IS THE CLIFFORD TOY LEM A SPACEX CLONE?

There's been lots of toy LEMs on the blog over the years.

This red exhaust LEM in the collection of Paul Kaiju above caught my eye again. It came in a plain box by the looks of it.

 I couldn't help noticing a similarity to my Tri-ang SpaceX LEM below.

Here's the red exhaust LEM again in two parts.

They do look similar but I suppose all LEMs look the same.

There are more pictures on the blog of the red exhaust LEM. These are Bill's

Reading Bill's article from 2009, MOONGAZING, his red exhaust LEM is by Clifford Toys and his half the size of the SpaceX version.

Here's the box via an old Ebay auction.

Here's the same toy [I think] by Ahi coutesy of an old Ebay auction, this time in a plastic case!

So can the red exhaust LEM by Clifford and Ahi be seen as a smaller copy of the Triang SpaceX LEM or am I squeezing this particular LEM too hard?

BLACKPOOL AIR SHOW 2015: EUROFIGHTER TYPHOON

Last Sunday and Monday, Blackpool hosted a free air show between the North and Central Piers.

The aircraft chosen to open the show was the highly agile Eurofighter Typhoon from No 29 Squadron, RAF Coningsby,

Unfortunately, the sky was thick with grey cloud which didn't help with visibility, and at times the aircraft could be seen slicing through the water vapour, but the pilot still managed an impressive performance coupled with incredible speeds .

As it was the seaside, there were plenty of Gulls trying to steal the show.

It is a great looking aircraft. and described as a supremely effective dogfighter, and a close second only to the American F-22 Raptor, which is actually nearly twice the cost of a Eurofighter.

More aircraft photos to follow

ITS ONLY ROCK N ROLL BUT I LIKE IT!

I have to admit I am an armchair admirer of rock'n'roll memorabilia. For some reason I find it quite hypnotic knowing that these items were once in the hands of the greats of modern music. 

This US auction flyer I was sent, above, is typical of the genre, with a smattering of Elvis, John Lennon, Michael Jackson and so on to wet the appetite of rock collectors everywhere.

Can you imagine owning BB king's Epiphone F hole guitar or Eddie Cochran's Hall of Fame statuette? 

My only bits and bobs are a book about Samurai arms and Armour from the personal library of John 'the OX' Entwistle, bassist with the Who and an edition of Famous Monsters of Filmland from the personal collection of Screaming Lord Sutch, pictured below.

Have you got any rock 'n' roll collectables readers?

PROJECT SWORD: THE ORIGINAL TOYS

Since 2008 we have come a long way on the blog. With the help of  many people we know a lot more about Project SWORD in particular.

We know for instance that Project SWORD vehicles were based on a mixture of NASA concepts, NASA Apollo rockets, Japanese model kits and of course the worlds of Gerry Anderson, principally TV21.

I thought I'd take stock now its 2015 and do a simple list of what I think I know more or less for sure so far, in very basic terms, of something that really interests me, whether the SWORD toys were based on any toys or models that came before them. This compliments my big piece last year about origins, The New Origins of Project SWORD.

Century 21 Toy/ Original Toy Make or Model

Moon Bus/ Tai Hing Moon Bus toy, Hong Kong

Moon Prospector/ Tai Hing Moon Prospector toy, Hong Kong

Moon Ranger/ Nichimo Carboat Ranger model, Japan

Probe Force 3/ Otaki Green Monster model kit, Japan

Apollo Saturn/ Tomy Interplanetary Rocket toy, Japan

The rest of the SWORD fleet do not appear to have had any other definite source toys or models that we know of for sure but ideas, suggestions, clues are ALWAYS welcomed!

Old Man, River.

As part of my Creative Writing degree, I have been using my old home town of Liverpool as a source of inspiration. 'Scouse' culture is full of mysteries, magic and mayhem over the centuries and even today, the past sometimes intrudes into the present through its varied and colourful history. Growing up near the huge graving dock complex which saw many of the great ships leave for new worlds and strange adventures, the mythic nature of the city got into my blood. 

Consequently, I have written a number of Liverpool-centric pieces over the last couple of years and when I had the chance to have one professionally produced at Celtica Radio, I was really excited. To give it a true 'scouse' flavour, I read the story myself, before handing it over to Bill Everrat to work his magic and Dave Carrington at 'Squaring the Circle', to present it. It went live last week, while I was on holiday, so I thought I would post the link here, so that listeners can hear it now, as a downloadable mp3.

As always, I would welcome your input!

'Slipway' written and read by Bill Bulloch.

http://s124347079.websitehome.co.uk/audio/circle.mp3

AURORA MONSTERS

Some more Aurora adverts - this time it's some of the horror kits

PLASTIC ARMOURED COMMAND CAR FROM GERRY ANDERSON'S INVESTIGATOR

When Scoop and I both got a plastic Amphibious Coastguard vehicle from the Investigator a couple of years ago we said at the time that more plastic Investigator stuff would turn up.

Well we were right. In June eagle-eyed Arto alerted us to this ubercool plastic Armoured Command Car, which turned up on the amazing Vectis auction site.

The Vectis description ran as follows: 

Dinky No.602 Pre-production "Gerry Anderson" Armoured Command Car - this Dinky Meccano factory prototype (circa 1975) is finished in yellow plastic body, black base, parts and Speedwheels, grey interior with figure driver, green front cover - this was produced for the proposed TV Series "The Investigator" - production never went ahead so model was then changed to military green - superb opportunity to acquire - comes with a Near Mint standard carded picture box.

Not knowing anything about plastic pre-productions I had a bit of a look see on the net. The plastic yellow Armoured Command Car  reminded me immediately of the plastoc yellow TB2 featured on Vectis a while back here.

There is a reference here on the bay to a pre-production  Armoured Command Car  from two years ago. I Wonder of its the same one?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DINKY-TOYS-602-ARMOURED-COMMAND-CAR-PRE-PRODUCTION-RARE-/230724433262?pt=Diecast_Vehicles&hash=item35b83f756e&rmvSB=true

There's also mention of a possible plastic Armoured Command Car in this old thread http://www.diecastrestoration.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=167&start=10#sthash.stch7ikc.dpbs

This enlightening thread also says that so-called "prepro's" are more likey to be 'colour samples'. These Dinky collectors really know their stuff!

http://www.talkmodeltoys.com/discus/messages/27668/45265.jpg

And look at this "Code 3" custom of the Coastguard vehicle on Talk Model Toys. com! I thought it was a different plastic toy like mine but its painted die-cast!

Anyone come across plastic Dinky's readers?

CHURCHTOWN: WHERE THE EAGLE LANDED

Not long ago I thought I'd take a few photos of Churchtown village and  the 'Old Bakery', the birthplace of the Eagle comic and Dan Dare

Churchtown is just under 3 miles away from where I live, and I regularly drive through it , but it had been a while since I checked out it's famous landmark.

When I saw it I hadn't realised just how dilapidated it had become. It looks fairly close to literally falling down, but considering its age I shouldn't be that surprised. Even when the Eagle team worked there it looked in poor repair then.

The plaque is still attached though to remind those who visit it that between 1949 and 1950, the early editions of Eagle comic were created.

In those early days, the Anglican vicar of St James' church in nearby Birkdale, the Reverend Marcus Morris wanted to see a wholesome comic with Christian ethics, rather than the American Horror comics on sale to youngsters at the time.

 He enlisted the help of local artists, Frank Hampson and Harold Johns to produce dummy copies in an attempt to interest publishers.

During the Eagle's initial creation,  the Rev. Morris, keen on pushing the Christian values wanted the lead character was to have been a Chaplain working for the Inter-planet Patrol.

However, believing that a space padre might have limited appeal, Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future was born.

This is a dummy showing the proposed second edition of Eagle, which was found hidden amongst a collection of  ten volumes of Eagle comics of unknown  provenance which was bought by the London Cartoon Museum.

After Hulton Press took the Eagle on, only the first dozen or so editions were drawn in the Old Bakery, before the team moved on to a studio in Epson, Surrey, but every time I drive past, I do like to remind myself of where the Eagle pioneers first started.