A Different Spin on Things

 Bank Holidays were always an excuse for a day out, invariably to the seaside. Seaside always meant beach shops and all kinds of cheap rubbish that you couldn't get anywhere else as it wasn't intended to last more than a few days at the beach. In amongst all the spades, kites, buckets and water pistols, there would always be other little gems tucked away. A perennial favourite of mine would have to be the Space Boomerang. These impossibly fragile things came in two sizes, a large one about the size of an espresso saucer and the small like the one i have here, a mere two inches in diameter. Looping an elastic band around the arm on the side would sent it spinning off into oblivion. Again, like the Quercetti Rockets and Arrowcopters, you were lucky to get any play out of these things as they either shattered against a brick wall, or took off on the wind.

 

The header card with the overly complex instructions is cool, looks like its been printed with ahlf a potato!

 In a similar vein, but safely back on the Earth were the spring powered spinning saucers. a handheld launcher and a sleek plastic saucer and occasionally a rotor as well, these were another ten minute wonder. Winding the saucer against the spring was always a risk, as one too many over enthusiastic turns meant the restraining clip on the launcher would snap and that would be playtime over. But when it worked, it was magical, watching the saucer spin and in this case, humming sweetly as it whirled around..

Remember to turn up the sound on this one..

and then you can hear me cuss as it wanders out of shot!

The Great Bank Holiday Getaway

Galaxy Defenders

Just been cheered up no end by Men In Black on the box. Such a fabulous film with so many memorable scenes and quotes, like 'I'm come for the cat, means worlds to me'! Even the theme tune is simply excellent and to celebrate the upcoming third film [no, not Woman in Black, although Susan Hill's lady is a sort of martian green!] here's Will Smith and Co's totally addictive MiB dance  [excerpt courtesy of You Tube].

I guarantee after watching this you'll be singing this tune all week! Just slide with me! Just walk with me!

Revenge of the Sixth

OK, you can say this any month but given the Star Wars tenet running through posts at the mo, I couldn't resist today!

My favourite Sith has got be Darth Maul played by Martial Artist Ray Parks in the Phantom Manace. I onced had lunch at Birmingham's Memorabilia at the NEC and guess who was eating at the next table? Yep, Ray Parks. He had a double headed knife and fork! Hee hee.

Have you ever been near or met anyone from the Star Wars universe?

These Are The Droids I'm Looking For

Andy B sent me this shot of the rather inappropriately named robot by Marx. Not a big seller in the UK, can't think why! Robot toys have always been a big staple since the late fifties, the tin toy market being dominated by legions of metal warriors marching across xmas carpets.

Star Wars really brought the robot genre to the next level, even expanding the descriptive vocabulary to include a new word 'droid'. From the early 3 inch figures of C3PO and R2D2, simple chunks of plastic, the robot toy lines expanded exponentially including Transformers, Terminator toys, Robosapien and all manner of action figures.

So what would be your favourite robot toy ? Apart from the obvious Robbie the Robot toys, one of my favourite toy robot designs would be the IG series figures from Star Wars Clone Wars. The tall skeletal 'phlutdroid' IG-88 first appeared in Empire Strikes Back as a three inch figure and thenlater as a rare 14" figure. Both had severely limited articulation, but the thin, gaunt body and thin head made the droid seem menacing and implacably robotic. The Clone Wars franchise introduced earlier iterations of the droid with the IG Lancer and Assassin Droids, all of which made it to action figure status, with much improved joints and articulation.

So what would be your robot toy of choice ? Tin, plastic, remote control, static, action figure, gum ball machine charm ?

May The Fourth Be With You

I can only say that once a year so I couldn't resist.

Hope you are having a nice Friday [or Saturday].

Woodsy

PS. what's the best way of writing the sounds made by either Chewbacca or a Light Sabre?

The reader with the best answer will be promoted to the Jedi Council

SWITCH ONE?

Arto and I were recently admiring a Hover Space Explorer 1 pictured top. I couldn't help noticing the resemblance of the rear switch to that on the SWORD Space Glider pictured bottom. I only have the Space Glider, which I know has a blue inner casing, so I can't compare them in the flesh, so I've placed pictures of the two switches together. What do you think?

Golden Boy

A recent spring clean of Mars Base meant a redeco of the living quarters. Part of the new colour scheme was to be a gold accent. One tin of gold spray paint later, I had a nice new ornate picture frame and half a tin of paint left. Hmmm, what looks good in gold... One of the astronauts I got in a job lot from ebay sprung to mind and voila! GA is all growed up!

Addendum: Ahh - I should have guessed. No sooner had I posted this than there was a ruckuss in the alien quarter - my namesake demanded a redeco too!