VINTAGE TOYS ON BOOK COVERS II

Hi Woodsy

Here is a pic of an MPC Fireball toy attacking "The Doomsday Planet"! There is no relevance whatever to the story!

 

 

Steve Zodiac

 

Any more out there? Woodsy

WINTER KWIZ

Kwick Kryptic Sci Fi Kwiz with lots of kicking C's!
Kwestion 3 & 7 aren't Sci Fi.

1. It wakes
2. He Konquers
3. Whales love it
4. Native Altairans
5. He had ESP
6. They Kloak
7. The K in Mart

Just one answer per reader please. Leave them in the Komments. Keep 'em Koming!

Space 1999 Displays At Cosford

 

Another movie from the Flights of Fantasy event. This time some of the super Space 1999 stuff on display.   

 

Again, many thanks to the contributors, and although the movie quality leaves a little to be desired I hope you can make out some of the detail.

Help! Desperately Seeking A Tinplate Moonship

 

"Hi Woodsy

 

I happened upon your amazing blog and it quite seriously WOWed me. I have turned the internet upside down inside out trying to find the Chinese Tinplate Moonship [pictured above] that you've mentioned. I saw this and this, which were both sold and I've contacted local toy collectors, international collectors, mainstreettoys, bergintoys, all to no avail, so I'm running out of options and thought that I'd ask for help.

 

 

I'm trying to get this for my dad as a gift. He had this as a child and it was one of his fondest childhood memories. Unfortunately he had to leave many things behind when he moved to Canada but he kept talking about this Moonship so it clearly meant a lot to him.

 

Now I know asking a collector to sell is the equivalent of asking for his/her first born. But if you know anyone who is has one, or where I could find one, please let me know. :)

 

 

Many Thanks,

Sherry"

 

If anyone can help Sherry please let me know here. Thanks

VINTAGE TOYS ON BOOK COVERS

pic: include me out blog

 

 

 

Ever since a reader spotted this paperback cover, BLACK CORRIDOR featuring a Spacex Nova, a few years back I've loved it. There can't be many novel covers picturing toys. Do you know of any more? Pictures welcomed here.

 

 

PS. Brainteaser: I know Mr. Vreede knows this so to everyone else: which other Spacex toy has been used to create the spaceship shown?

Billy Blasts Off

At the time that Mattels Major Matt Mason was riding high on toy shelves as the premier space toy of the sixties, Eldon, one of Mattels competitors brought out their own little spaceman. Billy Blastoff was a small child in a spacesuit as opposed to Mattels Man in Space. Presumably aimed at a slightly younger audience, Billy and his accessories had a much less realistic look. Billy also had an additional gimmick in that his batteries sat in the backpack and sitting him on a vehicle would power the motor in the craft. Later versions of Billy Blastoff added a walking ability too.

Billy Blastoff only managed a few years in production and saw limited release in the UK. As can be seen from the english Scalecraft catalogue above, he has sneaked into a small panel of the advertising. There are a multitude of different sets and guises for Billy to work with, which ill look at in detail shortly. Before this, i'd like to look at a special set of toys which has borrowed the Billy moulds and added another toy that we have seen before too...

Andrew Cook has kindly prepared this set of shots especially for the blog to showcase this unusual toy.

 The Lunar Scout set not only blatantly copies the Eldon set, but draws in the Bandai Thunderbirds Excavator craft too!

 The toy is very close to Eldons original and the toys themselves have more than a passing nod to Mattels famous toyline, including a Space Sled and a Space Crawler with the 'legged-wheel' design.

 At one point, Eldon were one of Mattels major competitors and held they're own against the toy giant.

More Billy and space toy fun to follow soon!

Puppets On Parade

Here's more photos I took of some of the puppets at Cosford.

 

Some are original and some are replica's, but pretty well most of the Supermarionation series are represented.

 

Jimmy Gibson (Original Restored Head)

 

 

                 Steve Zodiac (Original)                      

   

                                     

                         Troy Tempest (Replica)

                       Alan Tracy (Replica) 

            Lady Penelope & Parker (Replica's)

 

Captain Scarlet (Replica)

 

 

 Joe Ninety (Original) 

                     Father Unwin (Original)

A TRACY CHRISTMAS 1966

Forty Six years ago on Christmas Day 1966 I was exactly 48 hours into being all of 6 years old. Father Christmas will have still been totally real to me and I'll have just started at Sacred Heart Primary School. On the only British commercial TV channel, ITV [or ATV], Thunderbirds graced the festive airwaves with the episode Give or Take A Million at 5.05pm! Looking at the complete ITV listings for that day, posted above, it would have been easilly the highlight of my TV day by a long chalk even comparing it with the two BBC channels on the day. Sadly I don't remember watching it but that's a memory thing. Thunderbirds, JR21 toys and Christmas, what could be better! Do you remember any great Christmas TV?