JUST DESERTS

Years before Star Wars there was this brilliant vision of a desert planet in space.

Its the card art for the SpaceX Apollo Tracker.

A toy I never had, there's just something Tatooine'ish about it.

Its its simplicity that I really love.

To find something similar in Star Wars I've opted for a still from the animated series of Droids but I imagine an early comic version of SW has simple colour illustrations of Tatooine in it too.

Have you any fave desert planet art or toys?

Has anyone been to the desert set where Tatooine was staged?

MYSTERY MAN COVER

More Ciencia Ficcion.

The guy in front of the cliff with the blaster looks very familiar.

Any ideas readers?

LIPSTICK LUNAR TRANSPORTER: TIDDLYWINKS

 My home made LT10 is taking shape.

The blue blister is on and the lime green nose cone but I'm not happy with it. I've cut the pen top too long. I may have to shorten it.

To cap off the ends of the body and the engine I looked everywhere in the house for two orange counters - you know, tiddlywinks, but to no avail. Red ones had to suffice but again I'm not overly happy with the colour change.

To get a feel for how the body and the engine will look here's the two parts balanced next to each other.

The engine isn't ribbed like the original so may not make the cut.

Finally, I've found some orange plastic off a Jaffa cale tube to experiment with in making what I reckon will be the hardest part, the wheeled chassis.

What do you think so far?

[my old and cool die-cast cars courtesy of Missus Moonbase and her car boot jumble buys this week!]

NEW APOLLO HISTORY BOOKS BY ROB G

Hey Woodsy,

Just an FYI, my two new books about early Apollo history are out now. The first one has part of the story about the Nuclear Ferry in it. Attached is a review from this month's Spaceflight.

http://www.cgpublishing.com/Books/9781926837420.html

http://www.cgpublishing.com/Books/9781989044063.html

Cheers

Rob
--

Robert D. Godwin
Space Curator - Canadian Air and Space Conservancy
IAF and AAS History Committee Member
Exec. Editor - Apogee Space Books/TheSpaceLibrary.com
Director - General Astronautics Research Corporation
2116B Prospect Street
Burlington, Ontario L7R1Y9
Canada

CENTURY 21 RECORDS SHOP POSTER 1965

This was an interesting auction I saw last month. A piece of shop display material for Century 21 that's new to the blog.

You ever seen one readers?

Century 21 Records original UK shop display poster issued by Record Retailer magazine, 1965. This poster was for use in record shops to promote the launch of Century 21 label and advertised the first six EPs to be released.

17 x 11 inches (approx).

COVER IT UP

So what are the influences behind this old cover art readers?

GENERAL FOAM COLLAPSE

This video on You Tube from 2017 is about the demise of General Foam in the US.

As far as I recall General Foam were a successor to the blow-mould kings Empire of Tarboro, themselves parents of Tarheel Industries who brought Project SWORD toys to America and Canada in the late 60's.

THE SOVIET BOR-4 SPACEPLANES AND THEIR LEGACY

This is an interesting article on various Soviet space planes including the Spiral.

There's a really great looking model Spiral as well. It does remind me of Task Force 1.

http://www.bis-space.com/belgium/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/bor-41.pdf

The report was written by Bart Hendrickx of Belgium.

The Spiral 50 50 came up on the blog in 2010 - yep, 9 years ago! - as a result of an article in the Andersonic fanzine about Century 21 Studios model design.

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2010/02/re-entry-task-force-1-origin-spiral-50.html