WHERE IS CANDY 1?

I'm still looking for Stripey, the mini in Candy and Andy comics.

You can see Mr and Missus Bearanda enjoying a drive back in the day.

You can also see that like the Dinky toy, the original mini bore the registration CANDY 1.

Has anyone ever seen this actual car with that registration?

I thought I'd struck gold the other day with this shot online!

A modern homage somewhere in the world.

Stripey lives!

MOVEMENT IN THE CITY: LONDON BEER WAGONS

Hello Woodsy,

These are the photos I took 50 years ago in North London, actually in Tottenham near Spurs home ground.

The college project was Movement in the City and my interpretation was Beer Deliveries. 

Black and white picture Number 4 below shows an Austin 200 in Watney livery. I used it as reference for the slot car adaptation I did as shown below my remaining unfinished version.

With the advent of CAMRA in the early 70'S and the end of national brewers, how has that left you in your part of the world? 

Do you have decent local brewers? 

On visits to the UK I do miss Worthington E and Watney's Red Barrel. They had a sweetness in taste that the citric tasting brews made with US hops do not. 

For a few years I was delighted that Boddington was exported in cans with a plastic widget in the can that made the beer pour with a nice head. When they moved production away from Manchester it wasn't the same. 

Bottles of Speckled Hen do show up now and then but they're not the same as on tap.

Regards,

Terranova47

Do you have any brewery collectables?

MORE TOYS ON THE COVERS OF CANDY AND ANDY COMICS

More toys on the covers and pages of Candy and Andy comics, one of the more unusual moons of Gerry Anderson's Sixties universe.

What can you see?

I've spotted the JR21 Lady Penelope Tea Set in a box which Candy is pointing at. I'd like one of those!

I'm interested in the bulldozer box top right. There's a striped ball on top of it. What is that bulldozer? Anyone know?

Candy and Andy are relaxing watching a Chad Valley projector show. But what strip are they watching? Can you make it out?

That's a big red locomotive but one I don't know. You?

and just who are those Grenadier Guards?  Is it a bendy?

Let me know what else you might spot!

A TOY BLAST FROM THE ZIKZAK PAST WITH READER COREY LECHAT

Here's something for the blog...I figured I'd point you in the direction of this music video my creative partner Dave Kerin and I did for the band zikzak (Todd Stadtman of diedangerdiediekill.blogspot.com as well as many many other talented ventures). 

Todd, David and myself were (are) huge Gerry Anderson and all things 60s sci-fi fans and we did this circa 2000/2001. Dave and I shot the video based on my storyboard. He did the CGI and edited it all together. 

I built the sets, shot still images, etc. The ceramic cats used in the video were a pair of banks that appeared on the cover of the first zikzak release (CD). My ex missus is Anna Li. I'm the giant cat. 

Todd was based in Los Angeles at the time and David and I were in Pittsburgh, so Todd was unavailable to film any new footage, so we used a quick shot of him playing an acoustic gig and some talking head footage. With this in mind, we created what you see here. 

I'm still proud of this thing over a decade later. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Srw3P08o8Q 

Here's a completely ridiculous (and very toy nerdy) video breakdown: 

1) opening zoom based on the Flash Gordon movie 

2) the cat's Tracy Island base of operations is the Lil Playmates Space Station from 1984 

3) plastic panels in secret cat base are from the 1957 Kenner Girder and Panel Building Set 

4) cat ship inspired combo of Space 1999 Hawk and Eagle 

5) Anna Li's moonbase was put together from the Hasbro 1969 Astrolite playset 

6) the moonscape was made of composite shots of the lunar landscape 

from 2 different 1960's Comansi Thunderbirds playsets 

7) Frozen Todd (lead singer of zikzak) in tube was in fact a Fairylite 

Thunderbirds Brain figure with Todd's head photoshopped on it 

8) and of course - a classic 60s Ultraman-esque battle in front of poster mural of the lunar surface 

Corey

PAYVA BILLY BLASTOFF

I was fascinated by the Billy Blastoff set in an old Spanish toy catalogue from 1973.

Its unlike any set I've seen before for various reasons:

1. Its red, yellow and white

2. Its in a card lunar background display case

3. It appears to be by Payva

Have you seen anything like this before?

IS KIDS' TV DEAD?

Kids never mention TV to me anymore.

We lived for the telly in the 60's and early 70's.

The talking point at school was always what was on the box tea-times and Saturday mornings or the latest tv-related comic or toy you got.

Thunderbirds, Banana Splits, Double Deckers, Kung Fu, TV21 and Look-in to name but a smidgeon all ruled the day. We just couldn't get enough of kids TV.

These days schoolkids talk about computer games, You Tube and snapchat. No mention of terrestrial TV at all. I wonder in this kind of climate if children's TV can survive at all?

The whole format of kids culture is changing. Their heroes are YouTubers who show videos of themselves playing Fortnite and Minecraft or any other computer game topical at the time. Modern kids watch this stuff on their consoles all day and all night. Family TV viewing appears to be dead.

I cannot think when the last time was a kid talked about a TV show.

Like the household telephone. almost universally obsolete, I fear that childrens' TV for older kids will also go the way of the dodo. Maybe TV's themselves have had it too?

How can a kids' TV producer stop this receding tide?

What's your take on this readers?

BEAR ESSENTIALS

I can't say there's ever been a special bear in my life. At least none that I am aware of.

Of course, I loved TV and film bears like Rupert, Pooh, Baloo, Paddington and Issi Noho [can't remember what that was short for].

Toys eluded me.

I very nearly got hold of a toy Paddington like this about 15 years ago but the deal fell through.

Paddington Bear, the great literary creation of the late Michael Bond, was made into a toy by no less than Jeremy Clerkson's Mum down the road from Moonbase in Doncaster!

I did get hold of a Teddy Ruxpin mint in box from a mixed lot that came in when I was a full time Ebayer. It was an animated Teddy with a cassette player in its back I think. I remember it sold well circa 2005. Made in the 1980's it must have been a very early animated toy.

Talking of Ebaying I once picked up a Sooty glove puppet at a car boot sale. Having listed it on the bay it was snapped up by an Ebayer called I am The Real Sooty! I just hope I didn't actually sell the Real Sooty as it went for a song!

Oddly enough there was a Sooty Museum in Shipley about an hour away from Moonbase. It closed down around 2011.

Was or is there a toy bear in your life readers?

ACTION MAN'S SHINY CUIRASS

When I was a nipper I adored the ceremonial military uniforms Palitoy issued for Action Man.

These included the Grenadier Guard with the big furry busby but more especially the Royal Life Guard.

One of the attractions of this uniform was the beautiful plastic sword and scabbard which came with it.

I was sort of obsessed with swords as a kid and Palitoy's sabre was a no-brainer.

Much later when I started going to toy fairs I was intrigued to see a carded accessory set allover the place, which contained the very same sword and the breastplate I love so much as a little Life Guard.

Looking into it I discovered it to be a 40th Anniversary issue by Modellers Loft. In fact its still available as a new item on their website!

I am still unsure if it's a re-issue of a Palitoy carded set or whether Modellers Loft have issued something new. Do you know readers?

This is the vacuum-packed carded set:

Seeing it I remember savouring the word cuirass as a kid. What a fabulously exotic word! It describes the front and back plates together. The front is commonly known as the breastplate. Another older word for this is the plackart.

The other figures I had which enjoyed a good cuirass were those wonderful plastic knights released by Marx. 

Life size toy armour can still be found on the shelves of toy stores and museum shops. How terrific to dress up as a knight!

Did you like toy swords and cuirasses readers?