The Death of Big Box Video

Last Sunday I went to the Doncaster Keepmoat Car Boot Sale with my Brother and his Missus. It's the first boot sale I've been to this year and I enjoyed getting out in the cold May sun. There was a time when I would have bought tons of old toys and come home with two bin liners' full, but these days I prefer to browse and enjoy the bustle. To be honest there just aren't that many vintage toys at car boot sales anymore here [maybe I bought them all!]. There was one decent one on this occasion with an interesting mix of stuff like a loose but excellent Marx Chief Cherokee with accessories for £15 and a boxed Matchbox Stingray Marineville Headquarters [OK, it's not really vintage]. I didn't get the price on that.

What I was actually looking for were old big box VHS or Betamax videos, which I collect. I was amazed how few there were - just a solitary one, amongst countless modern video's, which nobody wants anymore. I love video, it's history and, like Super 8 before it, the impact it had on home 'cinema'. It was revolutionary and now it's all but faded. We are literally witnessing the death of a technology. Big Box and Betamax were it's beginning and they are inevitably the first to disappear, only to exist in the future on collectors' shelves like mine. One day DVD will go the same dusty way, just not sure when.

Anyone else collect films in home formats like 16mm. Super 8, Laserdisc, Video or DVD or the players they're played on?

Repair in Earth Orbit

An atmospheric and moody piece of original art by Andy B.

FAVE 1

What's your favourite thing of all time? It could be toy, a record, a film. It could even be a song, a memory or a holiday! It might even be the future! Whatever you like!

Lost in Robots

Woodsy, in case you are still on robots. This is the cover of the old Aurora Lost in Space robot, now by Polar Lights / Moebius. There was a larger and a smaller kit - the latter is apparently 3 inches high (and the only one I might afford...).

Andy B

(NOT Generation Jones!)

 

Woodsy says: originally sent January 2012. Thanks Andy. Sorry for the wait! I love Aurora. Anyone else?

Kevin D's DC9

Hi Woodsy,

I dug out what is possibly my oldest toy (in that it was actually bought for me when I was a kid and I've still got it!). It is a TN Toys Douglas DC9 airliner. This amazing toy is battery operated and goes through a repeated cycle of taxi, stop, open door, lower steps (at which point a stewardess appears in the doorway), raise steps, close door, rev up engines (which pulse with red light as a jet engine sound is made), then taxi again. All achieved without a microprocessor and, it still works! I really must post a youtube clip of it! Thought people might like to see it.

Take care,

Kevin D

Woodsy says: originally sent to me November 2011. Slowly getting through all my emails. Sorry for the wait.

Space Scout on Patrol by Ed Ice Berg

Woodsy,

I got bored and started playing on the 'puter today. Using a shot I took of last night's Supermoon I thought it would be neat to add the Pyro X-100 Space Scout on a patrol of the sector. I haven't posted this to my blog yet so if ya like it you can use it on Moonbase Central.


This next Saturday I'm starting to do a modest series on Supercar! Specifically the 1/64 scale Johnny Lightning versions.

Cheers!
Ed "Ice" Berg

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