lp boxed sets re-opened

A few years back I posted this picture of a box rear that a reader had sent me. It features a series if six box sets by our friends LP.

Looking at it again tonight I thought I'd straighten it and highlight each set. Doing this I was amazed to see one of them contains a SpaceX/ Golden Astronaut -type P3 helicopter! 

LP collectors among you will be used to seeing SpaceX/ Golden Astronaut -type toys in these sets but I'm not. 

These pictures highlight just how connected LP's boxed space sets were to Imperial's Apollo Moon Exploring carded sets and the the larger Miniature Apollo Explorations boxed set.

What do you think readers? Have you any LP sets?

hg toys silver pleasure cruiser

I never tire of seeing Spacex clones. Here's one, on an old auction site, we've seen before, the silver Pleasure Cruiser, which came as part of the Alien Attack boxed set by HG Toys.

Anyone got the whole boxed set or maybe just the silver clone? The one I have is brown.

See Creatures Redux

Way back in 2011, I ran a post about my collection of arthropod based toys, seen here:http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/see-creatures.html

The pink lobster was part of the Silverlit Multimac Ocean Discovery range and recently, I managed to find its companion, the Crab Navigator.

Both toys are interchangeable with most of the rest of the Multimac range, which as it has changed hands over ten years has seen a lot of different scales and means of connection. The Crab, however is a solid toy with flip out swim fins, opening claws and figures to sit in the front cockpit. As both toys are cast in bright coloured plastic, they both respond well to illumination with a black security light, the ultra violet making certain pieces fluoresce brightly like bioluminescence.

toys international july august 1969; the full s.w.o.r.d. and spacex article

Further to Tuesday's post, I've now pieced together what I think is the full 4 page spread in Toys International that collector Will Osborne sent me over ten years ago.  Will will have sent a note about them but I can't find it at the mo.

The "look" of the top two are the same and the magazine name and date of the top right and the bottom spread are the same.

It all looks right.

The missing page is the one top right above about SpaceX toys, Zeroids etc. Just click to enlarge.

The SpaceX text is shown close-up below:

its the toy that did the kessel run in 12 parsecs

It's funny how coincidences pile up like Wampa's doo doo. This happened to me whilst holidaying in West Wales this summer.

Strolling through the town of Tenby I chanced upon a toy shop. In one of the rooms on a lonely top shelf was this:

Researching this toy further I discovered that this domed Empire Strikes Back display was made by N.J. Farmer Association Ltd of Leicester back in the day.

As it turned out, this particular example was also known to other Star Wars fans and collectors. In fact the toy shop owner sought their advice concerning the display on the Star Wars forum in 2014

http://starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=22269&sid=91e503427d15377a8e486cb7137cf7f3

Goggling further I found that the same display on the same toy shop turned up on an online auction, the Saleroom, in June 2015.

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-us/auction-catalogues/peter-francis/catalogue-id-peter-10068/lot-15846c38-72f8-43c6-80a8-a4b400fa9d09

Unless there is more than one toy shop in Tenby housing such a fine domed display I would say it didn't sell as I saw the very same this summer!

Its worth noting that the link between Star Wars and West Wales goes beyond a mere perspex dome however. In fact one could say that the kessel run goes right through it!

The Millennium Falcon was built in Pembroke Dock no less, a huge working model made in secrecy under the code name Magic Roundabout according to Wiki.

You can see pictures and read the full story on various Welsh websites such as 

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/film-news/welsh-town-millennium-falcon-built-11323238

Can you believe that I was actually in Pembroke Dock this summer and only found out about this afterwards so missed the exhibition there!

I am consoling myself however with a possible Millennium kitbash connection I've spotted!

Remember the cup-like cockpit sticking out on the front of the Falcon?

Well check out the similar ends to this Monogram Space Taxi!

Then again the Flying Fortress had a bulbous gun turret too!

Does anyone know the actual sources used for the Millennium Falcon?

alphadrome's treasures: moonships and moon rangers

Like an old stack of TV21's, Brian Haye's fabulous Alphadrome website never ceases to amaze me! Whenever I read it another handful of gems surface!

Recently I browsed a few of its depths again and found the following treasures:

Hong Kong Space Toys: there is a fabulous thread about Hong Kong plastic featuring lots of the X-series of rockets and spaceships as well as LP's cool Space Blimp on page 2.

Under The Radar: a wonderful short thread from 2004 about the Moonships no less. ZZRobot pictures his Century 21 Moonship and box [look for the hot link] years before it appeared on the blog here!

Dealer Catalog 1969 - 1970 M W Kasch: again, a fantastic thread from 2004, four years before the blog started, about this US toy catalogue from 1969 - 70. Of great interest to me are the Moonship and the Moon Ranger entries.

The Moonship shown appears to be the white UK version rather than the green US version. The name 'moonship' concurs with this as does the use of the model number 6801 in the catalog notes below it [the 1969 Ahi catalog I blogged yesterday doesn't mention the model number]. 

Sold as either a Full Carton or BK. Carton whatever that means? [the flag sticker on the ship's side sort of looks like the Union Jack but its so unclear I can't really say].

The Moon Ranger is fascinating as it appears in its own grassy diorama and was sold in bulk in packs of 12 [I assume PK. means pack but no idea if a carton is bigger than a pack!]. The model numbers do not relate to either the UK Century 21 or US Tarheel versions so it could be either.

Chinese Rare Moonship: again another thread from the Moonship King ZZRobot, this time bang up to date this month about the tin moonship from China. I have had a loose one for twenty years but never owned a box. 

We've featured the box before but it's always a revelation to see how old this toy actually is as the box is dated 1965. That's a whole 4 years before the 2 plastic versions were released in 1969 and was clearly their source.

Perry Mohney Collection: check out the nice clear USA flag decal on this Ahi Moonship. Look for the entry April 9th [this year]. Check out Perry's entire collection whilst your at it. Simply breathtaking!

If you haven't checked out Alphadrome then do so now!

ahi azrak hamway super rocket plane appears in 1969 catalogue

Years ago we were hot on Moonships here at Moonbase.

They were a blog legend after all.

Its been a while since reporting anything about them but just this week I saw an old toy catalogue with, yes, one in!

Its the US version by ahi, the Super Rocket Plane and the catalogue's date of 1969 gives us at least one year we know the toy was in the shops.

The wording appears to be " 2869 Giant Frict. Super Rocket Plane, window packaged, 72 pcs ...?". I can't read the final bit. It looks like the price.

A few things spring to mind about this. Its clearly a trade catalogue and not a public one given that 72 rocket planes were sold as a bulk buy. 

The reference number 2869 does not refer to the model number on the base of the toy [below], which remains a mystery, though it is the same on the UK version of the Moonship by Century 21.

The final thing is the phrase window packaged. Up to press I had thought that this toy came in a windowless box given the nature of the box top flat scan I saw in a book years ago [below]:

So if this ahi box had a window [like the Century 21 version it must be said] then what did it look like?  Was the picture above that I had assumed was the box top actually the box rear? Anyone any idea?

For comparison here's the UK Century 21 Moonship and window box.

Anyone waTching angelby?

Me n Missus moonbase are enjoying a Swedish tv series called angelby at the mo. We're six episodes into the twelve, so half way.

It's very mystical and mythological. It reminds me a little of that other Nordic fantasy series. Jordskott.

A mix of Children of the Stones and the Wicker Man so far.

Has anyone else seen Angleby?