KING SHARK TANK DIVE

Scoops little orange ball behind his Super Seven reminded me of the orange ball on the Japanese King Shark tank. 

Here's a short clip from You Tube showing how it drives underwater and releases its floater!

Anyone got this kit?

FALL OUT - ORANGE ALERT

Some photos of the little 1:43 Lotus Super Seven which was a subscription gift given away with the DeAgostini Prisoner Files magazine.

LIDL MONSTERS

If you spend a tenner in LIDL you get a free rubber monster. We got three the other day. Some are reminiscent of the monster characters on Ugly Stickers back in the Sixties! Ask for yours when your down at Lidl.

For those who don't recall what an Ugly Sticker looked like then here goes:

In fact I'm pretty sure Bill has got rubber versions of the Ugly Stickers monsters themselves.

Does anyone shop at Lidl?

ROMPER ROOM MYSTERY

Recent blog chat has been about the TV show Romper Room. I don't recall that on telly at all in the UK but I did have a toy Romper Room Car Ferry Play Set in the mid 1990's found at a boot sale. 

It was a huge boxed play set with a plastic ferry that picked up cars and took them across a river. This was the logo on the box. Is it the TV show logo too?

I don't have any pictures of that car ferry set but would love to see it again. Anyone know what I'm on about?

GRIPPIN' ECK

CONFESSIONS OF AN ERSTWHILE OLD TOY DEALER

Back in 1990 I set up an old toy store-room in my cellar to house a growing pile of spare vintage toys, which were not part of my own collection.

These were amassed from the fabulous Car Boot Sales in our area at the time, where Ghostbusters, Batman, Thundercats, Star Wars and He-Man toys were in plentiful supply.

My cellar doubled up as a 'shop' as well with the odd collector visiting, trading and buying. I also began to stand at local evening and weekend toy fairs, but largely sold via mail-order through the UK's Model Mart magazine. 

It was really great fun for me: I was a newbie, my knowledge of the hobby grew and grew, I met some super people and it was a golden period of great finds, prolific bargains and pre-internet sales.

Times changed in the world of selling in the late 1990's and from 2000 I began selling my old toys online.

I'm still amazed by how much time I used to devote to this side of our hobby. In 2005 I gave up a 'good' job to do it full time - I had an office, an online 'shop', business cards, even a T-shirt! I was the quintessential old toy dealer living the 'dream' but really still a collector at heart.

As I didn't have the capital to buy mint rare boxed stock. I settled on loose cheap toys from car boot sales, charity shops and flea markets. Any good stuff I acquired went onto my toy stand I took to toy fairs and swap meets in the North of England, where I occasionally sold the odd project SWORD item as well.

Despite selling literally thousands of collectables since 1990 I couldn't keep the dream alive and make it pay - I'm not really a businessman at all - and again I had to return to conventional paid jobs around 2006. Doh!

My zeal for the 'toy dealer' way of life waned around 2009, slowly dwindling each year after that to the point now where I sell maybe a few things online every few months.

I don't regret putting so much time and effort into this side of the hobby. It was a busy and fascinating time and I was twenty five years younger when I started.

I still have photographs of sold goods from 2009 onwards, so, as its Friday night and time to kick back and chill after a week's hard toil, I thought I'd begin a few posts showing some of these pictures. There are no Captain Lasers or James Bond attache cases I'm afraid, just common or garden used toys of varying ages I used to buy in bulk and sell cheap, with the odd exception when luck was on my side and my coffers re-filled, sadly a very rare occasion!

What has been your experience been of buying and selling old toys readers?

NB: the game in the second row, 4oD, proved to be of interest as the first time I showed it on the blog the game's actual designer got in touch!

ONCE UPON A TIME

I've always liked to collect original paperback novels of my favourite TV series, and, remarkably, have managed to retain quite a few. And so continuing my week of Prisoner-themed trivia, here's some pulp stuff related to that series.

I picked up these three Prisoner paperbacks at a stationary store in Southport in 1981. It was around that time I first visited the Village in Portmeirion (In fact, 'A Day In The Life' still has a village postcard of The Green Dome I slotted in between it's covers. It was the first time I was able to read some official authorised original fiction based on the series.

These three books were previously published by Ace books in the USA  in 1969/70, while my UK versions appeared in 1980/81. While they are entertaining, stand alone novels dealing with the themes in The Prisoner, they do offer very little insight into questions posed in the series. However, 'Who Is Nunber Two? does begin with the line , " Drake woke. Automatically, naturally, without  an alarm, he came to conciousness." perpetuating the notion that I'm happy to agree with that, The Prisoner is , indeed Dangerman,  John Drake

This second item of original Prisoner fiction is the four-part graphic novel, The Prisoner: Shattered Visage.  published by DC in 1989, and written by Dean Motter and Mark Askwith, Artwork is by Dean Motter.

This intriguing read takes place twenty years after the original series' events. A young girl is shipwrecked off an uncharted beach. She finds an abandoned Village, and it's one last remaining inhabitant!

I must admit I find the artwork an acquired taste, but I have to say the authors' really know, and like their subject.

"Wir sehen uns!" 

NASA HYPER III: SIMILAR TO SCOUT 2

Whilst still searching for footage of the Lockheed FDL 5 Variable Geometry test plane, which we've suggested as the origin of the SWORD Scout 2, I've found these old NASA and Dryden clips and pics on You Tube et al of the similar NASA Hyper III being tested. Enjoy.