Thunderbolt and the Rebel Planet

Dear Woodsy,

This is the frontispiece of "Thunderbolt and the Rebel Planet" by Hereward Ohlson, published 1954 - could it have been the inspiration for Re-Entry Task Force 2?

Grif

Happy Birthday Wotan!

Here's to an extraterrestrial Birthday Bash Wote,

Many Happy Returns to Mars,

Woodstock

The Takeuchi King

Just noticed this little fella on the Takeuchi pencil erasers label. Could he be Wotan's Critter King?

Atomic Wallpaper

The King and I

Le Roi et Moi!

Just recently I received a surprise package from fellow blogger Andy B. Inside were a load of Kelloggs Crater Critters from Sugar Smacks cereal in 1970. These were among my special favourite giveaways in cornflakes, but also the source of some serious frustration. Back in the day, I got a box of cereal and in the very first (and only) box I opened, I received two mispacked figures of Glubber and Gloob. Because I wouldn't eat the cereal, my mum wouldnt get any more, so my chances of finding more critters became very remote. However, all my school friends got them and I managed to swap all kinds of other junk including bubblegum cards and rubber monsters and ended up with an orange Miss Venus and a King Crater, albeit missing the crown. When I got home after school, I lined them all up proudly on the mantlepiece above the fire to admire them. In my haste, I tipped Miss Venus off the edge and she disappeared into the hot embers of the open fire. I was gutted.

I still had the King and his consorts, but as the offer moved on, the opportunities for finding the rest of the band disappeared. It was only after I discovered the net and quite recently got in touch with cereal maestro Mike Speth, that I discovered that the original molds for the premiums had been bought by another company and repro critters were being produced in Mexico. Mike also enlightened me to the existence of two further critters available only in Japan and a special King variant which had the legs in a different configuration. King Crater was specially interesting to me because of his resemblance to the Martian Tripod that had appeared in the Tell Me Why serialisation of War of the Worlds about the same time.


Until recently, id been unable to find any of the original critters, although I did manage to buy some of the lesser repros on ebay. These are not as good quality and were produced in garish flourescent colours.

BUGSY BACKBONE

GLOOB

GLUBBER

LUNARTIC

UPSY DOWNSY

MISS VENUS

JODRELL JIM

KING CRATER

When Andy sent me the collection of Critters, I was utterly amazed to find that his orange King still had his crown and Upsy Downsy even had his hat! With a little coercion, I managed to get the orange pretender to the throne to give up his crown and finally after so many years of ignomany, gave my purple King Crater a coronation he deserved. No wonder he's smiling now!

Dan Dare 1955 and the Origin of Scout 1 by Toad

Toadster has sent in these cool comic strip illustrations that look darn similar to our friend the SWORD Scout 1 [pictured beneath]:

"Woodsy,

Attached are the pics mentioned. They are from the Dan Dare story "The Man from Nowhere" (May - November 1955). It looks less like the Scout than does Mike Noble's [via Andy B - below. Ed] : the "sponsons" are further forward; the stern isn't blunt; upper deck is all different. But it is those sponsons/ engines/whatever ... Wonder if this had an influence on the Scout directly, or on the artwork which led to the Scout (if any)? (is there anything in the real world like this?) Another interesting point is that this is a submarine ... ie, it can be sealed off from the atmosphere, just as can the Scout.I wonder if Frank Hampson used any reference? Cos, didn't he tend to draw from models? The story "Man From Nowhere" was illustrated by Frank Hampson and Don Harley, but I don't know who did what.

Toad"

Thanks to Toad for sending the above Dan Dare pics and info and Shaqui pointing it out to you! Woodsy

Century 21 Dump Truck: Driven Up The Wall

Back in October 2009 readers Jon and Amy sent me the above cool Regent Toys toy ad. I blogged it at the time. Seeing the ad back then I sort of had the theory that the three hill climbing vehicles on the right hand side were, like the Moonship on the left, Century 21. The only proof to back this up was that Regent Toys, besides selling off Century 21 SWORD stock like Zero-X and Cape Kennedy Set, were selling a Century 21 Jeep called the Hurdler seen at the base of the incline pictured on the right and seen close up below. You can see that the Ad uses a similar lined slope to the illustration on the box side.

A little while later in 2009 I had a crack at finding colour pictures of the other toys in a similar Regent Toys ad. But I didn't find any other Century 21 toys on the ads besides the Hurdler ...until now! Last week the awesome Century 21 Dump Truck appeared on Fleabay. I had a pop at it but as usual was pipped to the post. Anyway I saved the picture for the blog [below]. I now feel confident that a Wrecking Truck in the top ad will be Century 21 as well. Anyone agree? PS. Could C21 have made the Gemini Capsule as well?

Pic: Ebay

The Noble Art

Andy B pointed out this cool You Tube documentary about artist Mike Noble. This is Part 1 of 4. Were any readers involved in making this?