A Back Yard Journey Into Space

On these cold and occasional cloudless nights that have occurred these past few evenings I thought I’d seize the moment and have a go at taking a few photos of the night sky in the back garden.  It’s not as easy as I thought and takes quite a bit of trial and error.

Living in a town, light pollution is always going to be a problem, but I reckon you can still get some nice views even in these conditions.

Here’s a  few shots I thought some of you might like.

A First Quarter Moon with some reasonable crater detail along the terminator.  

The following night shows a little more.   

Almost Waxing. My latest Moon Shot.

A change of lens and a look at the stars.

The constellation of Orion, low in the sky and very prominent. I was pleased with the colours here. Note the red super giant star, Betelgeuse at the top left hand side. The streak at the top is a jet engine vapour trail.

The three stars, Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka that make up Orion’s belt, and below that are three points of light making up Orion’s sword.  The centre fuzzy light with the split down the middle is the well known Orion Nebula,  around 1,344 light years away apparently.

Even though they are only pin pricks of light there’s something really special about  identifying and capturing these images. It really fires the imagination. Are any of you folk out there keen on this? and if so any tips or photos would be welcome.

I've still got a lot to learn about Astrophotography but  I’m looking forward to a few more clear nights and a backyard journey into space.    

PROJECT SWORD DREAM SHOP: ASTRONAUT DOLL

Seeing an old auction photo of an Action Man astronaut I was intrigued as to what a Project SWORD box would look like next to it. By the power of Photoshop, hey presto! All that's missing is a SWORD Astronaut badge. Would you have bought one of these boxed dolls?

Coming Soon...

Ive just found the single most wonderfully clever website with an amazing Pulp Comic Cover generator! Brilliant stuff! Run, don't walk to the Pulp-o-mizer! Your covers welcome!

Nuclear Liner

Nuclear Liner

I created it using Paint.

Your space art and sketches welcomed for posting too.

Heres Hugh from Small Scale Worlds 3d cgi Space ship!

A Trained Eye

During my brief sojourn with the gaffer at Moonbase, we uncovered some old toys in the MB archives. Among the goodies was a biscuit tin of small plastic toys. Amongst them were Kinder toys, small cracker gifts and some german made train items. Woodstock generously donated them to me as I love small sweet premium type toys. The trains came in 3 distinct types and sizes, the smallest, in an ivory colour plastic, was accompanied by buildings, a bridge, station and signal, none of which are over an inch long. Next came a three piece diesel engine and two carriages at about 2" long and finally, a variety of 3" long rolling stock made by Solo Effka. Woodstock tells me they would have been brought back from a trip to Germany, but we don't know anything else. Can anyone else help?

PREDATOR

Predator was one those cinematic creations that went beyond  it’s original 1987 film, and captured the imagination of comic readers, gamers and collectors of toys and models alike.

I wouldn't call myself a fan , and I’m certainly no expert on it but I found myself enjoying it vicariously through my son, who along with his friends, really took to it.

Although  it’s  pretty much Alien revisited I imagine the Predator’s appeal is it’s essence of personality and it’s codes of honour etc rather than just being a soulless unreasoning killer. - plus something we all should understand, a compulsion to collect things!

In the past during my occasional trips to Memorabilia at the NEC , my son always asked for me to keep an eye open for any Predator toys or models.

I loved the artwork on this Micro Machine pack.

"There's something out there waiting for us, and it ain't no man!"

KAIJU CONQUER THE WORLD

Being a space age and monsters fan I enjoy crossovers of the two genres especially on toy box art. The Japanese are masters at this and there are countless examples of what they call Kaiju, or giant monsters, terrorising hapless military men, astronauts and cities. The most famous Kaiju is Godzilla. The genre might be said to have eaten itself in Destroy All Monsters but survived many more outings and is brought right up to date in this year's monster blockbuster, Pacific Rim.

 

 

A good example of a space age Kaiju crossover toy is Strange Explorer. The box art depicts a huge King Kong-like Gorilla battling with a space tank.

The side panel shows the monster ape holding up the tank weightlifter style and is typical of what most Kaiju did to military hardware! A good movie example is Frankenstein Conquers The World, in which a 50 foot tall atomically-mutated man destroys most of Japan! Famous Monsters of Filmland caught the monster's charming grin in this classic Basil Gogos magazine cover.

The West had its own 'Kaiju'. In fact America's King Kong kicked it all off, followed by countless overgrown creatures like Mighty Joe Young, The Colossal Beast, Ymir, the Danish Reptilicus and of course, Cornwall's very own Gorgo.

 

 

Despite this long tradition of huge monsters in the West though, I can't think of a single example of American or European toy box art showing them pitted against spacemen. Why? Is it Japan's unique place in atomic history that has lead to their fascination with Kaiju-cum-space toys? Any ideas readers? Theories, observations and pictures of space monster toys welcomed. Now run for the lives!

DIE CAST WITH A VENGEANCE

Die-cast toy cars I had as a kid and wish I still had: Corgi Drag Star with Whizzwheels. I absolutely loved this crazy looking machine, which came late in my fixation for die-cast toy cars. It was 1972 and I was 11.