GREETINGS FOR THE SEASON

 

ITS THE FIRST OF DECEMBER READERS!

 

 

Remember when you wrote lists to Santa?

Remember when you made snowmen out of toilet rolls and cotton wool at School!

Remember when your Mum hid your prezzies under the bed?

Remember when the house starting filling up with wrapped gifts for aunties and uncles?

Remember when you couldn't think about anything 'cept Christmas morning!

 

 

THAT'S THE POWER OF DECEMBER!

THE CARS FROM UFO

Strakers Car

 

Fosters Car

 

I do love concept cars. I blame Matchbox for this. Oh, and the Sixties and Seventies too. They were bristling with the things! Gerry Anderson's UFO in 1970 had two of the best. What has happened to them since is even more interesting.

 

UFO fan and expert Marc Martin writes extensively on the subject on the UFO Series Home Page and has kindly given permission for it to be reprinted here. Marc adds "There was a third car as well, not mentioned in this article. Last I heard it was in was in storage at a car museum, but that was like 20 years ago, so I have no idea where it is now."

"Straker's and Foster's futuristic automobiles were originally designed by Derek Meddings for the movie DOPPELGANGER (aka JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN), and were redressed slightly for UFO. Life-sized clay models were built by German auto manufacturer designers, and then racing car driver Alan Mann built the cars for 8500 pounds each.


The cars were constructed using beaten aluminum on top of a Mark 4 Ford Zodiac chassis (predecessor to the Granada). The gull-wing doors didn't actually work, so someone always stood off-camera to raise or lower the doors. The actors reported that the cars were very unpleasant to drive in, as there was not enough headroom and the engine exhaust fumes spilled into the interior. Also, the cars could not move very fast, so many scenes were sped up to simulate a fast-moving vehicle.

In the years since UFO was made, the cars have changed hands a number of times. Straker's car was owned by Radio One DJ Dave Lee Travis in the 1970's. In 1980, the car was bought by someone in Birmingham who had it repainted with scenes from UFO, and then let it sit in a warehouse for years. He eventually gave it away to one of his employees, who in turn has let the car rust away in his back yard. To make matters worse, he eventually built a garage next to his house which prevents the car from being removed without a crane, and has no particular interest in ever restoring or selling the car to someone else!

After UFO, Foster's car was originally sold to a film company which removed the scoops and slats and painted it red for a futuristic porn movie. It was later purchased in 1982 by film buff who made the car driveable and actually used it as his personal transportation for 18 months! It was then damaged in the front and ignored until 1993, when it was purchased by UFO fan Tony Read."

Phil Broad has also written an informative piece on his site about these two cars if you want to find out more.

Has anyone ever seen any of these cars, including the mysterious third car and are there any updates as to their whereabouts?

Super Swordcast Link Up!

Tomorrow on Celtica Radio, the SWORDCAST proudly presents a special blog link up with Secret Space Base blogger Will Schwarz. Scoop will be chatting to Will about his interests and blog in the special edition of the Swordcast.

Tune in at 8pm UK time on Sunday 1 December.

Meanwhile, check out Wills blog - The Secret Space Base and catch his own podcasts too!

END OF NOVEMBER SATURDAY QUIZ

OK folks, I know you've got mince pies to bake and plum puddings to feed but take five and have a go at this film, tv, toy and sc-fi quiz! One answer per reader in the comments, thanks. You can do it!

 

 

1. In which film do we hear about the location Spivey Point?
2. Who is Eddie Quist and what movie is he in?
3. What is Action Man or GI Joe known as in Spain?
4. Who meets Sam Shepard's General in a bar at the end of the Ed Norton movie version of The Hulk [character and actor please as one answer]?
5. Name two ferocious monsters in the original Star Wars Trilogy?
6. Which hoax is at the heart of the movie Capricorn One?
7. Which Spanish toy company issued bags of plastic Thunderbirds figures?
8. What is the name of King Kong's home?
9. Which old toy am I describing? - hand-held plastic mazes in which steel balls roll round and light up a central light tower when they reach the end. For two players each with a hand-held maze.
10. Which Actor appears in both Jaws 3D and The Long Good Friday?

MORE FUN FROM FUNMATE: FUNMATE SPACE COMMAND

 

This old Funmate SPACE COMMAND bubble carded set is neat. It appeared on Ebay about a year ago and I'd forgotten I had kept the picture. It looks like a re-hash of Apollo Moon Exploring parts, but its hard to tell exactly. The silver astronaut looks more like GIANT than LP. Anyone know? I can imagine they made excellent Xmas stocking fillers when they first came out!

 

 

Around the same time I managed to win this little bundle of space toys. Again, they are very akin to Apollo Moon Exploring, although the little orange car and the lipstick rocket are not so common. Anyone got any small space sets like these?

SEAVIEW SCRATCHBUILD BY ANDY B

Hi Woodsy

 

 

Pictured are some of my more recent small scratchbuilt models, mostly milliput, pieces of plastic and the occasional scrap of wood.

 

 

To give some idea of scale, the Lost in Space Robot is 5 and a half centimetres high. The Seaview is a complete rebuild, based on an older scratchbuild (seen on the blog once before) - with more information found on the internet, everything had to be reshaped, I even had to saw it in half and shorten the hull.

 

 

The other figure you may recognise - it has a retro sweet theme. Thought you might approve!

 

 

all the best,

Andy B.

Under Pressure

Back in the seventies, when Airfix branched out to produce a variety of toys as well as kits, a favourite of mine was the good old Water Rocket. Essentially, a Saturn V shaped syringe, it was great fun during the summer months, shooting streams of water all over the garden. But, due to the nature of water, it was really hard to press the plunger in and invariably slipped out of my hands too!

They were produced in red and blue and amazingly, I managed to find a complete and unscathed blue on recently. 40+ years on, I was surprised to see how small it actually is, about 14" long as opposed to the idea I had that it was almost 2' long when I was 7!

Its emblazoned with the Words Water rocket in the classic seventies 'Countdown' font, that was synonymous with anything spacey back in the day!

BEING ILL AND GETTING TOYS

I've been full of cold this week and feeling ill reminded me of being ill as a kid back in the Sixties. I can remember drinking gallons and gallons of fizzy golden Lucozade, which even came wrapped in orange cellophane to make it even more medicinal! Did it really make us better?

Whether I was on the settee under blankets or in bed under more blankets, Mum always fussed round me like a matron. Fluffing my pillow, tucking in my sheet, checking my temperature! I loved it really and my personal level of nursing care has never quite been the same!

Being ill also meant toys. I can remember getting a Hot Wheels redline Silhouette during one particularly nasty bout of childitus, probably the Plague' Like most kids I seemed to get everything and anything. I loved that car and drew it and its redline pals in a graph paper pad, which I can still feel now. They were great drawings for a plague victim but Alas, long gone.

The best prezzie I got was for having appendicitis. In fact, said organ nearly burst I was that ill. Almost a gonner! After the pesky thing was safely removed and I was laid up in hospital, there was only one thing my worried folks could do. Yes, buy me a toy! Not just any toy mind, but a Zeroid! The brown one with the cool blue case cum trailer. I was made up and that Zeroid aided my recovery better than any doctor ever could!

 

 

What are your memories of illness and toys readers?