AURORA 'SPINDRIFT' RESTORATION

Spurred on by the re-showing of Land of the Giants on TV , I thought I'd have a go at restoring my old Aurora 'Spindrift' kit, which I've had since the early seventies. 

I got it second hand from a friend at school who'd painted it bright yellow for some reason. 

I set to work hand painting it a deep red. And that's how it's stayed for the past forty odd years, until now.

This week I carefully took it all apart and and left it overnight in a 50/50 solution of 'Dettol' antiseptic disinfectent. This works fine with plastic and doesn't make it brittle.This broke down most of the old paint, Leaving it for a further 24 hours in the solution did the trick.

 The only paint left on it now is mixed with the original plastic cement, which will need to be removed by scraping and sanding.

There's still a lot of fiddly work to do, trying to make the parts fit back together with all the old glue needing to be removed. The base is in pretty bad shape as it has an indentation and crack caused by an excessive amount of glue when it was originally put together, and as well as that both the two  top sections have large cracks in the plastic.

Even so, I'm looking forward to completing the project. I'm obviously not expecting the restoration to produce something mint, but if I can cheer it up and make it reasonably decent I'll be happy. 

pesto from goodfeathers: the original angry bird!

Way back in 1990 Martin Scorsese directed his searing cinematic canvas of American mafiosi, Goodfellas. 

It became one of the definitive mobster movies and contained one of the most electrically charged scenes of psychopathic conversation ever put on film, the Joe Pesci tirade known universally as 'Funny How?'.

So it always amazed me that from this violent cauldren of adult vice there came one of the funniest kids' cartoons I ever saw, the Goodfellas parody Goodfeathers.

Part of the Animaniacs brand, Goodfeathers aired in 1993 and starred Squit, Bobby and the the Joe Pesci clone Pesto. 

Here's a fabulous You Tube medley I found showing scenes involving Pesto's incredibly short fuse delivered in that unmistakable Pesci Funny How style. 

Funny how? hilarious!

That's it!

Do you like Goodfeathers readers?

VULCAN

The Vulcan's final flying display at Southport Air Show. last year.

 

MYSTERY BEARDED CARTOON CHARACTER

I recently had to watch Macbeth The Animated Tale at work.

This is he, the dark tormented Macbeth.

His swarthy bearded looks reminded me of another villain in an old cartoon I saw as a kid. But who?

Maybe someone in the brilliant Rocket Robin Hood?  Can't find anyone like it.

Maybe Theyer David in the film Journey to the Centre of the Earth? 

I don't think so.

The character is in an old cartoon I'm sure but I'm at a loss as to which.

Anyone help?

*

Postscript:

Mr. Iguana was right. I WAS thinking of Prince John from Rocket Robin Hood after all!

THE GIANTS HAVE LANDED

I'm sure I'm not alone in enjoying the long awaited repeats of Irwin Allen's  LAND OF THE GIANTS TV series which started this week in the UK on The Horror Channel. I believe MeTV has already started re-showing them in the States,

My first encounter with Land of the Giants was in the pages of JOE 90 TOP SECRET comic in 1969, prior to it's screening on British TV.

One notable aspect of the comic strip, drawn by Gerry Haylock, was the script never named the little people's Spindrift spacecraft until well into the comic's run when it then began to refer to it  as The Spendthrift!

This error would continue when the strip moved to TV21 in 1970.

I feel a few 'Giant' blogging's might be in the pipeline.

TO THE STARS FOR A SHILLING: FUNFAIR SPACE RIDES

There's an evening fairground in town and it got me thinking about how I was always drawn to the rockets and spaceships when I was a kid. If there was a supercar or a Thunderbird 1 on a carousel then I'd be in it!

Beyond the funfairs there were always coin-operated rockets to be boarded allover the place: in town, at petrol stations, outside shops and of course Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I recall there were always some along the coast's piers as well. They were everywhere! 


Wondering if there are any space rocket rides or coin-operated spaceships at fairs or town centres anymore I thought I'd ask you readers if you have any nearby or whether you enjoyed getting in or on them as a kid too?

WESTLAND SCOUT

A couple of shots of the Westland Scout Army helicopter. I have fond memories of making model  Airfix kits of this during the sixties. It was 1/72 scale and quite small. I reckon there was more glue than plastic when I'd finished.

TUDOR ROSE SPACE CLIPPER

Hi Woodsy

I've attached some pictures of my Tudor Rose Space Clipper. The box was covered in tape when I got it. I removed 95% of it.

The Kleeware version is moulded in two tone plastic and has small wheels with no friction drive.

I've also attached pic of a Hong Kong knock off Space Cruiser.

And one of a Tudor Rose Friction X-400 that had the wings smashed off and bad fin damage when I acquired it. I had to give it a paint job to cover up the repairs.

Ferryman