid readers?

What's the worst creepy crawly in your neck of the woods?

PROTECTING THE EGGS

Yesterday's playing involved dinosaurs too!

Missus Moonbase had hydrated some water balls last week and they made fantastic ....

dinosaur eggs!

Junior looked on in admiration just like all the dinosaurs!

In their true colours you can see how glossy they are. Talk about slippy!

We'll let the balls dry out now ready for next time we need to rehydrate them.

Maybe we should all do that for 3 months.

Dry out and then rehydrate!

Pretend Choo-Choos

I just had a thought. 

Did you as a kid go round the house like a steam train?

What I mean is did you chug slowly round the place making a shunting noise and pistoning your arms like I did with the occasional choo-choo?

What I wanted was for friends and family to join me at the rear themselves chugging and pistoning in unison. The more chuggers the better the train and the better the fun!

I can imagine that this human train would work brilliantly in the school playground but I can't get past Cowboys and Indians in my memories of that feature of my schooldays.

Did you chug round the house?

When Did You Stop Playing?

Talking to modern High School kids reveals that the Christmas presents of choice this year will be laptops, Xboxes and computer games. There isn't much play value in these, not in the way me and my mates would have played with toys like Major Matt Mason and Crossfire. But I suppose High School kids aged 11-16 are too old for toys.


Being in my 50's now I am struggling to remember anything when I stopped playing with toys. I'm assuming it was around the age of 10. When did you stop playing?

Me in our old Preston garden circa 1967.

Playing with the washing line pole. Note the nobbley Knees and basin haircut!