Humble Roll Out

American oil company Humble (Esso) had connections with the space industry in the sixties and during the run up to the first moon landing and as rockets were lighting up the skies over the US, it came up with an especially fine promotional gift for motorists and their children.

The Energy rocket was a service station premium item and I was lucky to find a complete one, including all the parts and paperwork intact and pristine. Made from sturdy plastic and a good 18 cm long, this is a really fine piece of space memorabilia and i'd encourage any fan of space toys to look out for one.

The model comes in quite a complex little kit and was probably intended as more of a 'dads toy' as some of the fixings are tiny and require tools. Skipping past the building, the vehicle is motorised and runs along a trackway made of plastic 'drinking straws'.

Along the track is a buffer section, and as the transporter runs into this, a switch at the front releases the rocket from its horizontal transport mode, flicks it upright into launch position and a powerful spring blasts it off into the (virtual) stratosphere!

Its quite powerful too, as I found out to my cost after building it, accidentally letting the switch go, I ended up looking like Luna from Georges Melies 'Trip to the Moon' where the moon grimaces as a rocket plunges into its cratered eye!

Humble also did some gorgeous press ads later in the companies history such as the one pictured from a magazine featuring a beautiful painting of a proposed Molab.

The little Esso keyring  figure did not come from the Humble kit, but is shown as part of the advertising on the paperwork and is another survivor from my childhood!

 

Fireflashed

Blog reader Ralph Morton has sent us these shots of his beautiful wooden desktop models of supersonic aircraft. Not content with the amazing swing wing SST's, he has gone a step further and commissioned a very special aircraft:

"You may remember me from back in 2014 when I sent you pics of an RAF Angel Interceptor I bought on Ebay. I am at present getting a BAOC (Yes BAOC) Fireflash made for me in the Philippines by a firm I use who make me Boeing SSTs.

I have designed a scheme similar to the BOAC 1960s look and using the Air Terrainean markings as a base.The firm in the Philippines are very good but not cheap!"

SHADO'S IN THE FOREST

Scalecraft Catalogue Redux

I’ve posted this before, for the Billy Blastoff element, but I thought it’s worth flagging up again, to see the Scalecraft model line.

One Small Step

 The fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing fast approaches. Its hard to believe its been so long since man first walked on the moon, I still recall those heady days of excitement like they were only yesterday. Moon fever was everywhere, tv, film, advertising, books, sweets - you couldn't move without finding something connected with the space race or the moon landing, it was such an exciting time. And then within a few short years, it was over. The last Apollo missions were cancelled due to budgetary constraints and what seemed like a lack of public interest. The Vietnam war had taken its toll on the US and as the flights to the moon had not delivered anything as remotely as exciting as media had portrayed, no aliens, no space cities and nothing but unremarkable dust and rock - the public eye turned away from the moon and space and looked elsewhere for entertainment.

 The recent plan to reach the moon once more by 2020 has generated a little resurgence of interest and the multitude of probes delivering photographs and information from the far reaches of the solar system has been hugely popular, but so far its only been a pale imitation of 1969.

Perhaps as man reaches out once more to step on the surface of our nearest neighbour, it may gather momentum, but for now I content myself with reverie and fond memories of those heady days when newsagents bulged with comics and papers chock full of rockets and sweet counters burst with candy filled spaceships and little toys.

So for now, here is a small gallery of some of my toy LEM's and moon landers, maybe as the decade rolls on modern takes on these little gems will drop out of cereal packets in the morning, or sail gracefully over carpetted moonscapes to settle silently on imagined mares.

FAB WORLDS OF ANDERSON 2019 FAST APPROACHING

The latest Fab Worlds of Anderson event is due to take place at the National Space Centre at Leicester in two weeks’ time, and like last year it promises to be a great weekend for fans.

I love these kinds of events. It gives me another chance to see lots of original props and some excellent model replicas. I get to take a few snaps and, most importantly meet up with a few old and new friends. 

As the name implies all of the Andersons’ series’ are celebrated, but I will admit I only really have a great fondness for all Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s series from Supercar to Space:1999. I even include the second series of Space:1999, even though Sylvia wasn’t involved, so I’m pleased to see that a few special guests are due to appear who actually worked on those original series. 

Matt shaking yours truly by the throat. Photo: Andy Kerr  

Voice of Alan Tracy, Matt Zimmerman:  Matt was due to attend last year’s event along with the sadly missed Shane Rimmer, but couldn’t make it due to health reasons, so it’ll be great to get a chance to see him at this event this year. Matt is always a hit and loves meeting fans.

Space:1999 special effects man, Brian Johnson: Brian was at last year’s event and is always a popular guest, who also talks about his time on other feature films like Alien, The Empire Strikes Back and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Special effects model-maker, Alan Shubrook:  Alan worked at the Century 21 studios in the 1960’s and is always pleased to share his experiences  with fans.

For those who follow and enjoy Anderson Entertainment’s Gerry Anderson  podcasts ,  there will be a live recording taking place on Saturday hosted by Jamie Anderson and Richard James, and on Sunday Jamie and Richard will host Fab Live, another of their monthly  live video  podcasts.

One thing I really enjoyed at last year’s event was the stunning display of original and replica puppets, and chatting to their highly knowledgeable owners, many of whom have restored them to pristine condition.

There was also a great selection of original and replica models on display, so I’ll be looking forward to seeing those again.

Of course, as the event takes place amongst real spaceship and space related exhibits it’s in a perfect setting for The Fab Worlds of Anderson.

Fab Worlds of Anderson takes place 15-16 June 2019 at the National Space Centre in Leicester. 

Space Art: Michael Whittlesea

Well its good to be back at the helm and hopefully I can keep the blog rolling while Woodsy is on shore leave for a little while! The last time he had an extended leave of absence, I dropped a meteor on Moonbase and blew up the blog, but I promise not to do anything quite so dramatic this time. To start off, i'd like to revisit one of my favourite science fiction artists and also one of my favourite writers. Arthur C Clarke first came to my notice in the launch issue of Speed and Power magazine, a weekly aimed at boys and chock full of jets, cars, trains and all things powerful and speedy! It was a treasure trove of information, back in the seventies and each week, it included a short sci-fi story from Clarke, illustrated usually by an amazing artist, who was never credited in the issue. It was only very recently, by virtue of the all powerful internet, that I discovered Michael Whittlesea.

His bold, colourful illustrations complmented Clarkes stories wonderfully and drew me in to read every one, which for me was very unusual, as I was never fond of reading and very much taken by the visuals. Whittlesea's style was unusual in that it introduced a chunky, assymetrical style of ship, very much similar to the work of Chris Foss, famous for his Foundation and Lensman series of book covers.

The other attractive quality was the boldness of Whittlesea's line work, which was again very reminiscent of the style of Malcolm Stokes in the Project SWORD stories.

 As each story unfolded, it appeared that some of them were individual short stories, but it was later that I realised that some pieces were in fact discrete chapters from a larger work. The Journey to Jupiter sequence, was an adapted novella: 'Meeting with Medusa' which details the exploits of Howard Falcon, who journeys to the clouds of Jupiter following a life-changing accident on an airship.

 

Whittlesea captures the truly alien life amongst the clouds in glorious colour, showing the manta's and vast gas-filled medusan creature in beautiful detail.

 There is also a nice toy-like quality to the artwork, which at the time tied in nicely to my space toy collecting mania!