Kevin's Doctor Mopp Tinplate Car

Hi,

Here is my tinplate antique shaking car. 

The same sort of toy was used as Doctor Mopp's.

Mine is the actual toy I had as a kid. I still have its original top-hatted driver but at the moment, my replica Doctor Mopp is driving it!

Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.

Kevin

UK

and Woodsy adds; here's the original in the TV show!

TERRY's NEW JOE 90 COLLECTABLES FROM JAPAN

Blog friend and Anderson fan Terry H has kindly sent me pictures of a small pocket notebook and a jigsaw puzzle he's recently got from Japan for his collection.

Hope you like them.

Will's Kitmaster Fireball XL5 Restoration

Hi Woodsy. 

My restoration of the Kitmaster Fireball XL5 is nearly complete. 

The decals are reproduction ones , the observation dome is the cockpit glass from a Yak 15 kit .....

 but I haven't found anything that will do for the glass on fireball junior yet!

 Any suggestions would be welcome. 

Will O

UK

FOR ARTO IT STARTED IN EDINBURGH – WITH A SCREWDRIVER!

Soon after my toy collecting began in 2002 and whilst browsing the internet wonderland, I stumbled upon a Project S.W.O.R.D. Checklist compiled by one Paul Woods. 

I was instantly smitten with the colourful fleet of concept space vehicles, and with the fervent enthusiasm and good humour evident in the toy depictions by the checklist’s author.

July 12th, 2003. Edinburgh, Scotland. On the previous day at the Hamilton Toy Museum in Callander, we were given a tip about a toy shop worth visiting in Edinburgh. It was called Now and Then, at 7-9 West Crosscauseway. On the street we were greeted by a simple a-frame sign with a word “TOYS” written on it. Very promising!

The shop itself was a set of adjacent rooms connected by narrow passages, brimming with all sorts of antiques, including the best collection of old toys we had seen so far. Although most items were placed in display cabinets, there was an air of sweet disarray which added to the magic of the place.

The shopkeeper Alan and his girlfriend Hetty were very friendly, helpful and infinitely patient with my endless questions about toys related to Century 21 and Gerry Anderson’s output. I was such a newbie! As our discussion turned to Project Sword, my friend remembered catching a glimpse of a red arrow-like toy plane in the shop window.

There it was, the Re-Entry Task Force 1 in all its sleekness! My first-ever Project Sword toy contact was true! Alan was not aware that the plane with simple “T1” decals was part of the Sword toy line, so I was happy to reciprocate at least that bit of information.

But there was a downside to this discovery. TF1 was missing its rear exhaust. Huge disappointment! Suddenly, Hetty remembered that there should be another example of the same toy somewhere. Having located it, we were able to see that its nose was broken off – but the black rear exhaust was there.

Solution? Alan handed me a small screwdriver, with which I moved the exhaust of the broken example to the incomplete but otherwise fine TF1. My first-ever Project Sword toy, mended by myself! I was overjoyed, paying £50 for it plus three chosen C21 annuals. Hetty gave me a green Clarks shoebox where this prized possession travelled safe for the rest of our journey. (Still have the box too.)

From there on, I would continue to augment my Project Sword collection through eBay purchases. It would take six more years until I made another significant contact, with one Paul Woods, our Woodsy, through the Moonbase Central Blog he had just started in 2008. The rest is (personal) history!

Arto

Helsinki Base

'Project SWORD' Excerpt from my travel diary   

BRIAN'S KAIJU CAVE

Hi Woodsy.

Here is my Kaiju Room!

 In its current state not too messy, but getting tricky to navigate in. Other Monster Base denizens are stored in totes, residing in the attic or spare bedroom closets. I rather enjoy my house and don't want to move, but I'd love to have these obscured toys on display also. My future plan is an out-building on my property, possible a pole barn, to keep my overspill.

-BrianF 

Monster Base 

NJ USA

BOXING CLEVER WITH LOOEY

Hi Woodsy, you were asking about storage and my stored papers... I'm in the process of packing them down into just one, easy to be nagged about box!

This big red box now contains all my personal life mementoes and robot packaging.

-pretty neat combo, huh?

See if you can spot inflatable WM Xabungle, RoboCon and Sentai Dynaman figures. Transformers boxes, Miniature VFX Storyboards from Spirits of the Air, Crocodile Dundee II scenes etc etc.

Maybe I could post a suitable monthly pin-up (sort of like Playboy for Toy Fans...)

Whaddya think? 

 Looey

OZ Base

Kevin's Toys

 Kevin's cabinet displays.

Enjoy!

TERRANOVA47's Terrific Toys Display

 TERRANOVA47's fabulous collection filling the walls in his American home. There's a few of those buses too!

Enjoy!

(Pictures of your walls, shelves, caves and cabinets welcomed!)

Kev's SpaceX Fleet

 Kevin's collection so far. Not much missing really.

TOP MARX: CHRIS'S 6-INCH FIGURES

Hi Woodsy

I thought you might be interested in this for Moonbase Central, images attached.

 This is a collection of Marx 6-inch figures from 1964, which I just picked up in a charity shop for £6, which I thought was a bargain. 

As you know, the Marx figures came unpainted, but these have been painted very well, and considering that they are 60 years old, the paint has lasted very well.

 There are 8 American, 4 German and 4 Red Indian figures - I assume there are more in the sets, I will have to look out for them. 

Hope you find this interesting, and good luck with the website, which is a source of endless interest.

Regards,

Chris Jenkins

Operation Soap Dish: My Home-Made Tri-ang SpaceX Moon Base HQ: The Cinema Room Module

 More progress on my own home-spun SpaceX Moon Base HQ. 

This time it's the Cinema Room Module.

I've stuck to using the old circuitry parts I have to hand so its not a perfect copy of the real SpaceX toy by a long chalk. More of my impression.

Not sure what they watched on the big screen on the Moon. Any ideas?

Anyways, grab a seat!

More to follow.

Watch this Base!

THE SHIPLEY SHUFFLE

A pearl among the junk, I found this compact stack of Guy N. Smith paperbacks in a charity shop shuffle across Shipley the other day. Bingo! 

A great new haul this, as I collect Guy N. Smith paperbacks as part of my big horror novel collection.

Shelling out just three pounds, the stack included three of the well-known Crabs outbreaks, which Smith made his name with.

Despite the author having been very prolific, these 1980's horror paperbacks are now increasingly hard to find, as many will have been simply read and binned back in the day.

Although my favourite novel by the late great Guy N. Smith has to be the folk-trash, The Sucking Pit, the first one I ever read was Killer Crabs, so I'm really looking forward to a scuffle through its pages again.

Smith died aged 81 in 2020, very unwell and infected with COVID. Sadly gone but not forgotten, his many works live on and no doubt like the unknown Shipley reader who donated these paperbacks, I'm very excited about reading them.

Have you read any Guy N. Smith?

Do you collect books?

THE AUCKLAND TOY FAIR

The last model fair of the year in Auckland has come and gone. It seemed to be quieter than usual, but I still managed to find some goodies for the collection.

Three Airfix Series 1 aircraft kits in plastic bags, with paper headers stapled to the top. The style of header is from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.

A very good find, as the bagged kits are hard to find these days. Also, a bagged Frog P-51 Mustang from around the same era.

A 1/48th scale Monogram P-38 Lightning, with optional parts for four different versions. The copyright date on the model is 1964, while the box says 1966.

The box does not actually say 1/48th scale, instead it has 1/4 Inch [to the foot] Scale. This style was once common on American kits, but is no longer used.

Die-casts - everything but the yellow Corgi Juniors Mercedes-Benz 280 SL is by Matchbox. Two heavy trucks; a boxed trailer; a Massey Harris Tractor (early version); the large and small versions of the Bedford Low Loader; and the early and late versions of the Jaguar 3.4 Litre.

A 1/32nd scale Scalextric Pitstop and Crew. This was missing one of the six figures, and a few other minor pieces, but there were a few other odd bits in the box.

Very useful for dioramas and model photography. I was also able to get the JB Models 1/76th scale Hard Top Land Rover; several magazines; and some old kit catalogues - very useful reference material.

I will now have to start saving up for next year!

Have you been to a toy fair this year?

Paul Adams

New Zealand

Skorpinok nok nokin' on Heaven's Door...

Hi there, Woodsy! We were chatting about G1 Transformers and I mentioned I had a Skorpinok bought way back in the day.

It's a bit difficult to get him out of the display case without moving a lot of other wall mounted pictures first, as you can see!

I hope these snaps will suffice.

What's your favourite G1 model Moonbasers?

I guess as a Scorpio who's just had his birthday, for me it has to be this Headmaster!

Cheers, 

Looey

Oz Base

P.S. Having just done "my own research" I've discovered these puppies run for about US$500 on eBay. But even given that absurd price, I've found out that they are all KO grade.

Hmmm, another new word this boomer needs to learn!

https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/buyer-warning-knock-off-g1-scorponok-is-now-complete-and-ready-to-hit-the-markets.955831/

KEV'S KABINET

Hi,

Here's my cabinet that looks like yours.

Cheers,

Kevin

READERS SPOTTING TOYS: TERRANOVA'S MINIC WATNEYS PUB LORRY

I haven't seen an old toy in a pub that I wanted but I have a related story,

When in college I met by chance in a pub a school friend of mine that I hadn't seen for a few years. We shared the same birthday, though a year apart. 

In catching up on what we were doing now I mentioned that I had started collecting old toys, specifically the ones I had once had as a child, as well as models of the Austin FX3 taxi that I was driving when an art student. 

In talking old toys I mentioned that the one I had really wanted the most, but never had, was the Tri-ang Minic Watney's Barrel Delivery Lorry. A vehicle that I had seen making deliveries when a child.

A while latter for my 21st birthday he gave me the pictured model. It is somewhat worn but he had seen it in a Watney's pub, on a shelf behind the counter and bought it for me from the landlord.

Now it sits under a plastic case so as not to be further weathered, nearby are my conversions to create 'what if' contemporary toys, 

Brimtoy, 

Crescent, 

and the old Airfix kit, still available from Dapol.

It's interesting that if any toy belonged in a pub it would be a beer delivery vehicle.

Here in the US Budweiser Beer used to give some bars and restaurants three foot long models of their Horse Drawn Beer Wagon which in real life was used as a promotional vehicle.

I might have been interested in owning one if I cared for Budweiser, but I don't.

Maybe Paul in NZ can research the plastic kit once sold of it if he does a piece on horse drawn vehicle kits?

Terranova47

USA