BASE-IC Instinct

Well, just back at marsbase after a brief 2 day furlough with Commander Woods and Blu the Wonderdog. Taking full advantage of mrs moonbase abscence, we indulged a weekend of adolescent debauchery - gettin up late, eating junk food, loud music and trashy videos! In between the Nutella sarnies and cheap lager, Pink Fairies and Lou Reed, we squeezed in a car boot sale, a mess with some vintage toys, a skyped conflab with our radio mentor and the goriest horror flick ever made, by none other than the LOTR himself, Peter Jackson!

The Nice Dome - soon to be repurposed as a Moonbase!

Car boot yielded Woodstocks largest haul of vintage vhs ever and netted me a couple of diecast, a plastic dome and a Joy Division biography!

The Mighty Wotan - Protector of Canine Sensibilities, stands guard over Blu

Before leaving Yorkshire on a pikelet fuelled tour of the rail network, we sat through posssibly the worst sci fi film and Alien ripoff weve ever seen - Inseminoid! In Pontefract no-one could hear us scream! Probably made with the directors sons dinner money, starring the luscious Stephanie Beacham and most of the contents of Wickes discount section, it was the single most tedious film we have both sat through and this after watching Equinox, Braindead and Its Alive 3!

Blu shudders in terror after the couch dampening experience of Inseminoid!

STEVE'S MYSTERY SPACEMEN AND DESPERATELY SEEKING STINGRAY

Woodsy,

I need help over two things – perhaps your blog readers can help?

 

And secondly can anyone identify these Spacemen and one Spacewoman? I picked them up with some Dutch Thunderbirds keyrings so I would expect them to be Sixties? The helmets are removable. There are no markings on the base.

 

Thanks in advance,

Steve

 

 

If anyone can help Steve with either of these please let me know via the comments. Thanks, Woodsy.

Eaglemoss Batman Forever Batmobile

Here we have the latest release in the Eaglemoss Automobilia collection.

The Batmobile from the film, Batman Forever.  

The film, directed by Joel Schumacher with Val Kilmer replacing Michael Keaton in the lead role, had a much lighter tone  than the previous films, taking it’s inspiration from Batman comics from the forties, coupled with the camp elements of the sixties TV series.

This retro looking Batmobile  sports a giant stabilising central fin which can be seen flopping about during the film, and a less than discreet illuminated V8 engine.

It has the familiar jet engine exhaust at the back which, coupled with rockets on the underside and a Batarang grappling hook, enable the car to accelerate up the side of a building!

I admit, it's not my favourite Batman film, although it’s head and shoulders above the next in the series, Batman and Robin. The introduction of Robin didn’t help and to be honest I’ve never liked Jim Carrey’s over the top performances.

The over the top design of the Batmobile is reflected in the model, although the build quality on the one I received is less than perfect, with scuffs on the paintwork.

The lenticular 3D backdrop is a little disappointing too showing what looks like a couple of  Sedans’ being driven by Two-Face’s machine-gun toting henchman.

While I don’t mind the exaggerated  design of the vehicle, there were times when I thought it might have been more at home in a campy stage play rather than a film, which in spite of it's lighter tone, still retained the odd darker moments.

Next time: The sports coupe that was the Batmobile in Detective Comics #400

PROJECT W.O.R.D.S

A couple of word brainteasers for a Saturday afternoon.

Can you name the TWO missing 'word' steps that would take you from Wad to SWORD? You can only add or change 1 letter per step and there are only four steps from Wad to SWORD. Each step must create a word we all know in English.

 

 

By way of example, to get from Pod to Rude: pod, rod, rode, rude.

 

 

More brainteasing are the THREE missing 'word' steps from  Kill to Krill. Each of the missing steps must be from a Sci Fi or Fantasy movie. Same rules apply as above.

 

 

Submit JUST ONE WORD per reader via the comments. Remember, just ONE WORD!

DID THUNDERBIRD 2 INSPIRE TRI-ANG'S SPACEX?

The other day I asked if any of the SWORD toys could act like Thunderbird 2 and house pod vehicles. The answer was not really so I began to wonder.

We know that the Thunderbirds Radio Transmitter Car [and variations] and the SpaceX Tractor are very similar looking. What if SpaceX were originally intended as pod vehicles for a larger toy? I know I'm just flying a kite here. Are SpaceX toys the right scale to fit inside the JR21 Thunderbird 2 pod?

I don't have JR21's TB2 so if anyone has got one [or the MOLTO version] along with a few SpaceX toys maybe you could have a go, send a snap or two and let us all know!

 

HotWheels Pod Vehicles

Then came the night of the first falling star. It was seen early in the morning, rushing over Winchester eastward, a line of flame high in the atmosphere. Hundreds must have seen it, and taken it for an ordinary falling star. Albin described it as leaving a greenish streak behind it that glowed for some seconds. Denning, our greatest authority on meteorites, stated that the height of its first appearance was about ninety or one hundred miles. It seemed to him that it fell to earth about one hundred miles east of him.

I was at home at that hour and writing in my study; and although my French windows face towards Ottershaw and the blind was up (for I loved in those days to look up at the night sky), I saw nothing of it. Yet this strangest of all things that ever came to earth from outer space must have fallen while I was sitting there, visible to me had I only looked up as it passed. Some of those who saw its flight say it travelled with a hissing sound. I myself heard nothing of that. Many people in Berkshire, Surrey, and Middlesex must have seen the fall of it, and, at most, have thought that another meteorite had descended. No one seems to have troubled to look for the fallen mass that night.

But very early in the morning poor Ogilvy, who had seen the shooting star and who was persuaded that a meteorite lay somewhere on the common between Horsell, Ottershaw, and Woking, rose early with the idea of finding it. Find it he did, soon after dawn, and not far from the sand pits. An enormous hole had been made by the impact of the projectile, and the sand and gravel had been flung violently in every direction over the heath, forming heaps visible a mile and a half away. The heather was on fire eastward, and a thin blue smoke rose against the dawn.

The Thing itself lay almost entirely buried in sand, amidst the scattered splinters of a fir tree it had shivered to fragments in its descent. The uncovered part had the appearance of a huge cylinder, caked over and its outline softened by a thick scaly dun-coloured incrustation. It had a diameter of about thirty yards. He approached the mass, surprised at the size and more so at the shape, since most meteorites are rounded more or less completely. It was, however, still so hot from its flight through the air as to forbid his near approach. A stirring noise within its cylinder he ascribed to the unequal cooling of its surface; for at that time it had not occurred to him that it might be hollow.

He remained standing at the edge of the pit that the Thing had made for itself, staring at its strange appearance, astonished chiefly at its unusual shape and colour, and dimly perceiving even then some evidence of design in its arrival. The early morning was wonderfully still, and the sun, just clearing the pine trees towards Weybridge, was already warm. He did not remember hearing any birds that morning, there was certainly no breeze stirring, and the only sounds were the faint movements from within the cindery cylinder. He was all alone on the common.

Then suddenly he noticed with a start that some of the grey clinker, the ashy incrustation that covered the meteorite, was falling off the circular edge of the end. It was dropping off in flakes and raining down upon the sand. A large piece suddenly came off and fell with a sharp noise that brought his heart into his mouth.

For a minute he scarcely realised what this meant, and, although the heat was excessive, he clambered down into the pit close to the bulk to see the Thing more clearly. He fancied even then that the cooling of the body might account for this, but what disturbed that idea was the fact that the ash was falling only from the end of the cylinder.

And then he perceived that, very slowly, the circular top of the cylinder was rotating on its body. It was such a gradual movement that he discovered it only through noticing that a black mark that had been near him five minutes ago was now at the other side of the circumference. Even then he scarcely understood what this indicated, until he heard a muffled grating sound and saw the black mark jerk forward an inch or so. Then the thing came upon him in a flash. The cylinder was artificial--hollow--with an end that screwed out! Something within the cylinder was unscrewing the top!

The New Avengers

Here in Blighty, ITV 4 have started showing re runs of  The New Avengers, and I being a bit of a cult TV nut  have been tuning in.

I decided to dig out my meagre New Avengers stuff that  I'd picked up at the time.

First off my Purdey TR7 - Dinky intended to bring other New Avengers cars out but sadly they never appeared. I would have liked Steed’s Jaguar 5.3 coupe for starters.

The obligatory annuals.

The TV Times souvenir special was released to herald the series. (Mine’s missing the covers unfortunately)

The paperbacks - very important in pre video tape times.

Although the original series is considered quite avant-garde with a strong fantasy element mixing spy stories with science fiction, the New Avengers tried to concentrate more on the straight forward spy story making it less of a parody of the former series.

That being said The New Avengers still had quite a few sci-fi aspects - In ‘The Eagle’s Nest’, Nazi monks try to bring Hitler back to life through cryogenics, while the episode ’Last of the Cybernauts’ dealt with cybernetics. The episode, ’Gnaws’ featured a giant rat roaming the sewers. This was apparently based on the Thunderbirds episode ’Attack of the Alligators’.

The New Avengers aired in 1976 and unlike the premise of the original series which, with the odd exception tended to deal with bizarre situations in London and the Home Counties,  the new series had French and Canadian backers so several of the stories were actually  filmed abroad.

Patrick Macnee returned as the impeccable, John Steed. Producers considered, wrongly that as Macnee  was now the rip old age of 53 he would need a younger male side kick to do the action stuff.

 Enter Gareth Hunt as Mike Gambit, an ex mercenary and a bit rough round the edges. 

The lovely Joanna Lumley played Purdey - an ex ballet dancer turned spy and pretty much the main reason most blokes tuned in.

I think she fancied me!

Space Voyagers Saturn V On Ebay

A Saturn V toy by Space Voyagers is up for sale on Ebay UK. Blog reader Shaqui has listed it along with listings for a nice boxed NASA Probe Force 3 and an interesting BBC Boy From Space publication dated 1972. Have a look at the Saturn V toy here.