a bottle of beer in the sunshine methinks

I like a cold beer in the Summer after work.

I particularly enjoy one from the fridge and then straight out into the sunny garden on my favourite deck chair. If I sit still the birds ignore me and a frog might hop into view.

I like Lager from around the world best and straight from the bottle. Maybe Corona or a Becks.

One's enough and then I'm relaxed. I'll do some gardening afterwards or maybe water the beds. I might even read a novel or a book about vintage toys!

How and where do you like a beer readers?

cricket is green!

It was a good year for Spacex cricket colour variations last year like this green one.

For the real dope on this and more then read the uber-brilliant Triang SpaceX Toys website by friend Paul Vreede.

http://www.triangspacextoys.info/SpGAderv/OTHR/OTHR/BlueCrkt.html

SWORDCAST IS GO!!

Well the road to success seldom runs smooth. Woodsy is fighting fit again, but I am struggling with killer hayfever and our producer Bill Everratt is in the wars too! Consequently, the latest cast has been delayed slightly, but is now live and available!

http://www.celticaradio.com/ram/swordcast.wax

Cruise on over to Celtica and check out the wide range of other shows and podcasts available, but listen to ours first! Hear me and Woodsy put the world of film, TV and toys to rights as we discuss a whole clutch of topics in our latest stream of consciousness meanderings!

mirror mirror

I saw this image on Etsy and it made me smile.

What caption would you give it or what speech bubble readers?

did you dye with dyson?

Did you dye stuff as a kid?

I used to dye T-shirts different colours. I never tried tie-dye, just straight colour changes, usually from white to something else.

I also changed the colour of my monkey boots from black to silver but I think I used spray-on paint for that.

The dye I used for dying was called Dyson. It came in small round tins, which you had to pierce to get the dye out.

Great fun but could be very messy and annoy Mum when she walked in the bathroom!

Did you do dye?

home movie: project sword badges part 4: worn forever

Aw shucks, for now this is as far as I've got with my exercise to check my Project SWORD badges. If you can take any more that is!

I hope that you found the four parts of some interest. Why not let me know if you have any Project SWORD toys with their badges and whether you wore one as a kid!

At some point I'll finish the project completely with a video about the remaining toys: the Cape Kennedy Set, Apollo Saturn and the Scramble Bug and a post-it note about the Nuclear Ferry.

Till then,

Lights out.

smiling kids toy box art of the sixties and seventies

I recently saw this Smarty Car on the Vectis online auction site. Its by TAT. 

Besides the obvious plastic charm of the car it was the box art that also caught my eye. It reminded me immediately of Lite Brite. The Smarty Car even lights up!

Here's Hasbro's vintage Lite Brite Box art so you can see for yourself.

Like this Shaker Maker set, there are loads of examples of this kind of box art illustration from the sixties and seventies. For me the smiling kids represent the optimism of the decade and were all part of the appeal of the toys. I certainly like this box art more than the use of pure photography.

Can you think of any more readers and does anyone know if certain illustrators were used?

NEW SWORDCAST AIR TIME TO BE ANNOUNCED

Apologies for the delay. 

When the new SWORDcast is fully available on Celtica Radio we will let you know as soon as possible.