MOONBASE CENTRAL

Saturday, 25 December 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS SWORDIES!

Hope you weren't on Santa's Naughty List!

Friday, 24 December 2010

Supercar Super Collection Sold!

The Mike Mercury Collection of Supercar items went up for sale on the 21st December at Bonhams. Did anyone join in the auction? What great Christmas prezzies they'll make! I hope the online Museum keeps going though!

Christmas Lunar C

One toy remains stubbornly elusive to this blog - the awesome Lunar Climber. Eagle-eyed reader Paul Vreede recently spotted this distant cousin of the toy, the Climbing Space Vehicle, in a Gambles catalogue for sale on Ebay [Borzoibooklady] above. Below is the full page, which also featured a Robot and a Circus Train, both I reckon were Tarheel.

And this Christmas someone maybe very happy. The Paya Lunar Climber, below, for sale at Guy Antiques has been sold! I've been oggling it for years but it was too dear for me. Drat! Maybe a reader has a surprise prezzie waiting under the Crimbo tree!

Another cool stocking filler would be this Japanese DVD featuring old plastic toys and kits, including the Imai Astro Car aka Lunar Climber no less. No idea what the DVD is called but it was for sale on Ebay earlier in the year.

Which brings me full circle to the Lunar Climber by Century 21. This is one of only two colour pictures of this toy that I hjave ever seen, both from the same Ebay auction about 5 years ago. I had a pop at it but didn't win. I'll never forget WOTAN saying to me afterwards "You should've put the ton on it Woodsy!", ton being common parlance for a hundred of your best pounds sterling! I shall climb into bed tonight and dream of it sat under the tinselled tree, brightly wrapped with a tag written out to me! I wonder who actually won it? Someone reading this perchance as they nibble a warm mince Xmas pie? Your Good Health and here's hoping for some close-up pics in 2011!

Jim's 12 Days of Christmas - Final Chapter: TV21

Bringing the 12 days of 'ZERO X-Mas' to a close are the four front covers from TV Century 21 which included the photo-strip adaptation of the movie THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO. Kids across the country were well and truly shown what excitement lay ahead of them if they went to see the film when it enjoyed a general release during the early part of 1967.

Zero X was quickly established as a mainstay of the 'TV21' stable and many feel the characters, vehicle and general concept had the legs to sustain a TV series of its own as a more modern version of FIREBALL XL5. The Century 21 team however had moved on already to more realistic looking puppets, even more futuristic, sleek vehicles with a darker tone too in CAPTAIN SCARLET AND THE MYSTERONS. Ironic then that the opening sequence of the first episode of the show shines the spotlight once again on the magnificent ZERO-X!