MIKEPHIL SPACE EXPLORATION CARDED SET

 

 

 

This is the vintage Space Exploration carded set made by Mikephil. Clearly an LP/ Apollo Moon Exploring knockoff, it has a collectability all of its own now. I find the backing card and artwork especially appealing. The two cards shown have differing coloured space capsules [courtesy of Darth and Astronit]. Does anyone own any more Mikephil sets or colour variations?

 

 

If you like the robots pictured on the card art then you'll love Astronit's supercool flickr gallery including the seldom seen Dragon Master carded set. Click here.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE DR.WHO ANNUAL?

1969 was a great Christmas. I was just 9 years old and Man landed on the Moon. Slam Dunk! I got the Project SWORD Annual and this, my favourite Dr. Who Annual with its ace Cybermen cover.

 

For some reason looking at these pictures from Ebay the annual reminds me of the SWORD annual in its overall look and layout. I don't have the Who annual any longer but I wonder if its the same size as the SWORD one? And just what was the name of the doctor's Scottish assistant on the cover?

 

 

What's your fave Dr.Who annual readers?

TV21 PROJECT SWORD ART GALLERY

 

We've seen some amazing illustrations in the TV21 Project SWORD stories so far seen on the blog. Most of them feature one or two of the SWORD vehicles, which makes sense considering that this would have been one of the few product placements for the toy line.

 

 

However, some of the illustrations don't feature any SWORD vehicles at all, which must have been a brave move by TV21 editorial team since each weekly story contained only one drawing. With this in mind, here are four illustrations I've chosen, the top one with obvious toy-based SWORD spacecraft and the lower three without. What do you think readers?

2005 AND BEYOND BY MULTIPLE TOYMAKERS

 

Here's another Multiple Toymaker re-hash from 1976: 2005 and Beyond. I saw these on Ebay US recently. Clearly re-using their old Golden Astronaut moulds from 6 years earlier, this new range issued pairs of spaceships in new colours. There doesn't appear to a Golden Astronaut figure included. I've never seen them in the flesh. Have you?

THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE DALEKS

The current hype for the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of Dr Who will, no doubt be putting Whovians into a state of frenzied anticipation. In amongst the official BBC press releases are the rumours and conjecturing from the dozens of self-appointed experts found on the internet. The story, surrounded in more security than an American President coupled with the simultaneous television broadcast of the special episode around the world means that they can only speculate on the Doctor’s anniversary adventure.

Although, from what I’m told some of the modern stories are so convoluted that even when it’s been shown, most people who don’t possess a fanatical encyclopaedic knowledge of the series will still be left in the dark! 

One thing’s for sure the Daleks will, of course be making an appearance. Without them Dr Who would have been cancelled years ago. 

Way back in 1963, I was just a five year old.  Some of my mates from infant school were talking about a new TV series with some scary alien robots! Towards the end of that years Christmas holidays I started watching it at maybe the third or fourth episode of that first Dalek story.  Scary or what! I can still remember the nightmares !

I think I’m safe in saying that during the sixties at least, the Daleks were what sold Dr Who to the public. Without them Dr Who would have been just a forgotten series.

Most spin off merchandise was marketed as ‘Dr Who and The Daleks, with the  word ‘Dalek’ in a much larger typeface.

Although, the BBC and script writers have tried desperately to come up with antagonist’s as popular with the general public as those sons of Skaro , none have come close. The Cybermen gave them a good run, but you mention Dr Who to someone in the pub, nowadays and what they associate with the series and they will almost always say Daleks!

So as a celebration of the upcoming anniversary of the first appearance of the Daleks on the BBC I’m going to do an occasional series looking at their TV and film  encounters with that pesky and annoying Time Lord.

Coming soon: The Dead Planet.

Einstein a Go-Go

Ok, bear with the ignorant Earthling, but i've just watched the Science of Dr Who with Brian Cox. Very entertaining, but im not an astrophysicist, so one or two concepts escaped me. Following on from Woodsys diagram of the one shown on the show, which illustrated the passage of spacetime, Prof Cox showed a 'future light cone' and a 'past light cone' emanating from any given point in time, namely our present moment.

According to Einsteins Special Theory of Relativity, time travel is impossible, due to the inability to exceed the speed of light. Light travels in straight lines, at a fixed rate, but does it travel backwards in time ? My understanding of the theory is shown above, i'm sat at the centre, being me. My future extends before me and my past (naturally) sits behind my current timeline. Apparently, the light cone extends at 45 degrees to my present time plane, both into the future and back to the past. My understanding of light is that it proceeds in all directions, so should logically be a sphere, as shown on Wotans Special Theory, above.

If however, light (or spatial events) radiate outward, as Cox suggested with Faradays candle, infinitely, then light from a cone in the past, should therefore impinge on events in that points future (my present) as shown below.

So if light cones, or in my concept, spheres, extend forward and backward instantaneously, surely, time travel is occuring, contrary to Einsteins theory? If a past event does radiate forward, does it in any fashion effect the future event ? Apart from the actual causal chain of real events ?

or am I missing the point here......?

BOOKS ON VINTAGE TOYS: DR. WHO

As its the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Who this year, I thought I'd mention Dr. Who too. Like thousands of kids in the Sixties I sort of grew up with the good Doctor. In fact, the Doc was the cause of one my most painful hospitalisations but maybe more on that another time!

What I wanted to mention were vintage Dr. Who toys, of which there must be many avid collectors as there are Anderfans. Although I'm aware of many of the classic vintage toys spawned from the original Doctors' shows, I honestly don't think I ever had any as a kid. Nope, there's no memory of them, which is strange as I did love the show. I know I had the old annuals as they were sat alongside the latest James Bond Annual on the sofa on Christmas mornings.

Much of my own knowledge of vintage toys, besides personal experience, I got from books I bought in the Nineties and Naughties. One book I meant to get hold of but never did was the Transcendental Toy Box, a guide to Dr. Who toys.

 

Have you got it and if what's it like? What are your favourite Dr. Who toys and have you any more books on vintage toys?

BIRMINGHAM COMIC CON

I'm leaving Moonbase next Saturday and taking a trip to the Memorabilia Comic Con at the NEC in Birmingham [England]. Anyone else going?