a nearly-midsummer famous moonbase quiz: finish it off!

If like me you are currently hugging a large electric fan in the British heatwave then maybe you'll enjoy some cooling off indoors with a good-old Moonbase quiz. 

If any of the questions seem odd it'll be because they are off the top of my head whilst my brain roasts in its own juices after finishing work on a mega-hot afternoon.

As usual have a go at your answers via the comments. How about TWO answers per reader. Go go go!

STOP PRESS! WHY NOT FINISH ALL THE ANSWERS OFF, NO LIMIT!

1. What was the name of the fish slop ladled overboard on the Orca in Jaws?
2. In The Howling who was the film's heroine meeting at the start of the film?
3. What flows down the yellow smiling face badge in the movie Watchmen?
4. Finish off the Joker's phrase from Batman 1989 'Never rub another man's ......'
5. What could be cut off Palitoy Action Man boxes and sent off for free stuff?
6. Which German phrase is printed on Steiff's famous toy ear tags?
7. Complete the following modern disaster movies: Dantes ...., Lake .... and ..... Impact
8. What inseerts into the back of a plastic Kidco toy car?
9. What have all these in common: Fremen Tarpal, Disintegrator, Spud and Monkey
10. What's the connection between the film Barbarella and the Rolling Stones?
11. Which is the odd one out and why: bump 'n' go, mystery action, supermarionation and non-fall action
12. What was the name of Corgi's old die-cast Popeye toy car?
13. What have the following got in common: Marlow, Longstreet and The Green Hornet?
14. Which is the odd one out and why: Robin, Nightcrawler, Batman, Bruce Wayne, Nightwing?
15. Which two things is Aurora's model Witch holding?
16. At the start of the film Night or Curse of the Demon what falls onto Professor Harrington's reversing car?
17. Which is the odd one out and why: Ben Cooper, Silver Shamrock, Don Post?
18. What does MUTO stand for in the most recent Godzilla film?
19. In the book Childhood's End what do the aliens look like?
20. Complete the line from the film Quatermass and the Pit: 'the figure was small, like a hideous ....'.

Submit and savour the sweet small of success!

space car essentials: split windscreens and blister cockpits

I used to love water transfers when I was a nipper.

It was great fun transfering them onto stuff like my arm and my school books!

Here's a neat vintage set I saw on the Bay this year.

I particularly like the tracked moon vehicle just above JFK.

It reminds me of several things at once: the Project SWORD Snow Train and Beetle and the Zero-X MEV.

Those blister cockpits do it for me though. More well-known blisters like these featured on Dan Dare's Anastasia.

But the most similar vehicle I can think of is the Grippity Gravity Transport complete with split windscreen windows.

Here's a very similar vehicle on this old Japanese jigsaw puzzle too.

Does anyone know any more about these split windscreen space vehicles?

the mysterious long-haired astronaut from space 1999

I keep seeing this strange Space 1999 Space Belt toy set by Burbank Toys - like this on Plaid Stallions site - and wondering the same thing every time -

Just who is the long-haired astronaut on the box cover?

http://www.plaidstallions.com/images/tl/remco1999belt1.jpg

I'm not well up in '99 but it may be obvious to you. Anyone know?

s u n d a y e r

Well its been another red hot day at Moonbase.

The garden table was set early for a family breakfast around 9am. 
I could get used to this outdoor living.
Blue dog too!



The paddling pool was cleaned from the day before

The vintage watering cans lined up for morning inspection

The star of the show, Baby Moonbase, gave the pool a big thumbs up

All in all another lovely day spent in the open air with family.

How was your Sunday?

century 21 toys submarine aircraft carrier: missile mission

A gallery of a vintage Century 21 Toys Submarine Aircraft Carrier showing various parts and the box as it appeared on Ebay years ago.

I particularly like the four missile rocket jets below.

I wonder how big they are compared to the white red-tipped missiles in other C21 toys?

Can anyone send in a snap or two of them together?

s u m m e r d a z e

Today was the hottest day of the year in west Yorkshire by a long chalk.

It was a scorcher especially for us normally cool Northern England folk.

Our Daughter's family are over for the weekend and we spent the day in our garden.

It was so warm today that we were in the garden from 9 this morning to 5 tonight. We could have stayed out longer but Baby Grandson needed a nice sleep in the much cooler house.

Its unusual for us to be outside the whole day so everything we needed was carried into the garden: drinks, breakfast, magazines, papers, blankets and baby.

I'd already got the paddling pool filled with water and rubber ducks and the old barbecue ready so we could get straight on with having fun, relaxing and and cooking for a big tea of BBQ burgers, chicken legs, bratwurst, corn on the cobs and salad.

Yummee!

Hows the weather at your end? What you up to?

Thunderbird Shadow bike by Kev D

Picked up the new Thunderbird Shadow bike. 

Good looking model but all it does is make weird engine noises and move its spoiler slightly! 

Anyway, took some photos.

Take care,

Kevin D

gotham city toy shop

In the wake of Adam West's sad passing I have been reminiscing with Andy B a little.

We thought it might be the right time to talk about the importance of Batman and bat toys for our generation and probably every generation since - and maybe the one before us Baby Boomers.

Like Superman Batman has been around as long as sliced bread.

Adam West's Batman, the definative caped crusader, spawned hundreds of toys, games, puzzles, books, comics and records to name but a few parts of the bats merchandise machine in the Sixties.

There are also thousands of devoted Batman fans and collectors today and the scores of blogs and websites on the net reflect this. With each new film and comic new fans join the bat-talion every year.

After the excitement of watching Batman on TV first time round in the Sixties and enjoying the dark knight's superb die-cast Batmobiles I once again returned to the warmth of the bat-cave as an adult along with several million others who gawped at Michael Keaton's new Batman in 1989.

Keaton was so significant for me.

His turn as Bats in Tim Burton's gothic homage re-ignited the Gotham mythos and without doubt sparked my own interest in vintage toys. The slew of action figures and vehicles filling the shops in 89/90 was the first time I had noticed the awesome pulling-power of film-related merchandising since I was a kid.

I wuz hooked.

I filled the Nineties with anything batty I could get in the UK.

The first thing I ever bought on Ebay was bat related. It was the year 2000, Ebay had just landed in the UK and I was as excited as hell to see so many amazing vintage toys allover the world like candy in an international sweet shop!

Being fascinated by early action figues back then and having read about one particular Bat toy called the JLA set of figures by Ideal I sought it out, found a set and made a bid.

I won and eh voila!

Pictured is what I got in the post from America, which was a revelation in itself. Ebay worked and worked across the world!

I got everything above except the bat-plane and I adored my first ever Ebay purchase more than anything else I owned.

I went on to add the bat-plane later and had plans to locate everything else in the set but realised that only Bruce Wayne himself could afford it all so I hung up my bat-gloves and enjoyed what I had.

I went on over the next decade to find Mego batmobiles, Remco Energised Batmans, the battery-operated Bat Console, the Animated Series Batmobile and countless more collectables from Gotham City.

So, thanks Adam West for all the bat memories, Thanks so much. 

Rest in peace Dark Dark Knight.

*

Do you have any Batman related toys and collectables?

Did you watch the TV series?