WILLIS O'BRIAN'S CREATIONS

I was mesmerised by this You Tube test footage by Willis O'Brien of his unfinished 1931 stop-motion film 'Creation'.

Featuring somewhat unpleasant dinosaur hunting, I assume that Willis would have made sure the hunter got his comeuppance had he finished!

I hadn't seen this clip before and You Tube has a whole raft of O'Brian related stuff including material on the lost spider pit sequence of King Kong and clips from my beloved Mighty Joe Young movie, where a young Ray Harryhausen gets stuck into the clay.

I first came across Willis O'Brian, the godfather of stop motion, in the pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland and I may still have the very copy from my youth. It featured his original King Kong and dinosaur frame and clay models, which I seem to recall going to Forry Ackerman himself as part of his Ackermansion collection.

I wonder where they are now?

A trip to the loft is required methinks!

PUZZLE OF THE SPACE PYRAMIDS TOY ASTRONAUT?

I saw this old book cover on Amazon:

Puzzle of the Space Pyramids.

Its not a very high res picture sorry but the space chappie on the front looks like my old Action Man astronaut.

Or it could be a Blue Box or Redbox clone [more on these later!].

What do you think?

BACK TO NORMAL SHELF LIFE

Well, alas, the Xmas decorations have been packed away for another year.

Our normal ornaments and small personal toys are back on the shelves once again till next December.

Small toys, pots and nik naks the Missus and me have collected over the years, some, like the womble and the pony candle-holder, going way back to our childhoods.

Have you got a shelf like this?

RAY HARRYHAUSEN IS IN THE HOUSE!

Just enjoying a late Christmas TV special of the 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Clash of the Titans. Yep, its a Harryhausen bonanza!

I love these old stop motion effects movies. Like the great Willis O'Brien before him, Ray Harryhausen's genius was to bring lumps of clay to life almost golem-like.

His distinctive chained cave dragon in the 7th Voyage was utterly fabulous.

Gwangipedia

It reminds me of other lizard monsters in films like 

The Giant Behemoth

Giphy

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

Giphy

and the Danish-American Reptilicus

Wikipedia

I shall have to check any Harryhausen links to these other films. 

I never had any Harryhausen-based toys I don't think. I was too old for Clash of the Titan toys and never found any as a collector later on. never saw a one at any UK car boot sales. I did see mint boxed Krakens and carded figures at larger toy fairs like Memorabilia. 

Were there any other toys based on Harryhausen films? Do you like stop motion effects?

Arto's Nomura Cosmic Ray Machine Gun and H.G.Wells

Hello Woodsy

Took those piccies of the Nomura Cosmic-Ray Machine Gun (Just hope Bill won't blow his fuse - TINPLATE AGAIN!) 

The octopi-like aliens found on the barrel feature also on this Japanese sonosheet by Morinag on Ebay.

Arto

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Woodsy adds: here's the entry for the toy gun on Alphadrome, where the alien motif is mentioned but unidentified

http://www.danefield.com/data/displayimage-23-3070.html

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Woodsy also adds: the octopus alien looks just like the ones Bill posted a while back too!

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2018/10/life-off-mars.html

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As for its identity, all these are based on this original French illustration by M. Dudouyt, an engraving from a 1917 edition of War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells [thanks Bill.]

The Grinch Cometh!

Hello Woodsy

I feel like a total Grinch but I took all day yesterday taking down the Christmas decos.

Here's the before and after pics.

Oh well,let the new year proceed!

Brian

NJ Base

DID YOU TAKE TOYS TO SCHOOL?

Well my Christmas holidays are nearly over and I got to thinking about that old post-Xmas tradition when I was a kid of taking toys to school.

It must have been in early January when we did it and it was in Primary School. We got to take in our fave Christmas toys and show them off to the class!

I have a feeling I took my Mod Monster toy and my Mystery Action Army Jeep. They must have caused a stir especially Mod Monster dropping his pants!

Do you remember taking toys to school readers?

FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR R.A.L.F and other Hangar Mini-Vehicles

Over Xmas I caught the end of The Flight of the Navigator on the telly.

It featured a hot food delivery vehicle called R.A.L.F and is seen in the main character's room:

and outside NASA's hangar:

I looked it up on Disney Wiki and really liked the original sketches for this small Starcom-like vehicle:

It reminded me completely of this small hangar vehicle I noticed in my old Project S.W.O.R.D annual. It's coincidentally numbered 5 as well!

It would have made a nice little Tri-ang SpaceX or Golden Astronaut toy as well!

There's also a similar Repair Pack 3 in the SWORD annual

and a Skid 205 hover carrier

Do you know of any airport hangar or NASA hangar toys readers?