MEGO? NO, MEGO NO!

Just watching TV toy adverts and getting that old urge to rush out and buy some! Nearly as good a feeling is reading about other fans' excitement about toy shopping. I love John Marshall's descriptions of his Saturday trips to Toy City [great name!] in his supercool book Action Figures of the Sixties. He kept his collecting bug sharp in the Seventies too at those natty named stores like K-Mart.

It must have been so amazing round 1974 to see a whole shelf of those huge boxed Mego Batmobiles towering up to the ceiling or all those Mego Super Heroes standing tall along the aisles. I don't remember them in the UK probably because I was a teenager in the mid-Seventies with other stuff on my mind. Did anyone get any Mego action figures or vehicles as kids? Do you still collect them? What toy shops did you go to?

 

picture: vectis

MOON PATROL

 

ITS NEARLY HERE!

ASTRO 1

The Astro 1 by Corgi was always a favourite of mine. A futuristic design reminiscent of the cars used in the film ’Journey to the Far Side of the Sun’ and the TV series ’U.F.O.’

Corgi did a nice a job on the Chevrolet ‘Astro 1’ which was released by them in 1969 and continued production until 1974. It was one of Corgi’s Whizzwheel range. Early versions had red dot wheel hubs which were later replaced with less desirable spoked wheels.

The toy was based on a  real concept car which was built by General Motors in 1967 and remains part of their Heritage Collection.  This futuristic roadster has the distinction of being a tad under three feet off the floor with a clamshell  canopy that raises up to allow access.

The main feature of the Corgi version is that same opening clamshell canopy complete with a sophisticated looking couple sat in the raised bucket seats.

There were two other Astro concepts realised by General Motors during  the following years - Astro II, from 1968 was a more conventional sports car  and in 1969 the three wheeled Astro III.

Being so low to the ground I don't think the Astro 1 would do your back much good but it was certainly a sight for sore eyes!

MOON PATROL

 

ITS ON ITS WAY!

Super Booster

2012 was a great year for Booster Rockets, seeing the elusive orange bodied Hover version and a small scale cereal premium version added to the Wotan Archive. Being a serial completist, it's always very satisfying to plug a gap in a range or collection, so I was very pleased to find a tiny box included in Woodsys birthday package that he sent me this week. Tucked away in the little box was the missile from the inside of the Imai Thunderbird 7 model. This tiny one inch model is clearly a booster rocket derivative, down to the winged glider at the front and strap on fuel tanks.

HUSTLER

Just listening to a rock band I haven't heard for 40 years, Hustler. I saw live around 1973 supporting the mighty Welsh power trio Budgie. I fell in love with Hustler from the first kerrang and swiftly exchanged some spondoolies for their first album, High Street pictured below with some glorious mullets on show! I also shelled out for their single Get Outa Me House, a cracking cockney geezer rock 'n' roller. There were so many great bands working hard to make a living back then and Hustler worked and rocked harder than most. For a taste of them here's their superb Jack The Lad courtesy of a fellow rock fan on You Tube.

 

 

Who were or are your favourite bands and musicians?

MOON PATROL

 

IT'S COMING!

Gunther Radtke's Nuclear Ferry

I recently saw this beautiful artwork from 1974 by Gunther Radtke on Flickr [X Ray Delta One]. Radtke is a German artist I'm not familiar with. The illustration is from an unknown German publication [anyone recognise it?] and describes the space station as a 'space factory for 400 personel'.  The perspective of the space station is beguiling and the two spacecraft echo the design of our friend the front cab of the Nuclear ferry pictured below from a story in TV21 comic.