The Bat Cane! And it's not Batman!

Just when I thought I'd seen all the toy TV canes you could shake a stick at, up pops another one! 

Stroll on!

Here we have the Bat Masterson Twirling Cane! What a great gift it would make! 

Courtesy of Worthpoint here's an entire shop display! 

There were gorgeous box sets.

And a costume!

And a hat!

Like the actor himself, Gene Barry.

Did you have of of this stuff? 

Conan Can't Swing

 Recently I was lucky enough to pick up Conan's 1993 plastic chromed armour for a few pence. 

It was in a carrier bag containing his armoured horse, which I blogged last week.

Hoping to complete the horse and rider, I've dropped on a bargain Conan figure, which is battling it's way to me through the postal system as we speak. I think he even has pull-string swinging arm action! 

The one thing I'm still missing is his sword. The above example is an auction shot.

How would you go about replacing the sword cheaply? 

*

Update:

Taking up Kev's clever lolly stick idea I knocked up this prop sword ready for Conan's arrival and a few shots of him swinging his blade on his rearing charger.

My Parents' Knights

 Googling for Knights I found some I recall ( Etsy, eBay) including this Hong Kong-made plastic statuette. This could very well have been the one I had as a kid in the Sixties, nestling on a shelf with my monsters and rockets. 

He's just missing his sword or spear.

My folks had this handsome iridescent firedog next to the fireplace too. It weighed a ton!

And we deffo had one of these plastic and brass wall plaques. I adored the scene, the standard bearer at the front with the line of the marquees receding I to the distance. I never really knew what the object was at the front - a sword scabbard? - and often wondered what the ring was for. 

This plaque rings another bell too, plastic and brass ( image from Etsy, not my nails!)

And this fine heraldic plaque graced our living room. What a kitsch beauty it was! 

Did your parents have knights?

Golly What a Day!

 Like Robin Hood's final arrow our Sherwood holiday has come to and end. We will miss the Westworldy isolation of Centre Parcs and it's gated life of swimming and bikes.

Before reality was allowed fully back in we stopped off at the RSPB Sherwood Forest Centre, the modern epicentre of the Robin Hood legend.

Theres lots of spot-on info about Robin, Marion and the Merry Men, including the wedding place, the TV appearances and the movies! My favourite is the Sixties Disney cartoon! What's yours? 

The Centre has a fabulous collection of Hood movie posters on the walls. There's so many films! 

There's Robin's tackle everywhere too.

The man, the myth.

What a legend!

Pop culture, TV appearances, wooden swords and fancy goblets.

Even Dr. Who! Not an episode I know. You?

The famous forest

The big merry car park

One of the many robin cafes and shops

The famous forest of Sherwood

And the main attraction, short of Robin himself, it's his tree! 

For serious Loxley lounging .....

The Major Oak.

It's 1100 years old.

Now that's impressive!

Have you got an old tree nearby readers?

Operation Lone Star Customs - The Five Toy Swords: 3. Adam Adamant

This is our third custom toy in this series, Adam Adamant's Sword Stick.

Based on the 1966 UK TV show Adam Adamant Lives, about a Victorian gent transported to the Sixties, this sword stick was always by Adam's side.

Our custom stick comes complete with scabbard, sword, ammo baggy, AA signet ring and backing card.

Of our three home-made versions so far, this one has proven the most difficult, both the sword and the card, simply because of the unusual shaped handle and 3D packaging.

The white handle was courtesy of a remodelled cosplay shepherd's crook: the ring I made from an old toy and some custom letters: the scabbard was a thinned shepherd's crook too and the blade came from the Rubberplantation on eBay.

As always, Bills marvellous backing card proves to be the star of the show and emulating Lone Star's original it has a cut-out 3D section at the bottom, where the scabbard is held.

During this project the scabbard took a battering. I sat on it by mistake and then removed all the black paint I painted on whilst inserting into the backing card holes, which I'd cut too small! 

Still, overall it gives the impression of the original and I was pleased with my ring and the curved handle and Bill's backing card especially. Happy Victoriana!

.Here it is off the card

For fun, here's the original, rare toy as released in the sixties.

Top and card courtesy of the always-helpful John Bass of Murdersville, our reference material.

And two Facebook screenshots (I'm not a subscriber) showing the whole thing.

Interestingly here you can see what is presumably the actual toy ring, which is black and looks nothing like the image on the card, upon which I based my DIY version! I imagine that ring is one scarce thing! Has anyone got one?

And here the sword stick out of the card.

Hope you like what we're doing so far and this third sword too.

Next up at MoonBase International toys,  things get rarer still, with the Sir Francis Drake sword and matchlock. No known examples appear to exist, at least not online!

Till then.

Operation Lone Star Customs - The Five Toy Swords: 2. Steed

 The second of our Lone Star sword customs, Steed's Sword Stick.

Steed, a la The Avengers, always carried a cane or a brolly on TV, both hiding a lethal rapier blade. In Germany it even got a mention in its TV title, Schirm, Scharm und Melone: Brolly, Charm and Bowler!

Like all Lone Star's toy swords Steed's sword stick was inserted through the card header. They must have been quite difficult to display in shops.

Our cane has a bamboo handle from China (incredibly fast shipping!), a plastic eBay fancy dress 'shepherd's crook' scabbard (very long, in sections and enough for three scabbards! Result) and various bits from the moonbase bits drawer.

The blade, like Zorro and the three to come, were all supplied by an ever-reliable eBay cosplay stockist called RubberPlantation. Their plastic rapier is just the job and could be straight out of Lone Star!

As always, it's Bill's fabulous card art that once again properly animates these home-made creations and this one's another terrific backing card from Bill International! 

As a final flourish I've added a small baggy of red plastic balls to simulate the ammo bag on the original. Ours is a dummy though.

We hope you like this latest effort, our second in Operation Lone Star!

Three to go!

For fun, here's the original toy and reference courtesy of the ever-helpful John B of the fabulously comprehensive cult TV Murdersville Little Storping Museum website.

.

The sword-stick is just one of hundreds of Avengers collectables, which John has painstakingly listed and described, not to mention every other UK and US vintage cult TV show and their merchandise. Well worth a gander! Click on Sword-Stick above.

More original toy shots from Hakes.

We've completed our sword but it's interesting to see the one part we didn't make, simply because I've only just seen it, a tiny instruction card inside the ammo baggy. I can't read it personally. Seen on Vectis.

Taking my cue from Looey's carnation comment here's the intro to The Avengers from You Tube showing Steed and his sword stick! 

∆

Till the next toy, one Adam Adamant.

He lives!

Operation Lone Star Customs - The Five Toy Swords: 1. Zorro

Propelled by our Tarzan, this is Operation Lone Star Swords!

This Spring Bill and myself aim to re-create Lone Star's three TV toy swords from the 1960's: Zorro, Steed and Adam Adamant.

  We will then attempt two far less well-known TV swords from the company, details of which were kindly supplied by the incredibly helpful John B of Murdersville: Sir Francis Drake and Dick Turpin.

So, that's Five in total. It'll be emotional!

So, with a big Z flourish, here's the first Lone Star sword custom:

Zorro's Sword.

Like all Lone Star's toy swords the toy was simply inserted into the header card. They must have been quite difficult to display in shops.

The sword, which I re-painted black, was provided by an ever-reliable eBay cosplay stockist called RubberPlantation, who supplied all my five swords.

As always, it's the stunning card art that once again properly finishes these home-made productions and this first one's another beautiful backing card from Mister Bill! 

As a final touch I've added the flocked mask that came with the sword and a rubber tip containing white chalk to emulate the original, so budding Zorro's could sign their three-stroke initial on the neighbours wall! 

We hope you like our debut for Operation Lone Star Swords!

For fun, here's an original toy ( showing the lovely patterned hand-guard but missing the chalky tip) along with more lovely Zorro-full stuff on an old auction site.

And as a final 3 flicks of the blade, you can see Zorro's Sword here, bottom left in this Lone Star products page I found online.

Of note is it's neighbour, bottom right: the fabled Lone Star Captain Scarlet Anti- Mysteron Rifle, featured a few times in MC. Rocking horses and poo poo spring to mind! You haven't got one so I won't ask! 

And as if that isn't enough, top centre is our next project: Steed's Sword Stick! 

Footnote:

For completeness, here's a later Lone Star Zorro sword backing card I saw this week on an old auction. I prefer the original design. You?

Royal Armouries Leeds

 A recent flying visit to the Royal Armouries gift shop boasted these fab mini model weapons. 

Looking at them I had Action Man on my mind and wondered why Palitoy never did a Knight in armour suit? It would have been great.

Mini Helmets

Detailed rifles

Swords

Life size Ammo boxes

Life size helmets

Plastic warrior arsenal

Fantastic plastic katanas

Mini zip holders

The Armouries famous tower of steel, looking upwards.

And the coolest car ever parked nearby! 

Any good?