Tuesday, 10 April 2012

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Nascha Anishinaabe, astrogeologist on board the Heimdall, clenched her fists anxiously as she felt the great ship shudder as the retros cut in, slowing it down to a virtual crawl as the flight computer corrected its flight path. Her normally calm demeanour was showing signs of collapsing today as the excitement building within her grew. The Heimdall was beginning the final phase of an orbital insertion into Saturns inner system, the vast gas giant sitting in a necklace of moons and satellites and the ship was closing in for its first encounter with the second largest moon, Rhea.

Rhea had been chosen as the first port of call for the mission as it had been established some time ago, that the moon had its own ring, or series of rings, just like it's mother planet. Anishinaabe wanted to see the ring firsthand and as soon as the vibration of the engines stopped, she had foregone the usual safety protocols and unslung her harness, making for the observation port. With Skarvalds protests ringing in her ears, she carefully descended the access corridor to the lower decks and scrambled to open the hatch to the viewing port. Her enthusiasm was rewarded by a halo of bluish light at the edge of the port as the automatic polarising shields, appalled at the brightness from the icy face of Rhea, had cut in. She stood at the edge of the port, gazing out at a scarred and cratered face, gleaming brightly in the reflected glare of Saturn. Already, onboard instruments would be analysing the light in various spectrometers and scanners, but Nascha could tell instinctively that the bluish glow suggested a fine atmosphere of oxygen, liberated from the ice and clouding the face of Rhea. Skarvalds voice across the intercom startled her and snapped her out of her musings and she turned swiftly to head back to the command deck. Skarvald would be readying the first probe to land on the surface and she needed to be on hand to examine the surface for suitable landing sites. Within minutes of her arrival on the main deck, Skarvald was busily issuing orders and she soon found herself strapped into the acceleration couch, waiting for separation of the Gungnir shuttle for a close approach. Within hours she would be able to examine samples of that spectral ice and with luck, float amongst the ethereal ring of dust and debris surrounding Rhea. She clenched her fist again, reflexively, imagining the cold of alien ice on her palms.

ETSY SPACE SETS

Just noticed that both these cool sets of spacemen and vehicles are available to purchase on the brill craft marketplace Etsy. The links are Apollo Moon Exploring set and MPC Spacemen set. Hurry whilst their limited stocks last!

Beans, Grits and Tracy Boys

I always have a look at the odd NOVOLINEA Carretas set on Ebay. I  assume this is a re-mould of Comansi figures, hence Novolinea, New Line? As for this box I thought it was just a nice half-kilo of cowboys and indians. But then I saw the side of the box and wow! spacemen!
But not just any spacemen, THUNDERBIRDS! What a great surprise beneath this box! But what are they doing those Tracy boys? And why cowboys and indians? Is this a temporal rip in the fabric of the Universe? Or just a mix up? Anyone collect Novolinea and Comansi?
PS. I love how these sets are measured in half kilos! Can I have half a kilo of cowboys please! Reminds me of a pint of prawns!

UPDATE: As the blog is a few years old now I forget what's been covered. Here's an earlier entry about Comansi/ Novolinea Thunderbirds showing the Thunderbirds half-kilo box with the right figures! [shown below] [does the title mean a half-kilo of space?]
and the rear of these boxes depicting Thunderbird 3 appears to be a detail of a bigger picture on a Comansi set called El Alunizaje shown below [picture: todocollecion auction site].
I am familiar with these Thunderbirds figures being referred to as Guardianes Del Espacio [Guardians of Space] but El Alunizaje means 'moon landing'. So Thunderbirds landed on the moon! Even stranger is a line on the box side, Guardianes En La Luna or Guardianes on the Moon. Sounds like UFO! Fab!

Monday, 9 April 2012

A Window into Childhood

I've blogged this still from some 1969 film footage before [British Pathe] but seeing as it's a long holiday weekend I thought I'd blog it again. You can buy this still from British Pathe, uncropped and without any watermark, for £20. Check here. The Spacex Superset looks simply awesome [wish I'd had one!]. What else can you see? This time round I've seen something else.

 
On the back window hangs one of my favourite books as a kid, the Finding Out Book of Battles. It has a sort of yellow cover picturing charging horses. I absolutely loved the artwork in this book and still do. I had no idea back then that it was by one Ron Embleton. I think I'd recognise his style anywhere just from thumbing though this book a gazillion times in my bedroom. Anyone else got a favourite book from childhood?
And if that's not enough British Pathe for you have a look at this 1964 footage of all manner of battery toys and dolls! Fascinating! http://www.britishpathe.com/video/1964-toys-on-show/query/london+toy+shop

I am the god of hellfire!

Recent aquisitions to the Wotan Archive have included a few Thunderbird kits, mostly from the Imai Rescue Set series, which include two simple kits. Previously, I posted the small Excavator with came with a small three inch Mole. Since then, I managed to find a partially complete box set of the Firefly and TB4. Both kits are very simple, with a maximum of about 10 parts in a model. The partial kit was missing the windscreen and rear fin from TB4 and one of the tracks from the Firefly. The tracks were one piece moldings with no moving parts, so it was no great loss to be missing one. As the body of the Firefly was quite nicely made and generally detailed, I decided to cannibalise an old Bandai diecast Mole model that was missing its tracks. The wheels on the Mole and Firefly are very similar, so they fit the new body quite well. The only remaining problem was the actual rubber tracks, which were missing from the mole and on the model. I managed to find a single track from a old JCB toy, but had to substitute the second track with a black rubber band. This done, a minimal paint job to reveal some of the body detail was all that was needed. After I had painted, the back of the model still lacked something, so I found a small external tank and added it beneath the 'roll cage'  on the back to flesh it out. 
The model itself is greatly simplified due to size, but also doesn't follow the design of the tv original exactly either, but does make up to a nice, toy like model.

Zero Eggs At Easter





Last week I blogged the Zero X cutaway in colour from the SWORD Annual. Reader Mike B has kindly sent in the original black and white specification sheet, along with some other gems from the TV21 Thunderbirds Spring Extra. Very topical as it's Spring and Easter. They just don't do kids' comics like this anymore I imagine, stuffed full of space-age craft and fururistic machines. But I might be wrong. I'll have a look in the newsagents tomorrow! Anyways, thanks Mike!


Despite what my droll title may say, I do hope the Easter Bunny brings me at least one choccy egg today!

Sunday, 8 April 2012

More Marx Moon Base

Hi Woodsy, the Marx vehicles are named in this picture from an old toy mag.
CS

Woodsy says: thanks a lot CS. Coincidentally, Toad recently shared the whole article with me, which was fascinating. Here's a piccy of the relevant issue, #35 from 1995 in case anyone wants to track it down. It would appear from the Plastic Figure and Playset Collector Magazine Website that back issues are still available!

Eastertime

Happy Easter everyone. For me, it always brings back a flood of memories of past times with my Parents, now long gone. The holiday was a springtime basket of of mass, egg finding and rolling, hot cross buns, family meals, visiting sisters, picnics on the park and to top it all off, Disney Time on TV! I do still try to keep some of these old traditions going.


What does Easter mean to you and what is it called in your neck of the woods?


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