MOONBASE CENTRAL

Saturday, 2 April 2016

SLIPPING INTO MY KUNG FU PAST

I saw these Kung Fu slippers on Ebay tonight. I was gobsmacked! The memories of me wearing them came flooding back!

I wore my 'Bruce Lee' slippers non-stop for years in the early Seventies. I loved the soft top and the hard plastic soles. They really did put a spring in your Fu's!

I've really enjoyed seeing them again and feeling the excitement I once felt wearing them. So much so I've decided to digress a little for a week and have a Kung Fu fest on the blog starting tomorrow.

I'll look at vintage collectables, comics, celebrities and maybe more.

Hi-Ya!

GEEK SALAD

Last week I had the pleasure of seeing two excellent films, one old and one new.

Batman V Superman is the new Zack Snyder DC mega-scrap and if like me you like city-flattening super hero action its a real blast. No spoilers here, get down to the cinema!

Don't be Afraid of the Dark was a Seventies made-for-TV horror movie shown last week on the Horror Channel. Having seen the Del Toro remake I was keen to see the original. It revolves around something nasty living in the cellar, a posse of small demonic creatures. The original was better.

Having seen both films within 24 hours I couldn't help noticing the similarity of the two leading ladies; Amy Adams as Lois Lane and Kim Derby as the beleaguered homeowner in Don't.

Pictured above for your viewing pleasure.

Anyone else seen either of these movies?

SATURN V ROLL-OUT IN LENTICULAR AND MINIATURE FAKING STYLES

My good friend Arto recently donated this lenticular postcard of the Saturn V roll-out to the Moonbase collection. Its the one on the left. On the right is the original Bob McCall painting of the roll-out, which was used for the Project SWORD Cape Kennedy Set box top.

The content of the lenticular card fascinates Arto and me. We are convinced that its a model. It certainly isn't the Project SWORD toy that's been used. So who made the model and where is it now?

To get my head around lenticularisation of images, I have turned to a modern field wholly new to me, miniature faking, a technique whereby the content of normal images is made to look like a model. The makers of the Roll-out card in the Sixties couldn't have done this but it might be interesting for me to do now because I can't lenticularise!

Using the free facility on a miniature faking site I have 'faked' two old NASA photographs of Saturn V's roll-out. One of them actually has cars and a helicopter like the McCall and lenticular images above. Here they are. What do you think?

Below are the two original NASA images that I used.

Any thoughts readers?

Friday, 1 April 2016

MINIATURE PROJECT SWORD SECRET RIFLE FOUND!

STOP PRESS!

A crate of these wholly new miniature Project SWORD Secret Rifles have been unearthed in a remote garage in Whenfools. Very kindly, a Mr. Rushin contacted Moonbase Central immediately about his incredible discovery.

He will be very happy to take orders. Price on application.

MY SKY AT NIGHT

As I've had a few rare clear nights over here at Glenn Field, I like to grab the opportunity to stargaze and take a few photos, which I'd like to share with you.

I never tire of taking snaps of the Moon, and I took this photo a few nights ago showing it in it's first quarter.

Last night it was cold but clear and I took this picture of the constellation of Orion just above the trees in my back garden. You can see the red supergiant, Betelgeuse, the second brightest star in Orion. Just above to the right is Meissa, actually a double star. Further right is the third brightest star in Orion, Bellatrix.

As the spring buds are just appearing on the trees I managed to get a view of Orion’s Belt through the branches. The belt consists of Alntak, a triple star system, Alnilam, a blue super giant, and Mintaka, another double star. The bright star seen through the trees in the lower left hand corner is Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, although it's actually a binary star system.

If you take a horizontal line to right of Betelgeuse to another red giant, the bright star Aldebaran, which is the brightest star in the Taurus constellation. Taurus also contains the Crab Nebula, a super nova remnant.

Taurus is also host to another group of stars, The Pleiades also known as The Seven Sisters, an open star cluster, always worth a look and easily visible with the naked eye.

The planet Jupiter was quite prominent too, and although the lens in my camera isn't powerful enough to get even the merest hint of the surface detail of the gas giant, it did appear to show up three of Jupiter’s larger moons in a line.

This final picture shows what happens when the camera’s on a slower shutter speed. Those three wavy lines are a passing aircraft’s navigation lights.

NEW AND NUTTY!

ORGAN have been in touch and sent me this flyer. Owing to extensive market research amongst Moonbase Central readers they are launching a Project SWORD Muesli range.

Containing a healthy mix of dried fruits, chopped nuts and whole seeds, this is an ideal foodstuff for budding space travellers.

Early samples have been dried and tested by Woodsy, Scoop and Bill in the Blog canteen, a fine medley of nuts.

In all good health food shops now!

LEGO EAGLE ANYONE?

This pic will be probably doing the rounds this morning, plus the announcement of a new Thunderbirds are go film .

THE MYSTERY OF THE TINPLATE YELLOW SUBMARINE BY LEWIS P. MORLEY

Hi Woodsy, I'm not sure if you remember my last post, but I continue to get the most absurd joy from your blog!

As a model-maker inspired by Gerry Anderson, I've had the good fortune in my life to work on miniature effects for films like "Dark City" and props maker on Star Wars Episodes 2 and 3.

Now approaching the twilight of my professional career, I'm turning my increasing spare time and talents towards satisfying myself instead of rabid Art directors!

I hope you like the following, I couldn't wait to share this with you and hopefully your worldwide followers...

I had an acquaintance who a fanatical props collector. He had an original space helmet and laser gun from the 1965 "Lost in Space" TV series.

He would tantalise me with stories of a wooden box marked "For Mr. Kubrick" which he said contained a rubber miniature spaceman used in the Pod accident scene. I doubted the veracity of his claims, but even so, I wanted to believe it was really was real.

Somewhere out there, just beyond our sight, lurk the objects of our desire. They are real and tangible -even if only as figments of our imagination...

This brings me in a roundabout way to the secretive Arthur Bigge-Oakes, toy collector extraordinaire. Arthur's health is not good at the moment and maybe because of this, he has started to show me actual examples from his fabled "black collection".

He has hinted mysteriously for a while about a supposed tin toy Yellow Submarine, but until recently no concrete evidence of its existence has come to light. The following is a page from an obscure Gokken Publishing guide book "Nostalgia of Toys" which features the previously mythical toy from two angles.

Soon after Arthur spent a not inconsiderable sum on this book, an actual example turned up on the same Japanese Auction website.

Spending over $7,500 on a rusty toy that doesn't even work would seem insane to most people, but Arthur was insanely happy with that result. (being a retired Banking Industry super-annuant allows him a certain financial latitude!)

He also displayed a photo of the toy's actual discovery, in the dusty cellar of a house in Futei-no Prefecture where it had lain for almost fifty years.

When I asked him about the other toy boxes in the photo, he switched on his annoyingly familiar Bigge-Oakes ignorance. In fact, I suspect he may also either already have those toys too, or knows how to get them...

Here are pics of the actual toy. Sad that it is in such poor condition, but then I suspect it may have been played with in the bath!

I love the fact that whoever sculpted the Fab Four, it is obvious they were more used to working in the Japanese anime/chibi style...John is especially a hoot!