mystery space rover from japan

This is a neat little duvet rover from Japan that appeared on You Tube.

Anyone know what it is?

grimly feendish from andy b

Hi Woodsy 

In case you want to run a follow up on Grimly Feendish - He first appeared in Wham! comic (largely a vehicle for Leo Baxendale's art). He was the adversary to Eagle Eye Junior Spy - see strip below. 

Later he had spin offs in his own strip [above]. 

Baxendale drew great comic monsters, some of which can be seen here. 

Regards, 

Andy B 

Russian space review of arto's vintage toy display

Here is an enthusiastic visitor account of the excellent space toy exhibition, which reader Arto recently put together in Helsinki, Finland.

In Russian only!

http://lareina.livejournal.com/880268.html

for the love of play doh

Play doh was a firm favourite when I was a young 'un.

Firm maybe stretching it. It was really quite soft and pliable. In fact Play doh had a consistency all of its own really.

It was both squishy and squashy but also powdery and stringy all at once. The stuff had a curious grainy surface - like sandy meat - when cut, usually with one of those plastic knives like the ones in sealed bags of disposable cutlery at motorway restaurants.

You couldn't just cut it though. You could push it through tight holes to your heart's content. I adored the pushing machine, a sort of sausage mill for kids. You slid various templates into the front to change the shape of the play sausages being squeezed out - stars, half-moons, squares, circles and loads more.

It was just brill!

The best bit though was cutting the links from the template. I say cutting, it was more like severing or amputating really. The doh gave just that little bit of resistance before the blade sliced clean through and you had a string of red star rope.

I suppose it was a bit like marzipan in texture although it couldn't be eaten or put round a Battenburg cake. Saying that I never actually tried to eat Play Doh although I bet some kids have.

The thing I recall the most though is the smell of the stuff. A unique bouquet of icing and putty with a hint of trapped rubber which hit you as soon as you lifted the flexible lid off the plastic pot. I am amazed how we remember smells but I can clearly visualise or 'nasalise' Play doh. I read recently that we have over 20 human senses so its no wonder really.

The plastic pots themselves were a thing of beauty in their own right I reckon. I'm surprised they never caught on as general containers in the home, office or school.

I don't recall mixing colours when I was dohing like I did with the more muscular plasticene so I can't say what happened when play-red was kneaded together with say play-blue. Play-purple?

I miss my Play Doh and look forward to buying my Grandson his first tub, which I will nasally savour for all its worth!

Whether Play Doh is collectable I don't know. I imagine the doh itself dries up over time or hardens like the unfortunate rigor suffered by Stretch Armstrong, although he can be re-softened on a radiator or hot water bottle.

Does anyone know the fate of aging Play Doh? Did you like it too?

is gru uncle fester?

Me and Missus Moonbase have just watched Despicable Me for the first time. 

The Minions are the best bot of the whole flick but I;m sure that's common knowledge now.

I couldn't help noticing how the film's despicable lead Gru resembles that much older bald bad boy Uncle Fester by the great late Chas Addams pictured below.

Do you agree readers?

What do you think of Despicable Me or indeed The Addams Family?

Have you any Addams Family collectables?

can I rent this video mister?

I used to love video shops.

When I say video shops I mean those little places that rented out video tapes.

These were often corner shops or general stores. There was even a fruit, veg and fish shop locally that had a shelf of random video's for hire.

Often these shops just asked you to write your landline number down on a sheet of paper by way of membership. Others had their own codes and numbers for tapes and members. 

The most sophisticated outfit in the UK was Blockbusters, a chain which sort of cornered the market eventually. I went to the local Blockbuster a lot as their horror collection was excellent in the Nineties. Membership came with a plastic card and I still have mine somewhere. Due tapes could be deposited in a postbox on the outside wall and you could get sweets, popcorn, Doritis and Haagen-Daz ice-cream there too!

It was a sad day when DVD became the film format of choice and like a digital cuckoo booted video out of video stores. This took some time while both formats co-existed but eventually video cassettes: VHS, Betamax and the earlier V2000 were no more, consigned to the rubbish bin of technology.

Ultimately Blockbusters themselves went bust and the closure of the national chain was the final epitaph of the video store phenomenon as we knew it.

Kids these days don't even know what video tapes are. They don't even watch TV's in the way we did, choosing rather to sit in their rooms streaming You Tubers playing X-Box on their phones!

As video was a technology that was both born and died during the first half of my life and a format I adored I spent a good deal of time in the Nineties and Noughties collecting the oldest horror tapes I could find. Pre-Certs, Big Box, Clamshells and slipcases, I lovingly collected them all.

In many ways this is one of the many complex reasons for collecting I think: to be an archivist before somethings dies out forever. Certainly my videos are like an archive of a period now gone, the age of the video store.

Did you go to video stores readers back in the day?

midori lunar climber

The Japanese kit version of the Century 21 Lunar Climber.

Courtesy of You Tube.

Anyone got this kit?

new email address

Just a reminder that my email address has changed.

It can be found at the base of this page.

If you wish to submit an article or send pictures then please use this new Moonbasecentral email.

Thanks

Woodsy