lama chameleon

I can't help thinking when I see old fashioned towel rails how the end braces look like the feet of the SpaceX LAMA below!

Oddly enough the long LAMA barrel reminds me of something too but I can't think what!

I See a Ray Gun and I want to Paint it Black

Kevin has recently reworked his Merit Supersonic Ray Gun, bringing it even closer to its toy original. Besides giving it a lovely coat of gloss black (Nice one Kevin!) he has remodelled the rear end to more closely match the original. I want one!

Chinook on the horizon

Occasionally a Chinook helicopter flies over Moonbase.

Its an impressive sight and the sound of the double rotors always exciting.

I'm not sure of there was ever a Chinook in the worlds of Gerry Anderson but they always look futuristic to me.

I once bought this Marx Chinook at a car boot sale. Bill B kindly repaired the rotors for me.

Have you got Chinooks near you or maybe a toy version?

little big horn plastic figures: who were they made by?

My older Brother had a beautiful board game when I was a kid in the Sixties.

It was called Battle of the Little Big Horn.

It was made by Waddingtons of Leeds in the UK.

Despite the grim subject matter the box was gorgeous and one of my favourites.

The thing I loved the most were the plastic figures of cowboys and indians on horseback.

I though they were fantastic.

Were they made by Waddingtons or were they made by another company like Timpo or Britains? Did Waddingtons have the wherewithal to manufacture plastic figures like this?

Zap! a Scratchbuild of Merit

The ever-busy Kevin Davies has just sent the blog shots of his latest creation, a scaled up scratchbuild of the Merit Supersonic Space Gun! I had one back in the day and with its changing colours and buzzing sounds, it was always a favourite. After picking up a second hand one, Kev was surprised at how small it was to his grown up hand, so recreated it as a 'realistic' prop. Great work Mr D!

vintage torches lit my bedspread

I had to use a torch to take the dog in the Moonbase garden.

It made me think of torches I had access to as kid.

The house torch in my parents house was a huge black rubber light canon which had buttons hidden beneath a membrane. It was ridiculously satisfying to click those buttons on and off.

The other long torch was a chrome monster with multi-coloured buttons. There may even have been a sliding button. All in all it looked like a light-sabre years before Luke lit up. It took at least eleven million AAAAAAAAAA batteries.

In the shed was another torch. Well it was more of a lantern really. I think it was made by PIFCO. Basically the lantern had a metal handle over a large opaque orange plastic light casing at the top of a metal base which contained a huge block battery borrowed from a Magnox reactor. I've no idea what this orange lantern was for.

Talking of orange light has reminded me of another lamp in the shed. It was a hazard light taken from a road-side somewhere. Looking like a a portable HAL it was a yellow U shaped metal container housing a bright red circular lamp. Random street engineering like this often turned up in people's sheds in those days. Plastic cones were popular late night souvenirs as well!

My own kiddie torches were all plastic and completely dedicated to fun.

The first was a small multi-coloured mini-torch, which were everywhere in those days. I can see the lamp collar now, a tapered cone like the caldera of a volcano. I think this one definitely had a metal slide button.

The other torch I had came with a set of plastic faces, which attached onto the bulb end so they lit up. There was a clown and I think a monster too. I've seen another version with a large skull's head as well whilst I've been collecting old toys.

I adored that light-up faces torch. Not only did the faces light up, I think the silhouette could be projected onto a wall but my memory of that is somewhat blurred.

Did you like torches as kids readers?

ministry of silly walks: the winner is a kaiju!

Courtesy of You Tube. Anyone know what this crazy Japanese model monster is?

Finding Nemo

In a job lot of Kinder Egg toys and capsules, I came across this cool little Jules Verne submarine, minus a fin or two, but with enough spare bits in the lot to make a nice looking Nautilus!