HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILL!

Look what we found in today's postbag!

 

From Woodsy

 

 

From Andy B

 

 

From Ed The Iceman

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WOTAN

FROM EVERYONE ON THE BLOG!

MANY HAPPY RETURNS

TO EARTH

YOU OLD SPACE DOG!

Kennedy Capers

Some while ago, I blogged about a small Cape Kennedy Launch Pad set, I'd come by from the states. A classic Woolworths or seaside shop toy, it replaced one I had as a kid. The combination of delicate plastic and a powerful spring meant that it didn't last long. The cog shaped devices are satellites, which are spring launched from the tip of the rocket after it reaches a height set by a length of cord, which sets off an interior spring catch. Since I've, had it, I've been tempted to open it, but resisted. Yesterday a large box arrived from my great friend Paul Vreede which contained (amongst other delights) a larger carded version of the set.

This one held the same rocket and gantry but was joined with a neat radar telescope too. The blister was held one by a couple of rusty staples, so this time, I liberated the set.

 Its a marvellously simple design, clean and unfussy and nicely scaled for Spacex too.

The Radar telescope is scaled much smaller, judging by the tiny stairs and doorway, but has some great detail.

Although the card is marked Dean plastics, the toy is clearly trademarked in German. The gantry rolls back with a small knurled wheel and astronauts can take a lift to one of two platforms.

BOOK OF SPACE ADVENTURES 3

Published by ATLAS in the early Sixties, the  series of Book of Space Adventures is a great addition to your space library. I've got number 3, which is packed with Sixties NASA space concepts and programmes, many which echo Project SWORD and Spacex/Golden Astronaut. I've posted a few pages here. Have you any old books containing designs which went on to become space toys?

Lunar Orbiter a la Spacex top right

Space Gliders a la SWORD and Spacex

top: US MIDAS satellite. Does it remind you of Spacex's

Photonic Propulsion Space Station as well [below]?

Art by Scoop 2009

MARS BASE PARTY: T- MINUS 24 HOURS

GIVE ME SOME SPACE, MAN

Always on the hunt for new recruits to the Wotan Space Legion, I picked up a nice lot of spacemen on ebay this week.Listed just as 'plastic spacemen' with no photo or description, I gambled two quid and hoped for the best. I won and a box of 70 figures arrived, mostly Marx/MPC clones, but with 2 LP clones, 4 portly grey fellows of unknown make and a certain spandex wearing 80's Tv star..

I Am Two Face(d) !

 Here we are on the second and final part of the BatModels article. As I expressed earlier, i'm not a true Batfan. So on the one hand, I hated the early Keaton/Nicholson series of films, but love the new Dark Knight trilogy. But what brings me here, are the Corgi diecast range of Batman models. I've struggled to find a definitive list and as I picked up a few of them at a discount store, I was never that keen to look further. What attracted me to these models was the futuristic flavour to the designs, as opposed to the true series connection. 

 All the models are beautifully made, with action features and an image of the appropriate Batman on the base of each. Ill leave it to the more knowledgeable blog members to point out which is which, but one or two of them are a little more recognisable.

 Robins Redbird looks almost like it should be starring in Ridley Scotts Blade Runner as a Spinner vehicle and has lifting engine covers at the rear.

 For me, the best model by far is the Bat Submarine. A sleek gunmetal shape with extended ducted turbine engines tucked away at the rear.

 Pressing the two bubble canopies realeases two side mounted torpedos and a pair of guns at the front.

 

I did come across this image of some of the other available models, but I understand there are quite a lot more.

THUNDERBOX, HO!

There was a time when I merrily dashed around all over the place to snaffle vintage toy bargains I'd seen in the small ads of the local rag. I'd drag my poor family on these evening drives to Leeds and Wakefield. They patiently waited in the car whilst I haggled on doorsteps over a better than the advertised price for a boxed action man or a Waddingtons Ouija Board game [what were the boys at Waddingtons on that day!?].

These jaunts also took place on Weekends where I would visit every charity shop and discount store in Pontefract or Wakefield, my two local towns. It wasn't just vintage toys that came under my scrutiny. New stuff often found its way home, especially if it was a bulk bargain like two for one Val Kilmer Batman Utility Belts, which I

So that old zeal for a bulk buy was well and truly awakened when I saw the Thundercats offer at Home Bargains this week. Tantalising in its scale and packaged to appeal to either the serial hoarder or forward thinking toy dealer [and parents of young children!], the offer comprises twelve, yes twelve brand new Thundercats action figures from the new TV show packaged in a no-nonsense warehouse box for just under £12. A saving of £84!. Feast your eyes and start your engines! Picture courtesy of Home Bargains UK. Ho!

WHICH SPACE TOY LINE WILL SAVE THE HUMAN RACE?

With a dying Earth and an imminent extinction level cataclysm, which space toy line would be best equipped to save the human race and establish a new human civilisation on a 'new Earth', a planet or planets not necessarily in our own system but maybe in a very distant one?

 

Please vote and explain your answer:

 

1. Project SWORD

2. SpaceX/ Golden Astronaut

3. Apollo Moon Exploring

4. Manta Force

5. BHS Explorer 12

6. STAR FORCE

7. Starcom

8. Major Matt Mason/ Cap. Laser/ Outerspacemen

9. Micronauts

10. Transformers

11. A.N.OTHER?

 

 

Why not listen to BOSTON and the sublimely perfect More Than A Feeling whilst you ponder our fate?