Kev's Scratchbuilt Stingray World Navy Sub57

Hi Woodsy

Finally took some shots of that Stingray sub that I built because you kindly let me know about that racing car prop.

Cheers,

Kevin

UK

THE TOYS OF LARAMI

Images of three of the several pocket money Larami Space: 1999 toys, that appeared around 1975 and 76, which had  little , if anything to do with Space:1999. 

Some of the other Larami  cheap rehashed and repackaged generic toys included a plastic Swiss army knife, a toy watch and a periscope! 

Who had any of these little gems at the time?

Terry's Tornado 31 SPC Fleet

Hi Woodsy

Tornado 31 SPC: I have three with decals and one red one with no decals. I have never seen a blue or yellow one and have no idea where they originate from or what 'Tornado 31' refers to.

Terry H.

*

The Tornado 31 is possibly Argentinian. We first discussed this toy here in 2016! Click the label below. Woodsy

Sign of the Zodiac

We've got some of this fabulously futuristic pink doll furniture loose in the playroom. It's only seeing this set with the box online that I can see it's from none other than Zodiac Toys, that icon of the toy world in the UK with the fabulous logo.

Do you have any futuristic furniture or any Zodiac Toys or books? 

FAB EXPRESS OUT NOW

 The latest FAB Express magazine has been sent out to members of Fanderson. The issue has all the latest Anderson news and includes fans' recollections about TV Century 21, and obituaries on Prentis Hancock and Clifton Jones. There's also mention of a upcoming special event featuring Joe 90 and UFO.

https://fanderson.org.uk/

STUNNING!

I would have loved finding this beauty hanging up in my local market.

I love that colourful backing card.

IT'S A BUGS LIFE

 The popular and fun looking Corgi Lunar Bug, which appeared from November, 1970 until sometime in 1972.

Door sometimes appears reversed and the folding solar panel wings are sometimes yellow. 

Paul's Lion Book of Speed

Hi Woodsy

Lion was a British weekly comic for boys, published between 1952 and 1974. In addition to the actual comic, and the hardback Annuals, there were a number of other books carrying the Lion name, including this Lion Book of Speed, which has the copyright date 1962.

I found this at a recent Lions Club book sale, for just $1.00 NZ (44 New Pence). The spine has been taped up with brown parcel tape, but the contents are intact.

It measures 10 3/4 by 7 3/4 inches (27 by 19 1/2 cm), and runs to 128 pages including the hardback covers. Black and white text and line drawings, with red on a few pages; and several pages of black and white photographs.

It is rare to find older books like this at the sale, and I was very pleased to snap it up. The contents cover everything that goes fast.

Speed in the Animal Kingdom; cars; motorcycles; bicycles; speed record holders, Father and Son, Malcolm and Donald Campbell; boats and ships; Hovercraft; computers; aircraft; the Schneider Trophy seaplane race; the X-15; trains; snow and ice sports; and finally out in to space...

There are several cut-away drawings of various machines. One of the photos shows a model of the Super Caravelle super-sonic airliner – ancestor of the Concorde.

Anyone got anything like this?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Moon Traffic: It's Triffic!

I recall finding a loose Moon Traffic vehicle like this decades ago at a toy fair. I didn't know what it was back then. 

The thing I recognised was the antenna, which was the same as on my SWORD Scout 1. It was the wrong one and took me years to get the proper rectangular antenna, courtesy of Bill. I then lost it in the compost! 

Moon Traffic is a great knock-off of SpaceX: such blatant copying. A me-too with bells on, Roxy even shoved in a Golden Astronaut. Was that a SpaceX one I wonder? 

A lovely and unusual little space vehicle nevertheless with echoes of those big tinplate moon rovers around in the Sixties. Is it a toy you have or any other Moon Traffic readers? 

The one pictured is on Worthpoint's archive.

Looey's Tiger

I  thought these pages from the 1969 Tiger Annual  bought at The Chapel Street Bazaar would interest you Moonbasers.

Did you have it? 

BOLDLY GO!

I must admit I have little interest in the small Hotwheels toys, I much prefer Johnny Lightning,  or the older Matchbox toys, as they both provoke plenty of nostalgic thoughts. 

Even though this Hotwheels example below uses a subject I enjoy,  I think it looks awful and gimmicky. It reminds me of those 'bobble-head' toys that some people are obsessed with collecting.

Each to his own, I suppose. 

Kevin's Star Cops Box

Another obscure scratchbuild. 

 This is my replica of Box, the personal computer of the lead character in the 1987 BBC series Star Cops.

Kevin

UK

OZZY R.I.P.

Not toys related I know but it was such a massive part of my youth and heavy metal has lost its greatest co-founder today. 

Ozzy has sadly passed away aged 76.

The master of metal made it for one last farewell Sabbath gig last month in his home city of Birmingham.

The pearly gates will damn well fly off thier hinges when Ozzy rocks up.

Deepest Condolences to the Osborne family, the kids, Ozzy's friends and all my fellow heavy metal fans.

🤘

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.

Ed's New Moonscape Diorama Project

Woodsy,

I started this new diorama base project back in May and this is as far as I've gotten.

Except for the cheap framing, I already had the other materials on hand and decided they needed to be put to use. It's 48" x 38.5" and consists of two sheets of Masonite, glued and tacked onto a frame of fake wood (don't know what they call it but it's a plastic-like material), over which 1" sheets of Styrofoam are glued.

The crater rim is sheets of 1" Styrofoam cut and glued to the board. To finish this, I'll need to carve the foam to its final shape, cover everything with plaster (or similar), and then paint.

Here's the kicker: I can't do all that carving, plastering, and painting in the house, so it'll need to be done outside but it's gotten warm out there (we're looking at 112°F/44°C out on the patio). Plus, I have other things going on in my life.

Hopefully I can re-engage this project this coming Autumn.

The first two photos show the work in progress. The third photo was taken a few days ago after pulling out some of my SpaceX Moonbase HQ's to visualize what a set-up would look like.

See what you think.

From Vegas MoonBase

Ed

The Shuttle Launcher: What an Adventure (2000)!

 I've had a few Adventure 2000 die-casts over the years. I've done a few up for Moonbase Junior too.

One I've never had is this fab Shuttle Launcher.

In fact I've never had any blue versions of the range. 

It's a superb design with its red spaceplane and white satellite. 

Looking it up online, here's a few pics I gleaned. Is it a toy you had or like?

Like the green versions, the whole blue range has a passing resemblance to the blue SHADO2, do you agree?;

Custom SpaceX Moonbase Box and Board

Another old gem from Worthpoint, a custom made box and board for SpaceX no less!

What do you think?

The description read

 "Includes a professional custom mars landscape and custom box. What you see is what you get. Very unique. Very large set...will be shipped in 2 boxes. The Mars Battle board landscape is large enough for 54mm too. BattleBoard made by Jim Clouse, terrain artist."