spacex customs office

I often wonder which future toys may have come out of the Project SWORD and SpaceX ranges in the Sixties and early Seventies if the companies had continued.

We know Tri-ang had plans for three more SpaceX toys - like the Rocket Transporter -  [read all about them on Paul V's uber-cool site http://www.triangspacextoys.info/SpGAtoys/RTrs/SpLTRTrs.html] 

But what if WE had been responsible for more SpaceX toy designs!

One potential SpaceX contender that caught my eye was the Mars and Venus Flyby vehicle. I like it because it 's very old school NASA and a possible kitbash between existing SpaceX toys like the ATS and the Lunar Orbitor! 

Then again it might be too similar to these toys and have been branded boring by young SpaceX fans! Its hard being a toy designer!

Maybe some of the UK's missile and rocket projects at the time like the Black Knight may have tapped into kids' zest for zooming objects. These projects were often featured in comics like Look and Learn.

Another SpaceX contender and space age object I personally loved and still do is the Skylon, the metal structure towering over the Festival of Britain in the Fifties. 

As a Sixties SpaceX toy idea it may have been just too old and perhaps overly fiddly. Then again Biro the pen people made a model so maybe it might have worked!

Which designs would you put forward readers?

bill's gliders

I've attached some pics of my glider collection - 

the C21 Space Glider and 2001 Radio Control model, C21 Dyna Soar, Spacex Lifting Body (having suffered several bad landings, reconstruction and recovery) and the Hover Space Glider (missing nose 'spike').

from my 2009 email archive

Sub Standard

Like reader Yorkie, its hard to resist dropping a small toy in the shopping trolley while doing the dreaded Big Shop. Just been to discount store and recent Matchbox releases were on sale for about £1. Needless to say, they are on my watch list and I found two submarine models i'd been after!

geek salad surgery

As the UK descends into further Governmental chaos and a thick miasma rises from Number Ten I shall uphold our traditional veto of political issues at Moonbase Central, crack open a Becks and discuss more relevant matters.

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I recently saw A L I E N Covenant. I did enjoy it but a better title would have been 
D  A  V  I  D.

SPOILER ALERT!

The synthetic David  - and his alter-ego Walter - was the only character with any decent development I felt. The rest of the crew were mere fleeting glimpses of personality and I had little emotion when each was hugged and ultimately bursted. Even the brief conflict of faith experienced by Billy Crudup's agonised Captain coudn't rouse my pity.

Don't get me wrong, there was much to like about Covenant and it moved the story arc forward [or more to the point backward] a good few notches on the giger counter. It has now become clear that a unhinged mandroid called David willingly opened Pandora's box and driven by a robot's hatred of his human masters cast the alien seed adrift like a universal virus.

There was an intriguing vignette of the Engineers on their home planet depicting large crowds outside a huge pavilion. Sadly this was all too short as the Derelict landed and David's madness spread. I do hope the next Ridley Scott shows us more of the Engineers.

Have you seen A L I E N Covenant?

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Making our afternoon coffee I noticed that the Hermesetas sweetener dispenser I used looked a lot like the body scanner from Star Trek TOS. I recall McCoy and his assistants holding a small tube-like capsule over their patients before giving treatment. The end of it may have spun round making a noise like a small fan. Do you know what I'm talking about?

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Nothing much changes really especially when it comes to the toilet humour of young teenagers. Stirring memories of my own crude adolescence I recently saw young lads laughing at what they'd written on the screens of CASIO calculators. I'm unsure what it was but I vividly remember keying in 5317006 to create GOOLIES when turned upside down! ha ha! Great fun then as now it would seem. Which words did you right on your CASIO?

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Opening an old decorative wooden box at home I found two vintage Samurai miniatures snuggling up against a squirreled plectrum and an old work badge. Each item represented a different period of my life and it was interesting that all three had made it into the same box, whereas many of my old belongings have been chucked especially my childhood stuff thrown out by Mum and Dad. Clearly hiding small toys and toy parts away in little wooden treasure boxes works.

Have you found this readers?

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SHADOGUESTS TAKE TWO

As it's a week since we embarked to Derby for Shado Con I thought time for a couple more photos of  each of the super guests that attended.

Photo: ITV Studio

Michael Jayston and Susan Jameson who appeared in the The Sound of Silence.

Ayshea Brough who regularly appeared as Shado Operative Ayshea Johnson.

Photo: ITV Studios

Gary Raymond who appeared in the episode The Man Who Came Back.

Photo: ITV Studios

Keith Alexander AKA Shado Operative Keith Ford appearing via Skype from his home in Australia.

Photo ITV Studios

Alan Harris who appeared in several episodes, in particular Destruction as a Skydiver Sonar Operator.

Director Alan Perry (Alan is down to appear at Special Assignment, the next Fanderson convention.) 

Photo: ITV Studio

Shane Rimmer, who featured particularly in the first episode Identified as Seagull X-ray pilot Bill Johnson.

jensen interceptor and the corgi rockets

One of my favourite cars ever, the Jensen Interceptor.

I never owned a real one like the later Saint does here courtesy of You Tube [not a version of the Saint I know though

I did have a Corgi Rockets die-cast version. I adored the sleek metallic body and the detachable plastic axle underneath.

In fact flicking off those plastic axles with the iconic gold key was one of THE top toy play moments of my childhood. I loved it!

Here's a reminder of just how good Corgi Rockets and all those cool accessories actually were once again courtesy of You Tube. The Sky Park was one of my fave toys ever as a nipper.

Did you love Corgi Rockets and do you still have any readers?

Hottest Wheels

Mattel Hot Wheels mark a pivotal period in my childhood, right alongside Major Matt Mason, I have yet to see toy design bettered. From my very first purple Deora, I was hooked. Easily the fastest die-cast cars ever, the weight of the frame and the thin axles in nylon bearings meant they outstripped Matchbox Superfast and Corgi Rockets easily. Toys of rare and colourful beauty.

Whip Creamer

Splittin Image

Hairy Hauler

Swingin' Wing

Whip Creamer

                                   

sizzlin sizzlers by mattel

Paul V reminded me that Mattel Sizzlers toy cars were motorised. My curiosity to see them 'in the flesh' got the better of me so here's a TV advert from 1970 courtesy of You Tube.

Its a fine looking fleet of cars. Does anyone collect them?

How does the motor work? Does anyone know?