HAS DOUG McCLURE HIT A DINOSAUR?

I caught 10 minutes of the old flick At The Earth's Core this morning in between gardening duties.

It starred Peter Cushing and Doug McClure.

There were some rubber dinosaur birds and a huge boar man. I suppose I have to admit even they were Kaiju.

Doug McClure hit everyone on screen. He pounded them with a shower of punches and then looked surprised.

Does he hit everyone in all his films? Was he a good leading man do you think?

Have his run of flicks like this and The Land That Time Forgot and co ever spawned any toys or models or collectables?

MORE PLASTIC EXPLORERS

BHS Explorer 12 is a firm favourite on Moonbase. I've covered it several times and Bill B is a keen fan too having helped another site devoted to the line.

Never bored of Explorers and their relatives here's a few more!

First up is this mystery. We've featured this red Blue Box monster before but its name is unknown.

Other than this new picture I found of a green version I'm none the wiser regarding its name. I understand that underneath it says Blue Box Patent Pending.

What is it?

Here's a toy new to MC i think, the M-12 Explorer. More akin to the Galgo line than BHS it's still related I think. The 12 certainly connects them and refers to the number of wheels.

Its has tons of actions and features and came in 3 colours.

I can't see a maker's name other than the model number HK 208.

The cars on the front box art are interesting. I recognise a black Pontiac Trans-Am in the Explorer's claw but not the other. Which toys are they?

Anyone know any more?

Next up is another newbie. This is a relatively modern Japanese Space Crawler. It has 14 wheels and a remote control.

At the rear of the blister pack is a leaflet depicting the vehicle - coloured a sort of military green-yellow - in action.

Here's the same vehicle in blue [top right] in this montage from Unusuallocomotion.com

Having perused You Tube as well here's an Explorer - style articulated truck. Again its more in the Monster style but still recognisbly Exploreresque.

Here's two stills of the same make of truck again from unusuallocomotion.com. It says FAUN on the cab. Is that a real make of trucks?



The picture above of the striped monster brings me to Galgo proper. An Argentinian toy company, Galgo released several different multi-wheeled monster-style explorers called Multiruedas or multiple wheels.

Here's the pale blue version with the make's distinctive cab-roof gear-stick.

You Tube offers us this short action clip as well.

Then there's the red version.

With a little video action as well to finish.

Another Explorer range was the Star Explorer. These had grabber arms and came in window boxes or loose from a shop display box. 

This one is Neptune in purple.

This is heading away from the BHS Explorer style and moving more towards a monster/SHADO2 design, which many multi-wheeled toys had.

I love the features:

Super Friction [ wow - super!], Striking Colour and just plain Awesome!

Finally we close with an old favourite and a definate relative of the BHS style Explorer 12 toys.

This is the Mars Mission by Tandy Radio Shack.

The toy was always dark purple as far as I know and battery operated.

It came in two different boxes.

One.

Two, the GO version.

Mars Mission was a cool Explorer.

The maker's mark for Tandy Radio Shack appears to have been a sticker on the base.

Can anyone supply some short video of this toy actually working?

Have you any explorer toys?

Wernher Von Braun's 1955 Space Suit with Arms

I was fascinated by this old NASA film from 1955 on You Tube.

Wernher Von Braun explains how it should be done. Space travel that is.

The models he uses for this are quite wonderful. Have a look.

One of the models is this beautiful chunky teardrop space suit with thin arms.

It brought to mind Kenner's Star Wars CAP-2 some 22 years later.

and maybe their FX-7 too

pic: My Generation Toys

There may even be a toy even more similar to Von Braun's space suit. 

What do you think?

Superb Old NASA Test Pictures

I came across this post on Io9 and thought I'd share it.

Its a set of brilliant pictures of NASA equipment trials including some suits and vehicles we will all recognise.

Have a look on Awesome Photos of NASA Equipment Tests. Enjoy.

Silly Pâté - Silly Putty in the Movie Amazon Women on the Moon

There's some Silly Putty in this old movie!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e2JmtQkkRHE

Mark J

South Coast Base

England

Did you have any Silly Putty as kids?

Collecting Baskervilles

Its funny how odd references can form a notion.

Last night I caught the film Enemy of the State on the box. Twenty years old and starring Will Smith it was one of those flicks about state surveillance of the public and a lost dodgy file. You know, The Pelican Brief and the Net were more of the same.

But it was seeing a young Ian Hart that surprised me. I'd seen the film before but never noticed him in what is admittedly a junior tech role.

Why my interest in Ian Hart? Well, one of my all-time favourite horror-mystery novels is The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I've collected many different versions of the book like this one

 ... and seen various adaptations on the TV. 

For a long time my number one film version was Hammer's classic starring the masterful Peter Cushing as Holmes. I have to say that a more modern film has taken the top spot of late, the 2002 TV film starring Richard Roxburgh as Holmes and yes, Ian Hart as Dr. Watson.

He plays the sleuth's companion brilliantly, cutting a dashing, diminutive figure on the moors in his tweed suit, stubbed revolver always to hand. 

There is something fascinating about the moustached Victorian gentleman-agent like Watson and for me Hart's gritty modern performance is superb.

Born in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, Hart went on to play Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself and reprised Dr. Watson once more too. He also played fellow scouser John Lennon and Prof. Quirrel in Harry Potter.

I've not seen any of these flicks nor his role as William Harrison in Longitude, an acclaimed TV series about John Harrison, genius clock maker 

By pure coincidence the birthplace of John Harrison, is down the road from Moonbase in the Yorkshire hamlet of Foulby! [my own Lancashire ancestor's were clock and barometer makers but possibly not geniuses!]

Richard Roxburgh is equally excellent as the debonair Sherlock Holmes in the 2002 movie. Is he the best one yet or are you a Rathbone or Cushing fan?

But it was only this week that my brother Steve reminded me that he'd played Dracula in Van Helsing too! How do you think he ranks as the Count?

Who'd have thought that the Baskerville Hound could be so much fun. Could there be any toys I wonder?

Which is your favourite film version? Maybe a radio series?

Have you got the book?

LET'S ROLL, KATO!

I'm not really an action doll collector, but I do like the Green Hornet and I couldn't resist this reissued Captain Action Green Hornet and new issue Kato doll by Playing Mantis from 1998. I'll do a fuller article shortly...

Lex Luthor's Legion of Doom

by Mark J

South Coast

England