Comics Everywhere!

What, with the Avengers and Spidy at the cinema again, comic Super Heroes and Villains are everywhere nowadays, but when I was a wee Superboy you had to go to the newsagents for a dose of your favourite characters. Fortunately I had brothers [still have!] who read comics too, so the house was full of 'em. To be honest it was some of the less obvious US titles, which I loved to lie down with on the floor and read [why did we do that and not get on the settee?].

I particularly loved 'Sad Sack', about a dopey soldier in the army. I also loved 'Casper the Friendly Ghost' as well as 'Archie'. British comics I liked where anything with monsters in like Grimly Fiendish, but I forget the title. 'Fantastic' was a British marvel issue and often came with free gifts like an elastic band pistol. I remember there was always a cool poster on the back of 'Namor' or 'Thor' or some other fabulous person.

The distinction between a comic and a magazine is a fine one, but 'bigger' comics were in the house to be enjoyed too: the brilliant Creepy and Eerie by Warren, Psycho and Nightmare by Skywald [remember their Horror Mood!] and some truly gruesome- covered ones called Terror or Witches Tales [my Dad once threw some of these out all because of the covers!]. For light relief I read 'MAD', courtesy of my brothers too. I loved to fold the back cover, as shown by the arrows on it, to make a new crazy picture!

Later fare lying around the house got cerebral and manly and were definitely magazines: OMNI, Inside King Fu, Easy Riders [big shiny motorbikes], Disc and Sounds [music papers] and with access restricted to only big brothers [they thought!], Men Only and Mayfair.

And so, as our thoughts turned from Lady Penelope and Wonder Woman to the girls in the Sixth Form, as quick as a slick of grease through the hair, the comics, sadly, were well and truly gone!

What were your experiences with comics?

PLASTIC FANTASTIC: MIKE B'S CENTURY 21 ZERO X

Hi Woodsy,

Been rummaging through some old photos I took of the Zero X Century 21 toy on the Glenn Field diorama and thought you and the readers might like to see them.

Cheers
Mike B.

Un Phased

Further to Woodstocks poser as to where Phase 2 fitted into the SWORD scheme of things, heres the badge from the Nuclear Ferry box, possibly the flagship of a second round of models, which probably included the infamous Moonbase, that never saw production. But there again, we never thought the Ferry existed...

or maybe it was much more simple than that ....

and as always, my eternal thanks to Nuclear Terry for finding the beast in the first place!

Ground Control to Major Tom

Strange what you think about when your mind wanders. I was watching some vintage footage of David Bowie on TV last night, Space Odditty as it happens, released just before the Moonlanding. I was singing along. Missus Moonbase said 'Wow, you know all the words!'. I do. I'd forgotten I did and how important Bowie was to me when I was 11 right up to being 16. His Ziggy alien persona really struck a chord as, like most young teeneagers, I felt like a sick martian on a planet full of stiff grown-ups!

I continued to watch the TV show about his early career and found I knew all the words to every song! Starman, The Man Who Sold The World, Ziggy Stardust, Rebel Rebel. Such great tunes. But I suppose the soundtrack of our youth is always going to be super special isn't it. I had every album: Hunky Dory, Aladdin Sane, Pin Ups and so on. So many great LP's including the double gatefold 'Images' containing all his early stuff like 'There Is A Happy Land', which were also on the Music For Pleasure gem 'The World of David Bowie'. I could relate to all of his characters: the martian Ziggy, the Cracked Actor, the Rebel, the Man Who Sold The World. Aliens all like the young ones listening to them, out of kilter with the world.

I stopped buying new Bowie albums round 1975 with 'Diamond Dogs'. Everything after that I don't know a single word from unless I've picked bits up from mates or the radio since. I wish I'd have carried on back then. I'd already got into Lou Reed's 'Transformer' and 'Berlin' albums' so I'd have enjoyed Bowie's three Berlin albums, 'Heroes, Low and Lodger' at the time I imagine. My young buddy George loved them but I'd filled my head with rock and the new gods were Budgie, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rush. I know all their songs too I reckon!

There's a Starman waiting in the sky, he'd like to come and meet us but he thinks he'd blow our minds! [and I didn't look!]

Who were the musical heroes of your youth?

T FLYING SAUCERS: The UFO and Moon Ranger Mercury Mark IV: A Checklist

T Toys [Tai Hing] made a range of cool plastic flying saucer toys. The two basic types are the UFO, of which there is only one version, red and yellow as pictured below, and the more prolific Moon Ranger Mercury Mark IV seen above with pal Robby. All of them have a cloudy astrodome, four corner domes and an aeriel.

The Moon Ranger Mercury Mark IV was made both by T Toys and Clifford. It has corner domes with pilots and a metal aerial. There are a number of colour schemes, which I'm aware of, as you can see here. Pictures of any further versions welcomed.

Above are yellow - silver and red - blue versions with the same box by both T and Clifford respectively I think. the right hand red version has what appears to be a plastic aerial as does the yellow and red variant below.

Above we have a lime green and silver variant with its T box.

Finally we have two different shades of blue. The above all-blue version has a different name: "Space Ship Mercury Mark IV" and is unbranded. The light blue and version below is a hybrid of both the UFO and Moon Ranger as it has striped tape around its centre and a plastic aerial

Picture credits: Woodsy, Ebay, Alphadrome and Vectis.

Blast Off With SWORD Phase 2

Just what was Phase 2 of Project SWORD toys?

Advert from TV21 158

UPDATE: PHASE 2 on the Nuclear Ferry box

(photo courtesy of Wotan)

It's a Man Thing

A shared passion of mine are the simple plastic Acrobates figures originally designed by Rene Ach. They date from the same period as a number of similar, simple toys created by Patrick Rylands. Rylands designed Playplax, Mosaic and a pair of supremely simple bath toys in the shape of a bird and a fish. After I found a reference to Playplax and his other toys in a copy of Design Journal 1970, I saw more of his toy creations, including a simple toy, very similar to Rene Achs acrobates, called 'Little Men'.

 This odd, almost sculptural toy is brutally simple in its design and conception. It consists of three, five part figures and a stand. Each piece is approximately 4mm deep and fitted with grooves around the edges. Each piece grips the other by means of marrying up the grooves, allowing a basic, two dimensional poseability. 

The set I found seems to be an ex classroom toy, the box is battered and torn, but the toy itself is complete and almost unused. This is hardly surprising as the actual play value of the toy seems limited. The figures must be used with the stand, so it basically becomes more of a display piece. From that point of view, it works extremely well as the iconic shapes of the figures allow a flat, colourful sculpture to be created.

UFORIC

Last year I was lucky enough to add this fabulous UFO to my T Toys collection. A beautiful classic UFO with the lustrous box art we have come to expect from T.

Whilst browsing Yahoo Japan this month I noticed that fantastic little Glico take on this style of UFO. I don't own the toy so I prsume that the central ball rolls free. The Japanese really are masters of the miniature.