Little Blog of Horrors

My 'Wheres Wotan' post recently scared up some info on the background behind the rubber figures I use as my avatar. Woodstock supplied a great link to a site celebrating the work of Norman Saunders, prolific illustrator and book cover artist. Amongst the many works of Norm Saunders was 'Ugly Stickers' for Topps bubblegum. These were a range of seriously ugly and downright scary monsters drawn in gory and livid colour. So successful were the stickers that they were expanded into a range of rubber monsters - 'Funny Uglies' and later 'Teachers Pets'. These were either sold in open counter top boxes - in my case from Woolies - where you could pick your own or in bubblegum machines trapped in a plastic capsule and distributed at random. 

Above is a photo of a smarmy and self satisfied me, aged about 7. surrounded by my teachers pets sat in the yard of my old house in Dingle, Liverpool. The little train must have been that particular days purchase and nothing to do with the monsters.. Ive still got almost all of the creatures today, in various states of disorder. One or two have fallen out of the box over the years and others have lost an appendage here and there, but after seeing the Norm Saunders site, I finally managed to match up the survivors to their original stickers.

Postcard from Alnwick

Whilst on my hols and strolling round Barter Books in Alnwick, Northumberland, one of the biggest second hand book shops in the UK, I flicked through the Collectors Guide to Novelty Radios and came across this crystal radio set from Japan. Something about it said SWORD! Speak soon.

A Book at Lunchtime

 After Andy B kindly sent me his photo of the model of Seaview and the drawing of the future sub by Leslie Ashwell Wood, it brought to mind the book series from which it came. Wood is probably best remembered for hi sumptious cutaway illustrations in Eagle, but publisher Benwig Books released a series of small books called Inside Information on a range of different vehicles around 1969. Naturally my favourite was Space Travel, but I soon added Exploring Under the Sea, Tanks and Hovercraft. Sadly the inside of my copy of Hovercraft seems to have got lost over the years and my original copies of some of the books have been lying round my parents loft for some time too. Each book featured about 8 cutaway drawings in glorious colour of a specific vehicle, but I always looked forward to the back pages and the futuristic concepts shown there. With hindsight, some are curiosly myopic, but most aren't far off the mark, especially the destroyer and the tank, which aren't too far from modern designs.

Ed of Cosmology

Wote and Andy B give EvilEd the good news.

Original russian art: Silver Rockets [cheers Ed!]

sent from my holiday sofa!

Drive Crazy

 Recent holidays in Cyprus allowed me to extend my search for unusual toys a little further. Although my Spacex Nuclear Ferry arrived from a cypriot ebayer, I was never fortunate enough to find anything vintage or especially rare. However, the gift shops and tobacconists in Paphos did have a good selection of Majorette die cast cars. Amongst the general coupes, lorries and sports cars, I often found models from a sub range called 'Fiction'. Typically french in style, the Fiction range featured futuristic and stylish vehicles including a copter and a bike.  I picked up as many as I could find during my stays and have since seen other futuristic race cars from the same company. I have always loved unusual automotive designs since my first Hot Wheels 'Deora' model way back in '69 and still pick up the odd modern Hot Wheels from time to time too.

 

Prior to Mattels buy out and transformation of Matchbox toys from Lesney and the dumbing down of the line into a shadow of its former glory, Matchbox included a couple of sci fi models in their standard lines. The Planet Scout came out of nowhere and dropped into the range beside hot rods and bulldozers and for me became one of the best models ever made. The chunky green body and robust 4x4 styling was a departure from the usual type of car they made. Since then, I have spotted a similar design by Gorgo called the Moon Patrol, made of tin and plastic and dated around 1970, did this inspire the Planet Scout or vice versa ? Lesney then followed up the space them with the slightly less inspiring Cosmobile.

Can You Dig It ?

Ive blogged this model before, but ive been experimenting with a new photography technique and this is a favourite subject of mine, the IMAI Thunderbirds Excavator. I didn't follow the standard kit instructions and added some interior detailing with grinding wheels and a few accessories, to make it look a little more toy like. I also ditched the supplied figure and added a golden astronaut scale figure from a Tomy Zoids toy, just to bring it into the Spacex realm. Its a cracking little model, about five inches long in the body and molded in colour plastic.

Saturday Night Fever

After a heart-wrenching week I find myself in a reflective and melancholy mood listening to some of my favourite tracks, whilst my better half watches Britain's Got Talent on TV. On the Juke Box tonight, courtesy of You Tube, are:

• Mandy Fly Me by 10cc - the 'sharks were coming for me' bit is stunning! Great band.
• The Last Time by Rory Gallagher - from his forst solo LP, Rory plays the solo's of solo's. Epic.
• Fast Car by Tracy Chapman - totally takes me back to my late Twenties. This was her moment.
• Cortez the Killer by Neil Young - I only really discovered the Zuma LP in the last few years and this is it's masterpiece. Breathtaking.

Right, I'll leave you back in the capable hands of the Wotaniser as I seek solace by the sea. I remember at college learning that Woodlice - Porcellio Scaber and pals - get larger the closer you are to the sea. Just to be clear, not an individual woodlouse growing in size! Rather the local community of woodlice are made up of bigger insects. Hopefully they don't reach the size of crabs! I shall test this theory whilst paddling in the rock pools. Adieu.

Wheres Wotan ?

I recently decided to change my avatar picture from the angry looking rubber alien 'Wotan' to a more suitable 'tree man' again from the same stable of rubber 'Teachers Pets' monsters that I had as a kid. These two little figures are among my most favourite of all the monsters I had and have survived years of abuse and neglect. Since starting on this blog, the ranks of Wotans have expanded considerably from the initial rubber one to the tiny silver one that came with apollo moon exploring sets, to key ring based incarnations and more recently with the help of uber collector Astronit, to a clear plastic and further rubber versions of my favourite martian. Just this week, the mighty hordes acquired a new home, courtesy of the Lord of Sword himself, a fab bubble frame. I had just enough different versions to fill each compartment of the cool display frame and duly hung the boys on my wall. Looking at it and the figures slightly aggrieved expression, reminded me of that early episode of Dr Who where the cybermen, attended by cybermats, emerged from plastic cocoons on the space station and also of the episode of 'Out of the Unknown' on the BBC, 'Beachhead' where the enigmatic black aliens stared impassively from their egg shaped homes.