PULP ACTION: ACTION MAN AND GI JOE BOOK COVERS

IF you like to see Action Man/ GI joe used on vintage paperback covers like me then you'll like this site:

 https://sciencefictionruminations.com/2013/05/16/adventures-in-science-fiction-cover-art-plastic-toy-spacemen/

The Men from Planet X

There's something poignant about this cover art. I like the way the alien has its eyes half-closed looking down, perhaps lost in thought. The few strokes to create the spaceship have been done well too and I think it looks great.

The alien is clearly influenced by the Man from Planet X movie poster art ( a film I've yet to see. Have you seen it?)

This is one of many of these posters for the film but I'll be honest, I prefer the Spanish rendition above.

The great Mel Birnkrant took his spark from the same movie for his own Man from Pluto, Electron+, one of the fabulous Colourforms Outerspacemen, which I had as a kid circa 1967..

Here's Mel's own mint carded Electron+.

Those Colorforms backing cards where a thing of beauty, perhaps the best backing cards of all time I would say!

Still, there's always room for more Planet X Men.

Here's Geometric Designs limited edition resin kit.

Have you any men from X readers? 

TAKE COVER

 Spotting more toys on CD covers this time. here's a nice pair of LEMS/ Anyone know the make?

Not sure of this donut station is a toy but I like it! My Mum and Dad had ashtrays that looked just it back in the Sixties!

COVER STORY

Like books, LP covers are a fab store of vintage toys and props. There are hundreds on the net. We've covered a few before on MC over the years and here's a few covers more. Enjoy.

I love this Pink and Perky car. Is that a toy or a prop?

I always liked Burl Ives' snowman but that flying Santa and Reindeer rings a bell. Is it a toy version?

Which Action Man uniform is that?

That's one cool Nova rocket. Do you think they made it for the cover?

I think this is 1955. So what's that gorgeous Fire Engine? Anyone know?

This robot looks familiar. What is it?

Lovely robot collage. What is that bot?

Good Night? Good grief! What can I say! I thought Candy and Andy was bad!

Last but not least is this LP from my youth. It belonged to my older Bruvv. But what is that giraffe? A toy?

Do you know of any old toys on LP covers?

PS. Mentioned in Kev's comment, BBC Space Themes.

ARTHUR'S PROMETHEUS AND THE OX WING

I was blown away by this cover art for Arthur C. Clarke's Prelude to Space from the 1950's. 

Just look at that ship! Its basically a set of super wings!

Don't know the artist but that huge jet-tipped hyper wing totally reminds me of the wings of our fave Century 21 space plane, the Zero-X!

Check it out! 

Below is Imai's plastic wing from their vintage OX Mars Explorer set. 

Its a dead-ringer! What do you think?

Clarke's amazing lunar plane is called Prometheus and predates the Apollo programme by over a decade. 

Prometheus is made up of two sections, Beta and Alpha, and flies to the moon and back in a certain way involving separation.

The novel, Clarke's first, written in 1947 and published 1951, concerns Dirk, a journalist for Interplanetary , who is sent to England and Australia because ...

 'The world's first lunar spacecraft is about to launch. The ship, Prometheus, is built from two separate components -- one designed to travel from Earth's atmosphere to the Moon and back, and the other to carry the first component through Earth's atmosphere and into orbit.'

Wiki describes the Prometheus' separation manoeuvre thus:

 'Beta is a nuclear-powered flying wing which carries Alpha into orbit .... Alpha separates from Beta' 

[above is an extract from a fuller description here]

This could almost be a description of the Zero-X uncoupling from its wing units in space, which we can clearly see in the movie Thunderbirds Are Go 

[courtesy of You Tube]!

Later editions of the book gave Prometheus a chromed finish 

but I still prefer the early cover art with the mega wing!

What about you?

SIMILAR SYNDIC SYNCHRONICITY

Browsing Pinterest I came across The Syndic by CM Kornbluth on Jim Potter's fab pages. Its a book I know not and have never seen the various book covers before. Have you readers?

The cover that caught my eye first was this red one with these two classy modelling mannequins.

I like how the modeller has given them a sort of Star Trek look.

They are made from wooden mannequins like this one universally available. I made a similar sci-fi figure using one a few years back for Wotan's birthday. I made it to look like a Micronaut.

I can't help thinking there's a similarity between the gold head of the model and this Herbert Lom headed robot from the horror film Asylum! or am I seeing things again!

This next copy of The Syndic rang another bell. I would say that the furious soldier on the cover has been more or less lifted from .....

... Warren's Blazing Combat issue number 1, a Frank Frazetta cover I always loved and stared at for ages when I saw it in the pages of Creepy and Eerie. Alas I never got a copy.

What do you think?

My final Syndic is probably its original publication, as a story on Science Fiction Adventures from 1953.

There's just something Thunderbird 5'ish about that antenna sticking out of a space dome. And that looks like a small red Fireball XL5 zooming out of the exit shaft.

What do you reckon?

Have you read the Syndic?

CURTIS COVERS: MORE JOE

Continuing my peek at GI Joe/ Action Man's other job, posing for Curtis Books, here we have him modelling his runabout, the Space Capsule, on When Two Worlds Meet.

The scale of the figure and the spacecraft seems out to me. What do you think?

CURTIS TOY COVER SUNDAY: MONTE CRISTO #99

A controlled murderous solar system!

I don't think this is an Action Man/GI Joe but rather a model kit of an astronaut although I'm unsure which.

Curtis really did like to use toys and models on their book covers! Probably nabbed off the photographer's son!

Anyone recognise the astronaut?

PS.

Is he the same as this one from 1969?

MYSTERY SPACESHIP ON THE IMPOSSIBLE WORLD

Taking a detour from Action Man covers for a day here's another old Curtis Books cover of interest. Maybe!

The Impossible World.

It shows a silver spaceship of sorts bristling with arrays and solar panels.

Knowing that Curtis liked to photograph toys and models for their covers I was wondering if this was a model.

Does anyone know?

ACTION MAN GI JOE CURTIS COVER 4

Yet another Action Man GI Joe cover from Curtis Books! They really made our plastic spaceman work for his oxygen that day. This is the 4th cover and we haven't finished yet!

Is that a different pose to the other covers I see?

ACTION MAN GI JOE BOOK COVERS 3

This third Curtis Books cover appears to have used the same GI Joe Action Man Astronaut image as the last one.

I think they've just flipped it vertically and given it a different foreground.

The object to the side is now clearly visible as a Nova-like rocket, which I assume is a model kit, although I don't know which one. You?

More Curtis covers coming.

GI JOE ACTION MAN BOOK COVERS 2

Here's another old Curtis Books cover using our articulated friend in his astronaut suit.

I hope they paid him!

Not sure what the thingy is next to him.

The figure's pose looks like it was from the same shoot as the last Curtis cover I blogged. Do you agree?

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2019/04/action-man-gi-joe-book-covers-1.html

More covers to come.

PHANTOM FIGURES FROM FILMS

Fans of Colourforms Outer Space Men will recognise Electron+, The Man from Pluto.

[pic:MCWToys]

Toy creator Mel Birnkrant's inspiration came from the movie The Man from Planet X [1951].

Mel's genius for absorbing older fantasy and sci-fi references into his Outer Space Men has always fascinated me.

I often wonder which other films influenced space figure toys?

To get the ball rolling here's one I'm throwing in the ring.

See the red helmeted guy in this poster for Phantom From Space [1953].....

.... well check out this action figure, a Gi Joe miniature Deep Sea Diver!

What do you think?

Have you any ideas?

R IS FOR ROCKET AND TWO TOY ASTRONAUTS

Always on the lookout for vintage toys on book covers, here's one.

Two spacemen on the front of Ray Bradbury's R is for Rocket.

Are they toy figures readers?

Anyone read the book? I saw this on an auction site.

BILL B'S AURORA FANZINE

Years ago Bill B posted this fabulous image he'd made at his Mars Base home.

Its remained one of my favourite creations on the blog, capturing brilliantly what a SWORD/ Spacex - based magazine cover could look like.

Nice one Bill.

A SPACEX NOVA ROCKET TOY FREE WITH A BOOK?

About ten years ago I got an old paperback copy of Michael Moorcock's The Back Corridor.

Its the one with the SpaceX Nova Rocket cover [plus another SpaceX bit].

I saw my own Nova rocket and thought ...hmmm.. what if the book had come with a free Nova!

Here are two shots I took of my book and toy together.

This one has the Nova set at the same angle as the cover photo.

This one has the toy in situ for a potential freebie offer!

Have you got any ideas for vintage toys that should come free with books? Maybe books with toys on their covers!

Here's another one, The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction 19th Series, I've just seen on an auction featuring a mini Colossus Rex from the Outer Space Men universe, who appears on the cover as well.

picture: GBS4783QXQ

*

Pictures of your pairings please!

PUZZLE OF THE SPACE PYRAMIDS TOY ASTRONAUT?

I saw this old book cover on Amazon:

Puzzle of the Space Pyramids.

Its not a very high res picture sorry but the space chappie on the front looks like my old Action Man astronaut.

Or it could be a Blue Box or Redbox clone [more on these later!].

What do you think?

COLLECTING HORROR AT CHRISTMAS

Well, our good friend has gone home today after visiting for a week of pre-festive fun. She'll be nearly home now. The Missus took her to the airport early doors.

Our friend's departure coincides with the third Sunday of the month, the third Sunday of Advent and marks the start of the final full week before the Big Day itself on the 25th.

I still haven't written any Christmas cards but I hope to do that today now we're at a loose end. We have trimmed up though and Blue and me are currently staring at that most magical of all Yuletide symbols, the decorated tree.

In the past around this time I would have bought myself something online, usually to do with Project SWORD, to be opened after Christmas when the season's lustre had waned. 

The one remaining SWORD toy I need is too expensive for me to buy now so I have treated myself to something much more modest, a book about collecting horror novels called Paperbacks from Hell.

Do you treat yourself at Christmas like this? Is it normal?

Anyway I've been collecting horror novels for years and have loads of them in the attic. There are many variations of the classics like Dracula and Frankenstein and also some very unusual paperbacks like the two Famous Monsters of Filmland books. One of my personal favourites is a first edition hardback copy of Hell House, the story which inspired the 70's horror movie The Legend of Hell House starring Galen himself, Roddy McDowell.

Another favourite is the rather startling cover on More Tales of Unease depicting a young girl carrying a teddy and wearing a hideous witch mask.

I haven't been able to find that mask on any Don Post mask reference guides or any other masks online so maybe it was custom made? Anyone know any more about the mask or the cover?

here's close-up of the mask.

It will be fun to see if this and my other horror novels are included in Paperbacks from Hell but they may well not be as so many different books have been published over the decades. I shall find out after Christmas when the mince pies are mere crumbs and the kids have gone home.

In the meantime I'm looking forward to any decent creepy plays on the radio and ghost stories on the telly over the festive season. I'll get a Radio Times to see what's on. I also love the small woodcut drawings that the magazine uses as fillers at Christmas if you know what I mean. I hope they still do them.

I listened to a radio fantasy this week as I drove home from work. I enjoyed it a great deal and has whetted my appetite for more. It was Radio 4's two-part afternoon play The Winter Queen.

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001hjy

I also caught the fag end of Inside No.9's latest TV offering, The Devil of Christmas https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b086zcd6 . It features Krampus no less, that European ogre in charge of the Naughty List and an ancient continental myth seemingly on the rise in the English-speaking world as well. 

The team behind Inside No.9 are real fans of classic horror and this shines through all of their stuff going right back to A League of Gentlemen. I've always enjoyed spotting the many homages and film references spattered throughout their programmes, so I was chuffed spotting one at the end of The Devil of Christmas, a reference to one of my favourite classic horror anthologies, The House That Dripped Blood no less. More specifically it was from the first segment, about a novelist's possession, starring Denholm Elliott, a segment called A Method for Murder.

Towards its climax the villain of the story utters its unsettling punchline: "Richard? I don't know anybody called Richard. My name is Dominick". 

Here's Dominick, the handsome devil.

This line is echoed at the Snuff-like and rather gruesome end of the Inside No.9 show and I plan to watch the whole Christmas episode on catch-up when I get chance.

Christmas is also a time for more subtle fayre like ghost stories and the BBC once had a fine tradition of airing one for the season. These Ghost Stories for Christmas became classics of the genre and are loved by creepy fans like me everywhere. Maybe you like them too readers?

Perhaps its most famous story was Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad, which was aired in 1967 starring the irreplaceable Michael Horden as the doomed Professor.

So taken was I with this TV play when I saw it for the first time many many years later that it sparked in me a real love of folk horror, which prevails to this day. So when I got the chance to visit the locations used in the play this summer I jumped at the chance. They whistled you might say.

What I found will be the subject of another post.

MOONBASE MINDWORM

I saw this old book online again this week

We featured it years ago on the blog as part of a toys on covers theme.

Its the word Mindworm that caught my eye this time.

I think I have one.

A mindworm.

I just can't get it out of my head.

It's something Moonbase Junior and me watch and listen to on You Tube.

Who took the candy from the Halloween bag!

See what you think.

I sympathise.

No moooooooooooooooooooooooooooore!

Have you a mindworm?

SPANISH BOOSTER ROCKET

A beautiful rendition of the Booster Rocket on this Spanish paperback cover AGENTE ESPACIAL No.1.

Do you like it?