Philip's Cake Topper Space Diorama via Paul V

Paul,

My name is Phillip Gore and I live in Trussville, AL (USA). I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed viewing the Triang Spacex website that you helped put together. I just found this site a few weeks ago when I started looking for information on the LP Hong Kong 1"(30mm) Spacemen figures and Mercury Capsule. Like probably a lot of middle aged male adults, I had these toys as a very young boy. I still recall the great times I had playing with them and the great memories they brought.

I recently was fortunate enough to purchase an old "Cake Topper Space Exploration" set on eBay for the very low price of $17.00 dollars (US). I was originally buying the set for the blue LP Mercury Capsule and had no interest in the other pieces that came with it. I was very surprised and extremely pleased when I saw the set also included three of the 1"(30mm) Spacemen! They were in white plastic with a good bit of flash on them so that is probably why I could not make them out from the eBay photos.

Anyway, I decided to rework the Spacemen and Mercury Capsule and put them in a lunar landscape diorama. I am a plastic model builder so it was easy to make the upgrade. I wanted to share what I have done with you. Attached are photos of the parts and final display. The modifications made are listed below:

Spacemen: trimmed off plastic flash and added a new paint job

Mercury Capsule: Added new wheels and axle, added hands and paint job to pilot, filled in and sanded/reshaped nose cone section, sanded away glue buildup on heat shield/retro rocket package, drilled rocket nozzle openings, repainted interior black and exterior blue

I hope you enjoy the photos. Thanks again and take care.

Phillip Gore

USA

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Kindly forwarded by Paul Vreede

Monkey Business

I spotted this statue in a Brussels antique market. And can't rid myself of the impression it's from/for Planet Of The Apes. Can you see what I mean? :)

Paul V

Tender and Transporter: Two Missing SpaceX Toys' Custom Images and Models

Hi Woodsy,

The very first thing I did with AI when it became available was try and have it generate realistic images of the Spacex Crash Tender and Rocket Transporter. With utterly useless results!

Seeing Bill Everatt's images (on MC) prompted me to have another go. Fed some images and info into chatGPT2 and here's what I got.

First a straight translation of the cardback images used as examples and then a higher-up view that shows some errors.

 

Though they look too large to be Spacex toys, they do look convincing (which is why I decided to put some stamps on).

What do you think?

Paul V

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To add to Paul's fab renditions of 'lost' SpaceX, here's my own efforts from 2019 at making a home-made model of each of these fabled SpaceX toy vehicles, two of the 'missing' four.

Hope you like them.

If only the real things would turn up! 

Paul V's Bloggiversary Card

A Life-size Hot Wheels Mustang

Woodsy

This is the exact model and it even has one of the exact colours the Sweet 16 were offered in.

No redlines but that's nitpicking. :)

The first O indicates it's registered as an oldtimer. It's a 1967 Mustang Fastback, missing its grille ornaments. Apart from those, the shape of the fake side scoops distinguishes it from the almost-identical 1968 model.

Paul V.

Wow! All it needs is a life-size blister card and a Mattel Redline badge! Woodsy

Anyone else seen a life-size Redline?

Major Matt Madelman Mars Lander

Popular de Juguetes made a really nice Lanzador Espacial (Space Launcher) for their Madelman in 2004, Woodsy. 

Blurb on the box describes it as a Mars lander. Came with a good astronaut figure but it's also very Major Mattable indeed.

Mine has never been assembled (though a previous owner did apply a few stickers) but this offer on Wallapop has nice pictures:

https://es.wallapop.com/item/lanzadera-espacial-madelman-40cm-1221988992

and there's a simple video clip here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_CQCgE1lE4

(There's also a lengthy exposé by a heavily tattooed gent who apparently has written a book. The clip was initially extremely clumsily translated which I found unbearable, but thankfully I got the original Spanish by clicking on the gearwheel under the clip)

Attached are a few pics, including Major Matt for comparison.

My Madelman Lander is available for sale should anybody be interested.

Best -- Paul V.

American Knockoff: MEV2

 Checking old auctions I came across this neat SpaceX knockoff MEV2.

Like it's distant parent, it's a lovely little thing in a blister card.

I always loved the NEV2, the green and orange combo of skeletal parts, the dome and science arm finishing it off perfectly. And it rolled so well!

I like the backing art on this card too, the LEM on the lunar surface. Is that a Cricket at the lower left?

You can read much more about the S S Kresge SPACE series of knockoffs, including this very same example, on my friend Paul V's marvellous SpaceX website.

 https://share.google/YGpQFo9KXyD5FeE2e

Have you any SpaceX knockoffs or clones?

Paul V's Warhammer Terrain

And here's a couple pics of the modular terrain I made for the boys, years ago.

Fairly straightforward - four plywood boards, with hills and cave made out of layered styrofoam, plastered over for the rocky bits. Standard ground cover of sand in thinned wood glue, dry-brushed in natural colours with grass matt and model flocking to finish off. Trees were made from the roots of saplings weeded out of garden. The few figures in the pics should give an idea of size. We also made some boards and buildings for the futuristic WH 40 000, but I don't have any pics of that I'm afraid.

Et voilà again. :)

--

Paul

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Paul originally sent me this post in 2016! This week I found it again in the drafts list.

Paul V's 1/72 scale Battlefield

Here's some ancient pics I managed to dredge up, Woodsy, showing the battlefield I once made. Not very large, sorry, they're scans I made ages ago from paper pics I've mislayed since... I should still have that field somewhere, with hills cut out and rest rolled up. :)

#1 shows construction: cheap wallpaper taped to floor of parent's living room while minding the house during said parent's holiday. Hills are filled with layers of stepped pieces of cardboard (from boxes collected at supermarket waste dump). Visible towards the rear are some game boards from Avalon Hill's Panzer Leader game, which I scaled up a bit (but nowhere to anything realistic).

Woods were made from styrofoam; houses are 4-5 basic buildings I drew up, photocopied and which we then coloured in with magic markers.

For rules we used the most basic ones from Panzer Leader. Having things in 3-D (as opposed to 2-D cardboard) means that things like "line of sight/line of fire" could easily be checked by eye instead of needing 2-3 pages of specific rules, and all the nonsense about troop morale was simplified to the morale of the players. :)  Unit strength &c we also got from the Panzer Leader game.

#2 shows a young P Vreede having set up the German side.

Reason I had some German troops is a good friend in college had a friend that staged massive battles and I wanted to participate. Friend's friend had a large Red Army, so to help my friend I made a reasonably self-contained (if unrealistically composed) German battle group. I never got to play with them for one reason or another, but it turned out handy when I discovered my best friend Lo (shown in #3) had enough American stuff to field against my little group. 

#4 shows my little Kampfgruppe, #5 and 6 are my rear/HQ area. Object of the game was to capture at least three enemy-held towns as well as the enemy HQ vehicle, which could be hidden. (you need an objective or else nothing much will happen).

#7 shows Lo's Task Force, posed for a patrol in #8. 

#9 - 11 are posed pictures of our troops.

#12 is from a real game (where so much was going on that we had to break up the normal turn system into individual little skirmish turns to manage the fighting and keep things both realistic and fair. :)  Red paper squares denote destroyed vehicles, orange means damaged for a turn. What we both lacked in equipment I quickly made out of paper: side and front silhouettes dovetailed together (also visible in last picture).

Et voilà.

--

Paul

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Paul originally sent me this post in 2016! This week I found it again in the drafts list.

Tether Racers AKA Spindizzies

And now for something completely different.

Attached is an advert from the back page of the latest Hornby Railway Collectors Association magazine. 

It's by a fairly renowned auction house and for once doesn't show any rare trains but rather a quartet of very fetching and abstract looking racing cars in primary colours.

Being bereft of wifi for a week meant I couldn't check them out straightaway but here's what I found. 

They're tether racers, powered by the same type of miniature combustion engines as RC model aircraft and such. And they have quite a history too. 

They come in all shapes and engine classes. The thin long three-wheelers can reach speeds over 200 mph. And the ones on auction could reach figures over £1000.

Here's a bunch of links:

The selection of cars on (a previous) auction:

https://www.lskauctioncentre.co.uk/auction/search/?au=880

A quick grounder:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mcnsmCc4G8I

A bit of history:

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

A day at the track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv044-zLYEo

And for those who haven't given up yet: a pair of young Americans reacting like young Americans do but also giving an idea and showing some nice cars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAcWn5dg6uM

Best

Paul V.

Paul V's SpaceX Junkyard Ten Years On

Ten years ago my friend Paul Vreede found some rather sorry looking SpaceX custom wrecks.

You can re-read the full story here, of how Paul found them and what glories emerged from the salvage!

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2015/05/back-on-track-by-paul-vreede.html

In summary, pictures tell the story really well too.

Before ....

And after! 

The restored Apollo Tracker!

And a custom 'Surveyor' Project SWORD Moon Crawler ( blogged recently, which Paul kindly gave to me).

I'm sure you'll agree Paul did a sterling job fixing up those original junkers. 

Paul still has a few Crawler parts spare if anyone would like to have a go at making one. Just email me.

Paul's SpaceX Surveyors and ... one S.W.O.R.D Moon Crawler!

My good friend Paul V kindly sent me this fab picture of his fleet of fabulous SpaceX Surveyors.

 It also features a Surveyor that Paul customised into superb miniature Project SWORD Moon Crawler, which he very kindly gave me as a gift for my birthday in 2021.

PS. Paul has some spare parts for another mini Moon Crawler if anyone is interested. Email me.

Best Wishes from Paul Vreede

THOSE PUPS JUST KEEP ROLLING THEIR EYES

 Years ago my friend Paul V discovered that LP Lik Be re-used their toy puppy eyes as space domes. You can read about this fascinating discovery on his fab SpaceX website.

https://www.triangspacextoys.info/SpGAderv/LPHK/LPhkSmTy/LPdomes/LPdomes.html

Those domes are a mindworm. I just cant help coming across rolling dog dome eyes. I've spoken about blow moulds before and here's another one in the US, a large ball visible underneath that propels the pooch along.

This is a big puppy at 12 inches long, much bigger than the LP Space Dog but the same principle.

Paul V has just found one of these doggies pictured in a French Sitap toy catalogue too!

Can you spot any dome eyes readers? Keep your eyes peeled.

Let me know.