GI JOE ACTION MAN BOOK COVER ART

Regular readers will know that I love seeing vintage toys on the covers of books and records. I've blogged about them many times. Well, it appears that I'm not alone. Here's a tasty smorgasbord of GI Joe cover art over at Saved From The Paper Drive. Enjoy!

http://savedfromthepaperdrive.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/gi-joe-book-covers.html

Do you know of any vintage toys on book or record covers or maybe featuring in a film readers?

CORONA POP

'Every Bubble's passed it's FIZZical'

I miss Corona fizzy drinks - and, what's more you could take the empty bottle back and the shopkeeper would give you cash!

Seeing how KID mentioned Cresta, I thought I'd dig out a couple of ads from 1974, to tantalize your nostalgia buds!

DID YOU WRITE TO COMICS?

When I was a maturing ankle-biter in the late Sixties and early Seventies I wrote to magazines and comics on occasion. 

More often than not it was about a back issue that I was missing rather than a critique of the current issue.

As far as I recall I didn't enter competitions either but my memory is sorely in need of an external hard drive to reboot it!

I did write to Film Review asking if they were planning on a Bruce Lee cover, which they obliged me and many other young shaolin monks with in July 1974. I was 13.

Did you write to magazines and comics readers or enter their competitions? Did you get a reply, get published or win the comp?

ADDENDUM:

ZZrobot has kindly sent me his letter which appeared in Spider-Man #111.

JAPANESE SF BEETLES AND LUNAR CLIMBERS

Here's a nifty Japanese SF site detailing the various old models kits of the Beetle and the what we know as the Lunar Climber. Lots of colour pics of amazing kits here:

http://home.s00.itscom.net/nekonii/uma/tank/10myjosf.htm

MOTT THE HOOPLE DRUMMER DALE GRIFFIN RIP

Dale 'Buffin' Griffin, the drummer for legendary rock band Mott The Hoople has died aged 67. He had been suffering from Alzheimers disease.

I was lucky enough to catch one of Motts reunion gigs during 2013 in aid of Alzheimers at the Manchester Apollo. Dale was too ill to perform by then, but he was able to stand on the end aisle with the fans, and join the band for the encore.

Mott The Hoople's name came from a 1967 novel by Willard Manus, and their biggest hit, All the young Dudes was penned by the late David Bowie in 1972, just prior to the band deciding to split . Bowie was a big fan and persuaded them to stay together. Dudes reached number 3 in the UK and led the way to several more hit records during the early seventies.

Terrance Dale Griffin  1949 -2016.

Our sincere condolences to his family.

ON THIS DAY: JOE 90 TOP SECRET

Forty seven years ago a new comic, previously heralded in TV21 arrived in newsagents across Britain.

City Magazines and Century 21 publishing gave Gerry Anderson's latest puppet series his own comic - Joe 90: Top Secret.

I remember picking up that first issue and being quite excited about it. The free gift, a working Jet Air Car seemed so sophisticated at the time.

The colourful front cover showing the opening panel of a new Joe 90 comic strip drawn by Frank Bellamy was certainly eye catching. Inside however, the strip was black and white and drawn by Keith Watson. Not that there's anything wrong with Keith Watson's art, it just that, like most kids I would have expected the cover star to be in full colour.

There was a small feature on the Jet - Air Car, with instructions on how to assemble the free gift.

There was a couple of other black and white strips. One was the unlikely and forgettable Ninepence + Tenpence = Sport, which featured  the dreaded F word - football!

ITC's The Champions, drawn by Jon Davis was a slightly better entry, There was even a little feature on those cut price Six Million Dollar people for those unfamiliar with the series.

The centre comic strip spread was devoted to Star Trek, something which was yet to appear on UK television at that point.

The second colour strip, drawn by Gerry Haylock was an introduction to Irwin Allen's latest offering Land of The Giants.

A full page ad for the second issue, featuring a still from Land of The Giants. Sadly Joe 90:Top Secret lasted less than a year , ending with issue 34 on 6th September, 1969 .It then merged with the flagging TV21 comic.

TASK FORCE TITAN

This is what happened when a raging tech titan stormed the Project SWORD Task Force 3 hangar!

Anyone know who this big guy is?

BANDAI THUNDERBIRD 2

The smaller Bandai Thunderbird 2 from 1992, a gift from friend and fellow blogger Will Schwartz to compliment my Bandai Thunderbird 1 I blogged a couple of days ago.

Like the Thunderbird 1, this Bandai Thunderbird 2 has profile issues. Like the Konami and Taito models, it's nose isn't quite right.

However, it's still an attractive model, and although slightly bigger than the Dinky, Matchbox or Corgi versions, it doesn't have those intrusive buttons that spoil the lines.

It comes with a set of push-in legs and a detachable pod.

Rather than the usual Thunderbird 4, it comes a small Mole model.

The colourful front of the box.

The rear of the box.

What's inside.

Like the Thunderbird 1, you get additional stickers and a toy catalogue leaflet.

In spite of it's profile issues I still think its a great looking model. It can also be found as part of a deluxe set with additional pod vehicles.