ufo runner car

Browsing Flickr I was drooling over Fred Barr's picture of Colonel Foster's car from UFO when I thought.....

I've seen something like that ubercool rear end somewhere else recently ....

Of course, the Peugeot in the new and awesome Blade Runner 2049 flick!

What do you think readers? Are they connected?

have you seen the new Blade Runner film?

barbie's jumbo jet landed in my attic

Thinking about what's in my forgotten loft I remembered there are two loose Barbie Jumbo Jets from 1999 parked under the eves. How on earth I got them home from car boot sales I dunno. Probably flew them!

The Jumbo is a huge blue plastic plane that opens up to let kids get to grips with aviation. Here's a piccy from Ebay. Don't think I have that trolley step.

Here's the TV ad from '99 courtesy of You Tube:

As this is a Barbie jet it would also fit Action Man, GI Joe and his 12 inch pals. Well, at least two of them and a pilot if Barbie was off clubbing and Ken was off chatting up Sindy!

In fact I'm sure its much bigger than any plane released for Action Man. Not sure about GI Joe though.

There's a neat working microphone on board too for those urgent doll announcements like:

"Would anyone made by Palitoy and Hasbro please sit down!" or "No drinks will be served on this flight as none of you have mouths that open!"

[I'm sure you can think of more!]

Barbie's jet has a sort of Thunderbird 2 look about it too. I wonder if greater hands than mine could Thunderbirderise it into one?

One day I'll go into the loft and get these Jumbo's out of the hangar again.

Have you any large toy planes?

ATRAGON SUBMARINE BY REVOLTECH

The great looking Revoltech model of supersub, Atragon.

In spite of it being only 174 mm, it's full of intricate little features...

...and plenty of surface detail.

The conning tower, canard fins, aft rudders and forward rock cutters all retract into the hull, to create that flying missile look as seen in the film.

The models comes with interchangable drills - the classic one with cutters at the front, and one with a sharp point.

The model also comes with a posable display stand.

It's certainly a super model, and unlike the larger moterised Aoshima one, much more affordable.

kids books everywhere in the sixties and seventies

A few of my fave books from my earliest bookshelf, all with awesomely memorable covers!

The Coral Island

Supernatural Stories for Boys

A similar book for girls [for balance!]

and the first of the great paperback Armada Ghost Books

Which were fave books and book covers readers when you were kids?

ULTRAMAN INTRO

After reading Brian's comment on my Bandai Antagon post yesterday, he suggested I should explore other Japanese  sci-fi vehicles, and in particular those in the Japanese cult series, Ultraman.

Well, I did just that, and watched the first half dozen episodes of the original series.

I'll admit, I don't count myself as a Godzilla fan, so the monster moments didn't always do it for me, but for the most part  I enjoyed what I saw.

I liked all the Science Patrol characters, in particular the pipe smoking Captain Toshio Muramatsu in charge of things;  Shin Hayata, who, if I'm getting this right, shares his lifeforce with Ultraman, after the alien accidentally kills him in the first episode; I also liked Akiko Fuji, the only female of the team, and who also appears the most competent!

But the one thing that stood out for me was the team's aircraft, the Jet VTOL S111.

A super looking vehicle with a very appealing paint scheme.

I was  so impressed, I've gone and ordered a model kit of it direct from Japan, so, thanks Brian, you'll be seeing a little more of the Jet VTOL in the near future.

discovery five:JP los vehiculos espacio: spanish LP MOON EXPLORER and range

The internet is a wonderful thing.

I recently discovered these toys, which are wholly new to me and the blog.

They are a Spanish version of the LP range of boxed plastic space vehicles. 

The original LP range was featured on this blog by Ferryman in its very first year!

They are called Los Vehiculos Espacio and were released by a company called JP in 1969.

Many of the LP boxed vehicles are there including the Moon Bus lookalike, the Moon Explorer at the top.

The unique feature of this Spanish range is that they were chromed in gold colour.

They look stupendous as do the boxes!

What do you think?

Incidentally the space scooter is based on an unusual Hong Kong toy, which I hadn't known was LP, but have seen before, the Space Motorcycle, pictured below.

Has anyone any further info about these toys from JP?

plastic supersonic

I love supersonic plane toys.

Sanchis of Spain made some brilliant planes and here's their remote controlled Concorde.

What a sleek gem it looks!

Drooling over it I also couldn't help noticing the similar sleekness and red-blue colour scheme of my ahi Super Rocket Plane aka Moonship.

Have you got any sleek plastic toy planes?

BANDAI ATRAGON SUB

The Gotengo, or as it's known better in the West, The Atragon - the flying submarine seen in the 1963  film of the same name.  

This lovely little model, released in 2003 by Bandai  and similar in size to the small Konami range of Sci-fi models, was given to me by my blog friend, Will Schwartz, who is a big fan of Japanese Sci-fi movies.

I first watched the movie during the late sixties at my local ABC Cinema as part of their Saturday  morning  matinee for kids - remember those?

I was really taken by the design of the sub, with it's flying capability and it's drilldozer front, something quite common in Japanese mecha. As the film came out in 1963, it does pre-date the Thunderbird Mole which would have appeared in 1965.