TEMPTING TOYS TUGGED MY WALLET

 Continuing my look behind the dusty curtains of dead stock here are two snaps of a store in Llandudno, which was closed when we visited the seaside spa town, a jewel on the North Wales coast.

The reflection of the window is awful sorry but you may make out a very nice boxed Fisher Price toy garage, which might have drawn me through the door.

There's also a Marvel Legends Spidey figure boxed, a Run DMC carded figure and a Spidey pickup truck.

Everything appeared to be £20 each.

Anything of interest?

I also saw two 12 or maybe 18 inch articulated Star Wars figures in a Charity shop. A Stormtrooper and a Darth Vader. They were marked Disney so were modern. In fabulous shape and working order I was tempted but the £10 each price tag put me off. Similarly, £5 for a large die-cast Polistil vintage blue roadster loose was too much.

Would you have passed?

Concluding this journey into holiday toying I was chuffed to hold a modern version of Twin Mill in our local Lidl on the way home.

Twin Mill was one of my fave Hot Wheels as a kid and its great to see the redline classics getting a whole new generation excited. When my Grandson is old enough to appreciate the names of redlines I'll get him the re-issues down at Lidl or Aldi!

Do you collect Hot Wheels re-issues?

DEAD STOCK COMBAT SOLDIER: CHEAPO THRILLS IN BORTH

After posting about old dead stock shops yesterday I realised that I may not have ever posted my fave bit of dead stock.

Its this Combat Soldier.

A cheapo Action Man knockoff in a bag. I loved this guy when I saw him and his two buddies. They were awaiting orders on a dusty shelf in the seaside resort of Borth in North Wales way back in the summer of 2014.

It took me right back to buying toys like this as a kid in Zodiac Toys around 1967.

The old shop was called Hubbards Gift Shop. Their price tag is on the back.

I adored the header card artwork. It was like a small painting!

The rack toys were unpunched too!

Old Combat Soldier has quite a friendly face too. 

Since I would never leave a man behind, I bought all three!

Also at the store I bought an old doll as well called Susie, who became a Star Maiden homage in later years and also a set of old plastic baby counting bricks by Codeg bagged with a neat header.

I can't find any pics of the Codeg toy in my archive but Susie I've blogged before and she now lives with Arto.

Alas, Combat Soldier became a victim of my compulsion to sell toys on Ebay back in 2014/15 and joined the lost boys of the everlasting knockoff war.

Have you found any old dead stock shops or dusty old fancy goods stores leftover from a bygone era readers? Maybe you don't want to say! ha ha

JR21 ROCKET LAUNCHER ON ALPHADROME

A neat post about the JR21 and an Eastern European rocket toy by Tinplate6 on the fabulous Alphadrome site.

http://danefield.com/alpha/forums/topic/20364-twin-rockets/

FINDING OLD DEAD STOCK BEHIND THE CASTLE WALLS

Well, we're back on Moon Base and our journey to the mountains and the sea in the land of dragons is sadly over.

North Wales is uniquely beautiful and our spiritual home as we spent a fantastic three years there studying and working in our early twenties. We fell in love with the place.

We've visited North Wales many times since and I always nip into the occasional discount store in case ancient toys linger still as I did in Borth a few years back. I look out for these places wherever I am in the world. These aren't vintage toy shops but rather stores selling ancient fancy goods, hardware and toys for whatever reason.

Well, this trip's find was Bargains Galore in the castled city of Caernarfon. This old budget dead stock shop was stuffed with rack and boxed toys from the late 80's and 90's I would guess. Alas, the Missus was on a mission to explore the world-class castle walls so I didn't get long at all before having to leave. If you are in the area it might be worth rummaging and delving to see what's there among the dust, including a few dark corners and alcoves I noticed.

What I did see were: a boxed Barbie Make-up head, window boxed Action Man type cheapo figures [1990's I would say], very large bagged plastic Knights armour set with header, Superted boxed sets of some sort [Superted is a Welsh cartoon character], rack toy Hong Kong brush and dustpan sets, marble rollercoaster boxed plastic toy, plastic toy guns and rifles and a rack of carded rack toys like a small child's American Policeman and motorbike set on bubble card.

It amazes me that shops full of old dead stock like this still exist but I'm always thrilled to find them. I didn't see anything that took my fancy but as I said I could have done with a lot more time.

Let us know if you go in and find anything!

There were some other vintage toys in the charity shops we went in, which I'll describe later.

With our stay in Gwynedd sadly over we drove home the hundred plus miles being entertained by the Fantastic Four on Power Records courtesy of Kid.

I shall report back on this later too as our dog is arriving now from the dog-sitter! Woof!

MOON RANGERS CLIP

For anyone who missed last weeks Endeavour episode on ITV, here's a clip showing the puppet sequence that's been widely distributed on line by Century 21 films, the people behind the Thunderbirds 1965 project.

https://vimeo.com/317852670?fbclid=IwAR15dsrPQH4DpsK2qw56VkcJgnYWUFTfVK7wYowxZ4FaLssfiVkKcc1gTKM

I know it's only short, but I thought it was a really good homage to the earlier AP Films series'. I imagine quite a few fans would love to see a series of this, I know I would.

TARHEEL TOY FIRE ENGINE

We've seen this before but maybe not the box.

I saved these pics from Ebay ages ago.

Its the Tarheel Fire Engine.

The T with kids logo is on the box end above and on the side of the toy.

The model number is 5710.

Unusually for Tarheel this toy is tinplate.

Tarheel also released a series of Project SWORD toys in the late 60's for the American and Canadian markets.

Here's the blog's checklist of Tarheel toys.

Have you got any Tarheel toys?

PROJECT DYNA SOAR

I like this short film on You Tube by Okrajoe using NASA footage.

It helps bring to life the backstory to my Project SWORD Dyna Soar toy from 1967.

It compliments this other colour short published by Julian Budde on You Tube.

TV CRIME DRAMA TO FEATURE 'SUPERMARIONATION-LIKE' SEGMENT

The latest episode of the TV crime series, Endeavour may be of some interest to Gerry & Sylvia Anderson fans as it features scenes reminiscent of their famous puppet/marionette series.

Endeavour, a spin- off of the Inspector Morse TV series, which was set in contemporary times, and starred the late John Thaw, is set in 1969, and features a younger Detective Sergeant Endeavour Morse, (played by Shaun Evans) earlier in his police career . 

Photo:  ITV/Radio Times

The episode is called ‘Apollo’, and takes place at the time of the first Moon Landing. According to an online Radio Times article by Mark Braxton, Endeavour creator & writer Russell Lewis says that the episode is a love letter to the puppet era of the Andersons, and goes on to say that without Gerry Anderson’s imagination firing his own, Russell doubts he would be doing what he does today.

The talented folk behind the Thunderbirds 1965 project, and the Halifax Bank advert featuring Lady Penelope and Parker were brought in to help film the puppet /marionette scenes, along with original Thunderbirds’ director, David Elliot, and original Thunderbirds puppeteer Mary Turner.

In the episode the drama takes place in a fictional film studio with Supermarionation influences, where a puppet series called Moon Rangers, which features a square-jawed hero called Major Rock Renton is being filmed. 

Photo: ITV/Radio Times

As a minor point of interest, most Anderson fans will be aware that in 1969 the last Supermarionation puppet series, The Secret Service had completed filming in January at the Anderson’s  Stirling Road Century 21 studio in Slough. 

Endeavour ‘Apollo’ first airs on ITV at 8.00 pm on Sunday, 17^th February 2019

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-02-17/endeavour-apollo-moon-rangers-studio-gerry-anderson-thunderbirds-stingray-supermarionation/

Quick update: Well, I watched it, but of course I wouldn't dream of giving the plot away.  The puppet scenes are uncannily reminiscent of the earlier A.P. Films series, and there's one or two in- jokes for the Anderson aficionado. The location chosen for the fictional film studio do bear a passing resemblance to the buildings used at Stirling Road in Slough, and a couple of genuine vintage toys can be seen in the studio office sets. Well worth a watch if you like a quality feature-length period crime drama with a little extra added.