castle keeps: collecting the punisher

I'm on a bit of a Punisher drive at the mo.

I wasn't aware of Marvel's man in black comics when I was kid I don't think.

My interest began when I came across a complete loose plastic Punisher Van at a Car Boot Sale around 1992. It was an impressive dark battle wagon and it looked great when I found a loose Punisher action figure to ride shotgun. 

Both were from the Toybiz Marvel Superheroes line 1991. 

Here's the same I saw on Ebay recently:

Captivated by the Punisher's long skull logo and no-nonsense no-powers approach I was thrilled to come across the 2004 film version starring Thomas Jane as the avenging wraith Frank Castle himself and John Travolta as his nemesis Howard Saint.

I enjoyed the film so much I've seen it several times more over the past 12 years.

So I was chuffed at the weekend to pick up the TV tie-in paperback, which I'm reading now. I doubt its collectable but I do like TV tie-ins.

I'm currently adding more to my Punisher experience by watching a 2008 film called Punisher: War Zone. The adversary is a crime boss called Jigsaw.

I can already tell that it lacks the build-up of the Thomas Jane movie and is altogether more violent. The jury's still out on this Punisher.

Have you been Punished readers?

thunderbirds ray gun mystery

The other day I noticed that the small silvery ray gun in the Major Matt Mason range is more or less the same as the one used by the Tracy Brothers in the original series of Thunderbirds.

Does anyone know of they are connected?

PETER CAPALDI STEPPING DOWN AS DOCTOR WHO

I've just read on Twitter that Peter Capaldi, the best Doctor since the BBC brought the series back IMHO, is leaving the show at the end of 2017.

I have to say, I'm sad about that. Being a fan of the classic series, I liked an older, more believable Doctor, rather than the hip youngsters which appear to be more popular these days  (my least favourite incarnation from the classic series was Peter Davison )

But, at least we can still  look forward to the new series with Peter starting in a few months time.

GUESTS AT ALPHA:2014

I note there's an Alpha: 2017 convention in July, this time in the  States, Parsippany, New Jersey to be precise. I'd love to attend but there's a UFO one around that time, here in the UK I'm hoping to get to, but I did get a chance to go to Alpha:2014 in Peterborough so I shouldn't complain..

As a reminder to anyone else who went, and a tease for those lucky folk who are going to Alpha:2017, here's a few photos I took of some of the great guests who attended Alpha:2014.

 

Prentis Hancock who played Paul Morrow

Anton Phillips who played Dr Bob Mathias

Catherine Schell who played Maya

Nick Tate who played pilot Alan Carter.

Suzanne Roquette who played Tanya Alexander.

Pam Rose who played a Command Centre Operative, and Sarah Bullen who played Operative Kate 

Stuntman Paul Weston  who appeared in several episodes, generally as a Moonbase Alpha Security Guard

Stand - in Suzanne Heimer 

Story consultant and scriptwriter Christopher Penfold.

Camera focus puller Robin  McDonald

Special effects designer Brian Johnson

Did your toys' boxes last for long as a kid?

I'm unsure if I kept my toy boxes for long or not. My memory is a lump of cheese.

I imagine I kept my Matchbox cars boxes as they were part of the fun of owning them and easy to keep.

It's bubble cards like Major Matt Mason's or Action Man's that I doubt I kept. They will have been binned early on in the play.

Huge boxes like the one the Major Matt Mason space station came in may have been held onto to keep the parts of the station in. That would make sense.

I remember my Project SWORD toy boxes but again I've no idea if they were retained to keep the toys in on my shelf.

What's certain is that everything got thrown out, toys, boxes, cards and all and this process was complete by late 1978. The majority of my toys will have been binned (by my parents I think but maybe it was me) by Christmas 1976, when I turned 16 shortly before I left Secondary school.

It's a shame I didn't think ahead and keep my old toys and their boxes but the boxes may have been chucked straight away anyway.

Did you keep your toy boxes as a kid or did they get binned early on?

char spatial by mont blanc; the french space tank website of maddux donner

Check out the rather splendid French language website of reader Maddux Donner, which is all about his love for the French tinplate Space Car Tank and its relatives by Mont Blanc. 

https://carspatial.jimdo.com

Maddux's site looks at every aspect of the toy together with other Mont Blanc toys.

FOCUS ON SOME ALIEN MICRO MACHINES.

Here's a few photos of three of the Galoob Alien Micro Machines.which were given to my son, Dan by blog friend Will Schwartz. Unfortunately Gilbert Kane, played by the late John Hurt isn't amongst them.

The first from set 1, is the ill-fated Nostromo Ship, the commercial towing vehicle, that is destroyed in an attempt to klll the alien Xenomorph that got loose in the ship.

The second three photos, again from set 1 is the escape shuttle Narcissus, which crew survivor Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver uses to leave the doomed Nostromo, only to find that the alien has managed to get on board.

Finally, the Derelict Ship from set 3. The derelict's cargo hold contains thousands of alien eggs. Nostromo crewman Gilbert Kane (John Hurt) disturbs one of the eggs and becomes a victim to an alien facehugger.

Birthday Thank You!

Really sorry to everyone who took the time and trouble to send me birthday cards and wishes, I have been working overtime all weekend, with a brief respite in Liverpool to see legendary poet Roger McGough. Consequently, ive been radio silent with almost no internet access to view the blog!

As you can see, I did rather well on the gift front too!

So thank you to Mike, Kev, Ed, Ed, Paul, Paul, Arto, Tony and Brian!