GODZILLA EATS THUNDERBIRD 2 FOR BREAKFAST

 

 

When I shut the door on the Moonbase Loft, allsorts of stuff happens when I'm not there!

 

 

 

 

New Godzilla prepares to chew on Thunderbird 2!

 

 

 

 

Astronauts land on the moon!

 

 

 

 

Old Gojira cleans his teeth with Task Force 1!

 

 

 

 

The OX MEV goes diving!

 

 

 

 

Bill plays with my Johnny Seven!

 

 

 

 

What happens in your den when you're not there readers?

MODERN SPACEX TOYS

SpaceX was a product if its age. The coolest miniature space toys around and straight out of the space race.

 

 

With the space race long gone and the glories of Apollo a faded vapour trail I got wondering what might be included in a modern SpaceX toy fleet?

 

 

Naturally there could be toy rockets from the commercial space travel company SPACEX but what else?

 

 

For me one contender has to be the ubercool and triumphant NASA Mars Rover Curiosity pictured here, which Hot Wheels have recently produced for our convenience!

 

 

 

 

A while ago, in a similar vein, I photoshopped a NASA Mars Polar Lander toy into a SpaceX pretender to see what such a modern line might look like.

 

 

 

 

So what post-1980's spaceships, rockets and concepts would you have in your modern SpaceX toy line if you owned a toy factory for a day readers?

IS COLLECTING SPACE TOYS GETTING HARDER?

Is it getting harder to collect space toys i have a feeling it is. its not just about access to them. its other stuff too. The economic downturn is affecting me personally and I have to watch every penny like never before.

 

 

But more importantly,  I think the world is generally anti-space travel. It seems luxuriant to most people when humankind is besieged by so many problems on the crust. Its not my view and I'm pleased as punch that Curiosity is trundling round mars despite the apparent apathy towards it.

 

 

The Chinese have gone into space again as well today. Maybe they can keep the space spark alive. It does feel as though I'm collecting my space toys in a vacuum, the complete opposite of the space mad Sixties in which I and many of you grew up.

 

 

The death of Gerry Anderson has been an unexpectedly sad blow too and all Anderfans will be feeling the same I'm sure. Will it become harder to keep the spirit of his vision alive now that he's gone?

 

 

I must apologise for my somewhat deflated tone. I'm having a bad week. Rats have chewed my electrical car cables not once but twice and it's costing me hard-earned creds to keep putting it right, cash I'd spent all week acquiring through sales on Ebay after a 2 year hiatus. I might as well have given the cash to the rats to chew on! Well, they can chew on some nice rat nasty stuff as of tonight. I don't like doing it but my car can't be they're mobile lunchbox!

 

 

In an attempt to lift my pot bound humour I've begun to read Moondust by Andrew Smith, an account his journey to discover the NASA astronauts of the Cape and Cocoa Beach. Maybe the heroics of the 'Original 7' and  'The Twelve' can cheer me up. That or the Pied Piper!

 

 

What are your views on collecting nowadays readers? Is it getting harder?

VAB ONE

Project SWORD and SpaceX were easily the most comprehensive space toy lines of their day. Everything was there for budding mission controllers!

But even the biggest toy lines can always do with a few extras. For instance, I always thought the Cape Kennedy Set would have benefited from a Vehicle Assembly Building [VAB]. Its pictured on the box!

The VAB could have been a collapsible affair that slotted easily in the box. Or even better, it could have been a separate toy, fully built up and in its own vabulous packaging, which admittedly, would have been pretty damn big given the size of the SWORD crawler, gantry and rocket.

How great it would have been to watch the full rig slowly crawl out of a huge plastic vehicle assembly building on the front room carpet! I suppose it would have been far easier to do for the SpaceX MLP or the Apollo Moon Exploring MLP, but I don't consider the VAB to be part of their canon. Its the picture on the Cape Kennedy Set box which swings it for SWORD.

 

 

What accessories would you have liked to see for your fave toys readers?

 

 

picture: nasa

SPACE TOYS IN THE NETHERLANDS

 

 

Reader Martijn has alerted me to this cool looking exhibition of robots and space toys at the Museum of the Twentieth Century in Hoorn, Netherlands. Worth a visit if your on holiday nearby for sure!

Exploring the Explorers

I'm always on the lookout for unusual vehicles, especially those with all terrain features or tracks. Its clearly an obsession which originated in Thunderbirds wide variety of pod vehicles and supporting models. Back in the 1980's British Home Stores jumped on the burgeoning space bandwagon and released a line of space toys. Oddly though, the line shared a lot of similarities with SWORD and Thunderbirds, but whether this was intentional in some ways, i'm unsure. BHS took a couple of basic battery operated vehicles, which had appeared in many guises around the late seventies, but usually in unbranded impulse buy packaging. These toys were the usual Hong Kong fare and borrowed heavily from other similar toys. They then expanded the range into a series of Rescue vehicles called Explorer 12 and gave five lead vehicles a 'theme' - Space, Ocean, Arctic, Terrain and Rescue. Fellow blogger Joe Lang has an exhaustive and great site devoted to E12 here, so I wont go into too much detail here!

 Here are two examples of the Ocean and Terrain vehicles, the basic chassis is unchanged and the dozer blade is identical. BHS added a line of tiny 1 inch driver figures too.

The basic concept of the multi wheel vehicle was used again and again in the rush to produce futuristic toys, Schaper Stomper toys were probably the earliest and most successful of the big toymakers to exploit the idea.

Here we have the E12 precursor vehicle, a larger non-branded HK version and a Stomper Amphibious vehicle.

Finally, a comparison with the classic Tractor T5 all terrain vehicle.

FRANK BELLAMY

We're all familiar with the excellent stylised artwork of Frank Bellamy who drew the Thunderbirds strip in TV Century 21 from 1966 to 1969.

As a point of interest I've dug out  some  examples of his work principally dealing with science fiction subjects,  prior to, and during his Thunderbird work. Frank wasn't a fan of science fiction but you wouldn't know it by looking at his work.

As many of you will know, Frank spent a year working on the Eagle  Dan Dare strip, starting at the end of 1959 when he, with assistance from artists, Don Harley and Bruce Cornwall  finished off the Terra Nova story. This was followed by Trip To Trouble and Project Nimbus.

In 1963 he illustrated the second Brett Million story, The Ghost World in Boy's World comic.

In 1966 he began his stint on Thunderbirds, however he did find time to do  illustrations on several of the front covers of TV 21 for the Captain Scarlet strip. This one from August 1968.

He also did the cover of  the first issue of Joe 90 Top Secret at the beginning of 1969.

His drew his  final Thunderbird strip in TV21 & Joe 90 comic beginning  September, 1969. There were four installments with the last two  drawn in black and white.

Of course, Frank is also remembered for his contribution to the Daily Mirror newspaper strip Garth, which he took over in 1971. These two examples are from the second story he illustrated  called The Cloud of Balthus.

Frank sadly died in 1976, and for a man who wasn't particularly keen on science fiction I wonder what he'd think about being best remembered for illustrating some of the best British sci-fi  comic strips!

SUB TRACTION

Ever since the C21 stingray submarine aircraft carrier surfaced in 2008 and became a blog legend, I've been hooked on futuristic toy submarines.

 

 

So I was chuffed when I came across these images of a really cool new one. This is a Greek submarine made by Solpa.

 

 

I love its sleek lines and space-rocket looks. The colour red with a splash of yellow is really attractive. Amazingly it's battery operated too.

 

 

 

The orange missile pair remind me of some I've seen elsewhere. Manta Force maybe? [pictures: ebay]

 

 

Anyone got any more plastic submarines?