O CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN

Ebay

Mattel's Captain Lazer - above - was one of my all-time fave toys as a kid in Sixties Preston. The day-glo purples and blues of the speckled shield and the ribbed ray-lance held me spellbound. The glowing eyes and chestplate did too. Above all I loved the strange wobbly sound when you pressed the button on the backpack and the fiddled with grey slidey aerial. As expected ol' Cap was one of the first of my old treasures I bought again when I was a 'big' kid with enough grown-up pocket money. It's not as good as it was back then in those endless tizer-drenched years of childhood but it's not bad knowing it's in the cabinet upstairs. Years later in 1978 I was amazed to see 'my' Captain again in a different guise, Mattel's Colonial Warrior from Battlestar Galactica. They'd simply used the same moulds I guess to create a white-haired version, who reminds me of Leslie Nielson! I don't have the Warrior but presumably the original accessories fit the imposter: ray lance, shield, helmet and so on?

Ebay

And finally, just googling for Captain Lazer I found this amazing 'homepage', which includes an old photograph of a huge Captain model suspended from a crane at the 1969 German Toy Fair!  The passers-by don't even notice! Fabulous.Wonder where he ended up?

O Captain My Captain! Our fearful trip is done (Walt Whitman)

MAMA WE'RE ALL CRAZEE NOW

Been to see The Crazies tonight at the local Cineworld. I went mostly out of curiosity as it's a remake (yes, another) of a 1973 flick of the same name by zombiemeastro George A. Romero, a film I never managed to see largely because it was never on late night UK TV as I was growing up. I knew about the '73 film back then as it was featured in monster mags I got at the time like Quasimodo and Halls of Horror. I've always been fascinated by apocolyptic scenarios in books and films and the Crazies is one such tale of a small American town stricken by a deadly virus, which can only be contained using extreme measures. It's stablemates include Outbreak and the much more interesting and vintage Andromeda Strain. The current rash of post-apocolyptic flims like the Crazies, The Road and the Book of Eli I think are a sign of the times, where worldwide recession and pandemic have heightened our most primal of fears - will we survive? 

SOLO PROJECT SWORD COMIC STRIP 4 JULY 15th 1967

courtesy of Bufo Philosophicus aka The Philosophic Toad.

You're a star. You 'reddit' here!

THUNDERLOUNGING

I'm not a frequenter of hip joints but if I were I'd have a nosey in Fab Cafe in Leeds, UK, up the road. There's another one in Manchester. Are there any other Andersonized or Sci-Fi caffs and restaurants out there across the globe?

PS. The Tripods Have Landed - check out the NOVY MOST UFO cafe in Bratislava!

ZERO-X SPOTTED IN FINLAND

Finnish reader Arto has sent in this cool shot of various space toys being exhibited at "Mission In Space" in the Leikkilinna Toy Museum. That Zero-X is in fine company: T Moon Ranger (far right), Moon Scout (rear), Star Maidens dolls (rear) and Zython (foreground).  Luvverly stuff! Thanks for sharing Arto.

Picture courtesy of the Finnish Toy Museum.

Style and Comfort on the Moon

It seems that japanese model company Tamiya had great things imagined for the Apollo programme, judging by this vintage ad for a fantastic Moon Bus. The super sleek transport seems in direct contrast to the Von Braun style lander in the background.

The typography and style is very reminiscent of Mattels Matt Mason range too - shame I cant read kanji!

MYSTERY SPACEMEN

The Philosophic Toad wonders if anyone can help identify these plastic spacemen?

SOLAR SYSTEM TV SERIES COMING

For UK readers looks like there's a great new TV series on the Solar System this Sunday. BBC2 at 9pm. Non-UK readers may be able to catch it online on BBC i-player.