ANDERCON PUPPETEERING

Unsurprisingly, there was plenty of puppets at Andercon, mainly replicas, and many with heads cast from moulds taken from original  props.

As the Athena venue had plenty of open space many of the puppets had their own  replica sets.

This highly detailed set shows Brains in a scene from Thunderbirds episode, The Cham-Cham, and was built by Andy Grishaw and Jeff Gaskell.

Another lovely recreation. Here's 'Nosey' Parker with Light-Fingered Fred doing porridge! 

This photo of Joe McClaine with the Rat Trap in the background is a set up recreating a 1993/94  Brighton display restoration courtesy of Chris Carter.

Puppeteers Judy Preece and Richard Gregory appeared on stage, showing the tricks of the trade with their puppetry demonstrations.

The highlight was a practical demonstration of the state-of-the-art puppet of Sam Scott from Anderson Entertainment's proposed new series, Fire Storm.

This remarkable puppet looks fantastic, and takes puppeteering to a whole new level.

PLASTIC SEA BIRD VARIATIONS

Plastic Sea Bird made in Hong Kong.

Colour variations in the Ferryman collection.

LEAF CENTURIES GUM CAPTION COMPETITION!

I love this old American wrapper for Centuries gum. Given that there's a rocket heading straight for them, the grins on the faces of the boy and dinosaur are hilarious!

So, who can come up with the best caption or speech bubble for it! The funnier the better of course!

DO YOU LIVE IN THE PAST?

It's an odd phrase 'Living in the Past'. Someone I know thinks that I do - live in the past. 

But don't we all? After all, the past was when I started this paragraph!

Where does the past end and the present begin? Or indeed the future for that matter. None of them have definite boundaries like fossil layers or the sound barrier. Surely our past is more like the youngest course of a river, a river of time in which we were born and currently swim upstream, eventually bringing us to the open sea of the future. 

In this sense we are always connected to all three temporal states aren't we?

Perhaps I'm just nostalgic as, I suspect, most vintage toy collectors are? I had to look up Nostalgia to be sure of what I meant. It is, according to Wiki, a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. It is a formation of a Greek compound, consisting of nóstos meaning "homecoming" and álgos meaning "pain, ache".

So, Nostalgia is like homesickness by the looks of it. I cannot deny that I loved my Sixties and Seventies childhood and think about it often. I wouldn't have a blog like this if I didn't. Vintage toys are like companions from that special time, inanimate travelers who, like me, have survived, bobbing along in that river again. 

I suppose collecting them and writing about them is like being a salvage merchant, rescuing them from smashing on the rocks.

But do I live in the past? The modern usage of this term seems wholly negative, an assertion that someone is in someway not here in the present, when they clearly are. Surely a concern for the past is a good thing, a reflective state that allows us to take stock of the current and indeed plan for the years to come. 

I cannot live in the future and I'm not sure if such a phrase exists in English. Perhaps some people live for the future, for a distant realm somewhere else and anywhere but here. Germans call it Fernweh, the opposite of Heimweh. That's not me I have to admit, although I adore the futuristic visions of Gerry Anderson, Stanley Kubrick et al.

For those of us who were lucky enough to have happy childhoods I cannot imagine anyone not being nostalgic. There is simply something care-free, worry-free, stress-free and pain-free about being a happy child. In a word, yes, free. 

If living in the past is recalling those halcyon days and somehow preserving some of that sense of freedom whilst we busy ourselves in our modern adult lives then yes, I suppose I do live in the past.

How do you feel about this expression readers?

ANDERCON PHOTOBOMB

 I thought I'd share a few shots that I don't usually bother posting as I always feel they come across as a little self indulgent, but as they show one of the real fun aspects of going to a convention that is easier to get across by snap shots, I thought why not!

As many of you folk who attend conventions and Autographica events will be aware, guests are always more than happy to have their photo taken with you, like this one showing the affable Shane Rimmer with yours truly, which was taken by my pal, Andy Kerr.

Andy took this shot while I was having a friendly chat with David Graham and David Elliot.

However, things can go in any direction when mischievous Matt Zimmerman gets involved.

He's just so full of fun. He couldn't resist photo-bombing a picture of Jeremy Wilkin and me.

I just had to have photo of me and Matt together!

A VIVID ZERO-X TOY?

I wrote to Vivid Toys recently about their current Thunderbirds Are Go toy line and the possibility of a Zero-X. Reply below:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Consumer Services.

Unfortunately we currently do not have any plans to release a Zero X toy as a part of this range, however we will be hopefully expanding the range in future and have passed your comments onto our development team for their future consideration.

If you have any additional enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Consumer Services

Vivid Imaginations

LP SPACE EXPLORER BACKING CARD: ART ATTACK

This beautiful card art for the LP Space Explorer has been cleaned up by our very own Man in Las Vegas, Mister Ed Berg. It appears with a really beautiful set of Ed's photographs of the toy itself on his own ubercool blog Toys and Stuff.

I was so intrigued by the graphics on the card that I thought I'd have a go at trying to identify the parts so here goes:

1. The strange colander-like sphere I think I've seen before - on the cover of this ANALOG magazine, The Trouble With Telstar by John Berryman from June 1963.

2. The Rocket with the rear wheel and front antenna I think is another LP toy as well, the blue rocket shown here next to the red Space Explorer in Ferryman's collection.

In fact I think the card illustration is a re-use, albeit very basic, of this LP box art

3. The small ringed planet reminds me of the LP dome car but short of that it could just be a random illustration done for the card.

4. The ring space station I have no idea about!

5. The striking zooming Dyna-Soar-like rocket in the centre of the backing card does ring a bell but my mind's gone as blank as the vastness of space.

Any ideas about the missing elements readers?

SYNTHETIC HUMANS?

Anyone see the new TV drama about androids called HUMANS the other night? 

It seemed to me to be a return to thought-provoking British Sci Fi of the quality of say Chimera or Edge of Darkness. William Hurt's presence connects it right back to Kubrick's AI.

OK its the first episode but I enjoyed it immensely and only time will tell. I wonder if we'll see HUMANS action figures or even life-size dolls, which is a conundrum in itself!

What did you think?