Time to Buzz the Tower

Time for another brief flypast, the Revell F19 Stealth concept fighter, 10 inches long and supported by the tiny F117 Nighthawk that came with the Italerai B2 Bomber kit. F19 was one of the first concepts for the mysterious new stealth fighter design to appear and was put forward as the probable shape of the next gen fighter. In reality, the smooth organic curves went out the window in favour of the angular shape of the F117. The concept of flat planar hull shapes had actually been conceived by german designers in the forties, but the idea was dismissed by the US as unfeasible.

 

Next we have the Italerai Ferret, a russian stealth concept aircraft, similar in form to the angular Nighthawk. Another kit from the original release in the 80's which suffered at my lack of model building skills. In the process of a slight restoration, one air brake missing and canopy removed to repaint the interior. A nice little six inch model.

Then back to diecast and the SR71 Blackbird with a small plastic supersonic drone that sits piggyback. This is accompanied by a neat little 3" plastic kit from the sixties, kindly donated recently by Andy B, of the X-15.

War Games

 While were on the subject of warplanes, i've come across these old catalogue pages a number of times online. Has anyone got a Air Force Globemaster or Phantom Raider ? Or even a clear copy of toy catalogues showing these cool toys!

Fly Past

 With the recent aeronautic twist to the posts on the blog, I was reminded of a couple of small diecast planes I have. One is an SR-71 Blackbird with a drone piggyback, but when I fetched it out of the archive, I realised it was missing a tailfin, so that will have to go back to the restoration department until the weekend. Meanwhile, a shot of a Tesco diecast 'Stealth Fighter' from the cheap range of pocketmoney toys that they produced to compete with matchbox Skybusters. This reminded me of a late eighties Dan Dare strip in the apalling 'New Eagle' comic, which I suffered on a weekly basis in order to get my fix of Dan Dare. A large portion of the art in later series was illustrated by the aviation and comic artist Ian Kennedy, which made it all worthwhile for his beautifully realistic machines. (It appears that a real life version of this F-19 concept was built and flown - the F19 Spectre, if I read this correctly!)

During one of the storylines which attempted to re-establish Dan in a more sensible timeframe, there was a sequence where Dan and Digby are at a future airfield and Dan had just tried out a new hypersonic aircraft that vaguely resembled the stealth fighter above.

Digby asks Dan "how did you find your first flight in a 'mud-mover?'". Theres no explanation of what he meant and the comment seems to be a reference to pilot jargon. Does anyone know what 'mud-mover' refers to ? Is it flying NOE or 'nap of the earth' under the radar or is it something else ?

 Any excuse to post a shot of a futuristic aircraft is a good one for me, so heres a modern Majorette Air Forces model. About 7" long, retractable landing gear, folding wings, firing missiles, remotely dropping bomb and ejecting pilot - the works. Not based on any real aircraft, its a pure toy, but well made and designed and fits nicely into the future fleet.

Finally, another diecast, the Hotwheels Armageddon Shuttle and Spacestation set. The metal shuttle is around three inches long and a little too long compared to its on screen version. The station in the film is an antiquated russian one, with more than a nod to Salyut and Mir, which after an accident with the cooling system during a shuttle refuel, promptly explodes.

The Hotwheels playset tries to capture this scene as the metal shuttle can be launched from the base of the station, which can then be collapsed at the touch of a button. All the modules are joined inside by nylon thread, so by winding a small knob on the base, the station rebuilds itself for another go!

COSFORD FLIGHTS OF FANTASY

News of a new and exciting Gerry Anderson event at RAF COSFORD in November
http://www.rafaleicester.org.uk/index.php/branch/10-events/1469-cosford-flights-of-fantasy

T ROCKET BOY

 

I keep coming across this image online and in leaflets. It must be a stock photo. What I like is the T in a Circle rocket. You know the one - it rises on a little metal stand. Don't know the helmet though.

Gold Nuggets: Bags of Gum

Like all kids I loved sweets. Alas, I still do! One of my favourites in the Sixties were Gold Nuggets [pictured]. They were a pile of little golden bits of chewing gum [or spuggy/chuddy as we called it], which filled a small cotton bug with a neat pull-string top.

 

 

The character on the bag was a sort of prospector [no, not a moon one], a Klondyke Pete type. They were everywhere back then. For some reason the Gold Rush, like pirates and cowboys and indians, spies and astronauts, was part of our juvenile world-view. There were Golden Nuggets cereals and I remember clearly a gold mine ride on Blackpool Pleasure Beach that I went on; a crazed runaway train of a thing that zoomed through creaking joists and crooked tunnels. It may have even popped outside in the open air now and then too! Ah, what joy!

 

 

So, my 'spice' was found in a small cotton bag. What was or is your favourite sweety/ choccy/ candy?

Ferryman's Fabtastic SWORD Fleet: UK and US Probe Force 1

Probe Force No. 1

by Century 21 Toys, UK [art box]

and Tarheel, USA [photo box]

Ferryman Collection

 

 

Anyone got any different ones?

Thundervids

One area of Andersonising that I have never really got into is collecting the various DVD formats of the Anderson TV series and films. This is odd as I'm an avid VHS video collector but for some reason I've never made the leap to an interest in DVD, As a consequence DVD improvements such as HD and Blu-Ray have so far passed me by as well.

 

 

However, I'm aware from my VHS collection that the picture and audio quality, duration, country of release etc can matter a great deal and whole collections can be built around acquiring the various different versions. With advances in DVD technology this is probably even more important for DVD collectors particularly when box sets are produced in different countries like the recent 7 - disc Blu Ray package from Japan.



This got me thinking as to what is currentkly available for Thunderbirds Are Go. I've got lots of Thunderbirds VHS including the movie but is there a DVD package with lots of doumentaries and extras? The only UK version I could, on Amazon, below, find looks rather lacklustre in terms of extras

 

Is there a really good DVD version of Thunderbirds Are Go with tons of extras about Zero X thrown in?