Gift Tags for Toad and Ed

For EvilEd - a film I've never seen but looks great

For Toad - pond warrior princess

[model: starship modeller 2005]

Mist -O- Matic Merry Christmas Card

One year in the mid- Sixties the Christmas Cards I gave to my Mum and Dad and Sibs were made easy by one of my fave toys that year: Mist-O-Matic, a sort of paint spray tray that created a mist of colour, which covered templates and left shapes on pieces of card. My top Xmas card design was the Santa head above, which I would recognise anywhere. A 'spin-off' of the better known Spiro-Matic, Mist-O-Matic is easilly in my top ten [non-space] toy list. Wotan and I waxed lyrical about this and other paint toys earlier on the blog. What we have still never managed to find is a picture of another Sixties classic paint toy, Paint Witch, which were a sort of witch hat topped thick pens. They were so cool. Anyone got a picture?

Xmas Bank Holiday Tuesday Selection Box

Super Modeller David Sisson's early 1980's cine-8 film full of great model space vehicles - watch all the parts on You Tube

Short YTube promo film of Mike Trim's 2006 art book 'The Future Was Fab', which I was lucky enough to find under the tree this year!

Original Sixties Cinema trailer for Thunderbirds Are Go movie courtesy of YT

Original Japanese Imai Zero X model kit TV ad courtesy of Mickey Bister [YT]

Lemme know if there's any other You Tube clips you think I should post up!

All Wrapped Up

Funny how tastes change. Virtually everything Christmassy that baby boomer babies grew up with in the 1960's is probably classed as 'Kitschy' or even worse, 'cheesey', these days - like plastic Xmas ornaments, Cribs, multi-coloured fairy lights and chocolate or even wooden Yuke Logs. But the things I associate most with my tender years right up into the Seventies were those wonderful rolls of thin colourful Xmas paper with fabulous designs like the ones shown, both found online [more here].

Gifts were lovingly wrapped and taped together with equally colourful rolls of sticky tape emblazoned with holly, Christmas puddings or Santa's! Cheesey? maybe but of it's time and for me important memories. The designs on the paper were often mirrored on beautiful Christmas Cards and gift tags depicting paintings and drawings of Victoriana like Horses and Carraiges, Carol Singers under Gas Lamps, Robins and Fifties motifs of Santa's Sleighs, Holly, Baubles and Snowmen. I remember many cards being glittered and scattering their tiny jewels around the house before being pegged to lines of string with titchy plastic dolly pegs! Now relegated to Kitsch, these things were our childhood, are our memories and at least for me, have been the spirit of all the Christmasses that followed.

I Wish it Could Be Christmas Every Day

Hi Swordies. Hope you had a very happy Christmas. Boxing Day has been and gone and life is insisting on normality again but I'm resisting hard. No-one at Moonbase having to be at work today or tomorrow helps so we're still in our pyjama bottoms and basically lounging around watching Xmas TV, sewing and, well, I'm blogging right now! The last of the festive meats have been scoffed and there's no cranberry sauce left. All we have is a huge assortment of crisps, nuts, chocolates and pickled onions. Party food! We'll survive on them until someone goes for more supplies!

Sat amidst the tinsel and piles of opened prezzies inevitably takes me back to Christmas's past at Moonbase Junior in Ye Olde Lancashire of my youth.

We made snowmen and lanterns at school from toilet rolls and filled them with smarties and dolly mixtures! Is is even legal?

  Mum got Yardley perfume and my two Sisses got Charlie!

My big hairy bruvvers got Soap on a Rope

and Hai Karate After Shave for when they too hairy!

My old Dad got an Old Spice Shaving Mug and Brush and all the adults drank brightly coloured drinks like Cherry B or Warninks Advocaat.

and a couple of toys I got that I've literally just remembered were a plastic toy pneumatic road drill [modern version above] and a battery operated ping pong ball throwing machine, which blasted ping pong balls at you for whacking with a plastic baseball bat! Funny how the grass is always greener even as a Kid though. Even with my Johnny Seven and Secret Sam Spy Case I wanted what only my cousin Andrew had - the Strange Change Machine all the way from the US of A with an american plug. Below's the 1967 TV Ad as well coutesy of YT! God, how I wanted that toy, but it was never to be!

What are your vintage Christmas memories?

X BOXING

Dreaming of Christmas 1967 unwrapping my Century 21 Zero-X and playing with it all day on Boxing Day, I realised that my Folks didn't take any photographs of me and my SWORD toys back then. Drat! Looking round for inspiring Zero-X fan photo's, I found this cool YT clip from Japan of what I assume is the Imai kit [?], which does look rather splendid I must say!

Has anyone else got any Xmas [or otherwise] photo's [or cinefilm!] of themselves with their favourite SWORD SPACEX toys from the 1960's [or even now!] ?

I Saw Three Ships

Nuclear Star

Ferry Christmas!

Hope you're all enjoying your Boxing Day wherever you are in this big World

from an original 1960's drawing first seen at the wonderful Dreams of Space blog.