I recently saw this lot of Japanese Glico candy toys on Yahoo Japan. At first glance its just a huge mass of plastic but on closer inspection we find some real gems completely new to the blog!
Project SWORD mini Space Gliders with hollow bodies and axled wheels! In both red and blue colours, these are new to Moonbase. We've seen solid mini gliders before but not these. The seller stated that there were no makers mark underneath the gliders but I assume they are indeed Glico.
Nestling amongst the toys were these three mini SWORD Scramble Bugs. Of the solid plastic variety, we see them here in red, blue and yellow colours, of wehich red and yellow are also completely new to Moonbase Central.
There are some Captain Scarlet SPV's in the pictures too. Can you spot them or indeed anything else you recognise?
Now that we've all seen the new Thunderbirds are Go trailer what do we think?
Personally I think it looks great. The action figure Tracy boys look fine piloting their respective craft and I 'm looking forward to seeing a full episode.
The animation using models and computers looks excellent, a far cry from the usual CGI fare which, to be honest I've never been that keen on.
And for us older fans there's plenty of nods to the past, most obviously the late Peter Dyneley doing the Thunderbird countdown. But one thing that convinces me that the producers have got that essential understanding of what Thunderbirds was all about is the simple image of a helping hand.
Here's my latest Moonbase Central Production, a short film showing the essential refuelling of a Zero X. The refueller is a Scramble Bug. The fuel is Iron Bru made from girders! Enjoy!
The recent talk about a Spacex annual got me thinking about how good it would've been if they'd done trading cards (or bubblegum cards as they would've been then). I've mocked up a couple, one in the style of the 60's and one the 90's, hope you like them.
If I had the dosh I'd probably collect the Action Man figures and costumes I had as a kid in the Sixties. One of my fave sets was this gorgeous Lifeguard featured on the Vectis website.
One thing I have always been fascinated with is military rank and I enjoyed placing medals onto my Palitoy Men.
A couple of years ago I found this ranked uniform at a flea market in Germany, part of the Adventure Team I think. No idea if the ribbons mean anything.
I remember the Iron Cross the best from when I was a kid. I also seem to recall bands of ribbons on some Palitoy costumes but can't think which. Does anyone recall Action Man ranks and ribbons?
This is exciting! I recently acquired a BULLYCAN catalogue of their plastic Spanish toys from 1970* and lo and behold, inside were photographs of their COSMICOS AVIONES knockoff SpaceX range. In the top picture you can see three of the range parked outside small card hangars [top picture, bottom left]. We've seen the toys before on the blog but not in a catalogue.
Even more startling is their shot of three of the range sat on the deck of a plastic aircraft carrier [below. top right]. The carrier, PORTAVIONES, we've seen before with just Hawks aboard, but the combination of the three different spaceships and the carrier is completely new to the blog and may represent a hitherto unknown play set available in Spain in 1970. What do you think readers?
* the seller did state that the catalogue was from 1970 although I can't find any reference to that year on it. There are the numbers 1978 but these may be part of a longer Printers postcode on the back cover.
As a kid of the Sixties I regard myself as having a OO licence to collect James Bond stuff. A lot of it is worth a king's ransom and above my pay grade but books can be picked up for a modest sum. Here's a couple from my shelf: a hardback The Spy Who Loved Me and a Great Pan From Russia With Love.
Do any of you collect James Bond readers?
ADDENDUM BONDIUM SCOOPIUM
I can't find a single image of Scoop's Lone Star attache case. Its not even featured on 007 Collectors Lone Star toy section. It must be rare now, probably because the case was made of card.
Here's another Lone Star box set bottom right picture - the set is in the middle [G].
This video and email were received at Moonbase from Corey LeChat in the Summer of 2014. I haven't heard from Cory since so I really do hope he's OK. [words below in italics are mine]. This is for Corey.
Hey Woodsy
Here's something for the blog...I
figured I'd point you in the direction of this music video my creative
partner Dave Kerin and I did for the band zikzak (Todd Stadtman
of diedangerdiediekill.blogspot.com as well as many many other
talented ventures).
Todd, David and myself were (are)
huge Gerry Anderson and all things 60s sci-fi fans and we did this circa
2000/2001. Dave and I shot the video based on my storyboard. He did the
CGI and edited it all together. I built the sets, shot still images,
etc. The ceramic cats used in the video were a pair of banks that
appeared on the cover of the first zikzak release (CD).
It features Anna Li and I'm the giant cat. Todd was based in Los Angeles at the time
and David and I were in Pittsburgh, so Todd was unavailable to film any
new footage, so we used a quick shot of him playing an acoustic gig and
some talking head footage. With this in mind, we created what you see
here. I'm still proud of this thing over a decade later.
Here's a completely ridiculous (and very toy nerdy) video
breakdown:
1) opening zoom based on the Flash Gordon
movie
2) the cat's Tracy Island base of operations is the Lil
Playmates Space Station from 1984
3) plastic panels in secret
cat base are from the 1957 Kenner Girder and Panel Building Set
4) cat ship inspired combo of Space 1999 Hawk and Eagle
5) Anna Li's
moonbase was put together from the Hasbro 1969 Astrolite playset
6) the moonscape was made of composite shots of the lunar
landscape from 2 different 1960s Comansi Thunderbirds playsets
7) Frozen Todd (lead singer of zikzak) in tube was in fact a Fairylite Thunderbirds Brain figure with Todd's head photoshopped on it
8) and of
course - a classic 60s Ultraman-esque battle in front of poster mural of
the lunar surface
