SPACEX NEWS: MEV 2 NOTEPAD

Cruising the cyber-ways this month I chanced upon this space oddity in Japan:

ビニパス ベニス スクールメモ 宇宙探検 昭和レトロ 当時物

It looks like a plastic-covered memo, game or note pad. Those domes were the thing that caught my eye. Very Bob McCall!

Opening up the notepad reveals more!

Yes, that's a SpaceX MEV2 to the right!

The outside cover is great too.

I suspect the whole thing has been influenced by the art of Ed Valigursky and Bob McCall.

What do you think readers? Like it?

More SpaceX news to come.

Operation Ackers

The combined spaceforces search for the lost days of summer

THE DEATH OF VIDEO

I read last month that the very last new VCR had been made in Japan this July.

It really is the end of an era.

Video cassettes stopped being sold commercially maybe 10 years ago so a new VCR still in 2016 is good going.  The only place to find one now really is at a car boot sale or a charity shop at least here in the UK.

Collectable videos are getting hard to come by too at boot sales here in Blighty. There's still a few normal VHS tapes to be found but very few older big box or clamshells. I think most have been gathered up by video hounds like me!

Not so in Germany, where I recently spent some time. There are still plenty of interesting and collectable videos to be had at Floehmarkte at very reasonable prices. I was amazed.

My haul included one of my favourite box formats, the slim card case, one of which was still sealed in cellophane with the original shop price tag on of 15 marks.

Titles I bagged include Watchers, Driven, Spukschloss in Spessart, ET, Fear City and Ninja Grandmasters of Death.

So, as the final VCR rolled off the production line this summer and tapes become ever scarcer it's becoming even more important to keep some of this dead technology from disappearing altogether.

After all, an archival instinct is part of why we collect anything at all isn't it?

Would you agree readers and does anyone else collect videos ?

S U M M E R D A Y S

Now where did I park my rocket?

[Woodsy]

C.H.I.V.E Patrol

[Bill B]

DINKY SHOOT

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the fox hole here's a few more random photos from this morning's Dinky shoot.

MAXIMUM SECURITY DINKY

A few photos of my Dinky Maximum Security Vehicle which doesn't seem to get my attention as often as it should.

Its quite flat compared to the screen version, and as with Dinky SPV it doesn't have the double wheel set up, which really adds to the overall look.

In spite of the fact that Dinky chose white rather than the proper colour of silver grey , its still a good looking model, and I suppose the Dinky Captain Scarlet set works just as well as a red, white, and blue line.

Generally speaking there were two versions on the Dinky MSV, with either a creamy white body, spun wheels and red interior, or ice white body, whizz wheels and blue interior.

Both versions came with a radioactive crate with removable lid revealing gold bars!

COMET LIBERATOR

My latest acquisition, the white plastic Liberator kit released by Comet Miniatures in 1989.

Unfortunately its missing a few small parts which I'll have to scratch-build, but all in all it looks like it could be a really nice build when it's completed.

It comes with some tiny brass etchings.

And water slide decals.

(I'm sure a few of you will point out that the Liberator was designated DSV 2 by The System, the race who built the ship, rather than DSV1, which, although we saw one of the Liberator's sister ships in the episode,' Redemtion', I don't recall that being given a number).

Up to this point the only Liberator model  I possessed was the 1977 Corgi miniature, which, frankly is a bit too small!.

Burscough, We have a problem!