It's a low quality picture I'm afraid but until I can get Blogger to accept a higher megabyte effort this will have to do for now.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.
Monday, 12 November 2012
Exploring Space Movie
It's a low quality picture I'm afraid but until I can get Blogger to accept a higher megabyte effort this will have to do for now.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.
Sunday, 11 November 2012
THE ROBOT BUILDERS
The Robot Builders was a strip in Tiger & Hurricane comic. It started in issue dated 9th April 1966 and continued until 7th October 1967.
The story premise might sound a little familiar.
The Arrow brothers, Damon and David, along with their father, Andrew are all scientists known collectively as The Robot Builders, who have created a number of fantastic machines capable of carrying out rescues in any part of the world. They operate from a secret underwater base which emerges from the ocean whenever one of the Arrow craft are launched. This is eventually drawn as an island base. They even have a catch phrase - R.F.G. - Ready for Go!
Two regular robot characters are introduced adding a slight comedic touch to the stories. Eggy and Steve are the R2D2 and C3PO of the strip.
While the initial stories deal with rescues, soon the Arrow family are dealing with super crooks and extra terrestrial invaders.
The original artist on the strip was Carlos Cruz who drew it for the first year, however, for me the strip was really brought to life by Ron Turner who drew it from March 1967. The stories were about fantastic machines and Ron was the man to draw them.
The final story illustrated by Cruz was about a mystic from south east Asia called Sang Yu who could conjure up dragons and control the weather. The final panels of the strip reveal the power behind Sang Yu as the evil Doctor Dome.
Dome would return in the next story, now drawn by Ron Turner when the Arrow family would face the doctor and his army of robot Mummoids!
Although the strip quite obviously drew it’s inspiration from Thunderbirds I like to think it did develop a little from it’s original premise with the introduction of the robot characters, dropping the rescue idea and replacing it with fantastic alien invaders and super criminals. But of course it’s Ron Turner’s art that gave it the edge for me.
The story premise might sound a little familiar.
The Arrow brothers, Damon and David, along with their father, Andrew are all scientists known collectively as The Robot Builders, who have created a number of fantastic machines capable of carrying out rescues in any part of the world. They operate from a secret underwater base which emerges from the ocean whenever one of the Arrow craft are launched. This is eventually drawn as an island base. They even have a catch phrase - R.F.G. - Ready for Go!
Two regular robot characters are introduced adding a slight comedic touch to the stories. Eggy and Steve are the R2D2 and C3PO of the strip.
While the initial stories deal with rescues, soon the Arrow family are dealing with super crooks and extra terrestrial invaders.
The original artist on the strip was Carlos Cruz who drew it for the first year, however, for me the strip was really brought to life by Ron Turner who drew it from March 1967. The stories were about fantastic machines and Ron was the man to draw them.
The final story illustrated by Cruz was about a mystic from south east Asia called Sang Yu who could conjure up dragons and control the weather. The final panels of the strip reveal the power behind Sang Yu as the evil Doctor Dome.
Dome would return in the next story, now drawn by Ron Turner when the Arrow family would face the doctor and his army of robot Mummoids!
Although the strip quite obviously drew it’s inspiration from Thunderbirds I like to think it did develop a little from it’s original premise with the introduction of the robot characters, dropping the rescue idea and replacing it with fantastic alien invaders and super criminals. But of course it’s Ron Turner’s art that gave it the edge for me.
More Turner comic art in the pipeline, folks
The Eagle Transporter Forum
Reader Jim has pointed out the excellent thread on Kevin's SpaceX creations over on the excellent Space 1999 Eagle Transporter Forum: http://www.eagletransporter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=150090
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Moonbase Mayhem
Super Space Theatre
Our man at Nellis, Ed ‘Ice’ Berg sent these super scans of a promo card for the compilation movie, Thunderbirds in Outer Space. This was one of a series of feature length films created in 1981 by cutting several of the original TV episodes together.
The project was realised by Robert Mandell, Vice President of Creative Services at ITC Entertainment’s New York office. He was looking for a way to repackage the old Supermarionation series that at the time were gathering dust. The London office of ITC had cut together a Space 1999 feature using the two- parter, ’Bringers of Wonder’ to make the re-titled, ’Destination Moonbase Alpha.
Finding episodes of the various series that followed a similar theme, Mandell and Starlog writer, David Hirsch help put together several compilations.
Ironically, the first film produced was ’Invasion:UFO’. The original titles and theme were replaced with library music and video effects.
In fact, although at the time any Anderson fan would have been appalled by the cheap looking video effects and titles they are something of a curiosity now. In Thunderbirds in Outer Space, you can spot an Angel Interceptor and several ships from Space 1999 in amongst the superimposed Thunderbird craft.
One thing that is unforgivable is replacing sting missiles with laser beams in the Stingray titles - what were they thinking!
The completed films were shown in America under the title Super Space Theatre and released in the UK on video.
At the time, as most of these shows hadn’t been on TV for quite a while I was quite glad to see them in spite of their shortcomings.
The project was realised by Robert Mandell, Vice President of Creative Services at ITC Entertainment’s New York office. He was looking for a way to repackage the old Supermarionation series that at the time were gathering dust. The London office of ITC had cut together a Space 1999 feature using the two- parter, ’Bringers of Wonder’ to make the re-titled, ’Destination Moonbase Alpha.
Finding episodes of the various series that followed a similar theme, Mandell and Starlog writer, David Hirsch help put together several compilations.
Ironically, the first film produced was ’Invasion:UFO’. The original titles and theme were replaced with library music and video effects.
In fact, although at the time any Anderson fan would have been appalled by the cheap looking video effects and titles they are something of a curiosity now. In Thunderbirds in Outer Space, you can spot an Angel Interceptor and several ships from Space 1999 in amongst the superimposed Thunderbird craft.
One thing that is unforgivable is replacing sting missiles with laser beams in the Stingray titles - what were they thinking!
The completed films were shown in America under the title Super Space Theatre and released in the UK on video.
At the time, as most of these shows hadn’t been on TV for quite a while I was quite glad to see them in spite of their shortcomings.
THUNDERBIRDS ARROW FILMS BOX ART
If I had the dosh I'd collect Super 8 films in the original boxes. I have a few like Batman and Aquaman but none of the Gerry Anderson shows by Arrow films. The box art is really stunning [don't know who the artist/s was sorry] and make them things of beauty. I would collect them just for the cover art! There were a good handful of Thunderbirds Arrow films, which do occassionally bob up on Ebay. There are a number of websites, which catalogue them all like Steve's excellent and exhaustive Thunderbirds Vintage Toys and the large Supermarionation Thunderbirds Merchandise page. Being a fan of tracked vehicles I love the box art of the Arrow Joe 90 film 'Attack and Destroy' pictured above. The BIG RAT website covers all the Joe 90 Arrow films if your'e interested in more. A few years back our good friend Toad sent me this link to footage of the Joe 90 tank, the A14 pictured below in the Business Holiday episode. Does anyone else like Super 8 or Cine Film?
Friday, 9 November 2012
Wood ya ? Could Ya ?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Paul Vreede's New Spacex Toys Website
A beautiful and comprehensive site dedicated to the world of Tri-ang SpaceX and Golden Astronaut Toys
Ed Berg's Toy Blog: Toys and Stuff
