MOONBASE CENTRAL

Wednesday, 15 April 2020

A LATE ENTRY FOR EASTER: A BAKELITE BUNNY NAPKIN HOLDER

Hello Woodsy,

Your post from NZ with Paul's money boxes had me searching for the two I remembered. One was a blue plastic elephant with key from the Midland Bank in the UK and a TECHNO toy bus also with key. Of course I could find neither (yet) but did come across these items.

A late entry for Easter, this Bakelite napkin holder is from the 40's. It was always part of my life growing up and I referred to it as Wilfred from the Daily Mirror comic strip Pip, Squeak and Wilfred.

The Hot Wheels miniatures are from 2000 I don't remember how they were sold, it may have been on a card with a car.

The left one is the Cockney Cab, full size one for comparison.

More money boxes to follow!

Terranova47

USA

Apollo 13: Lucky for Some

Fifty years ago this month, one of humanity's greatest tragedies was narrowly averted by the ingenuity of NASA scientists. Astronauts Lovell, Swigert and Haise were marooned in space during transit to the moon, when an explosion on the Odyssey Service Module rendered the craft inoperable. Using the engines on the Aquarius Lunar Module, they were able to manouvre the Command Module back to Earth orbit.

Very few clear images exist from the mission, but a technician from the uk has managed to compile some stunning stills of the event, using the 16mm movie footage captured by the crew. Saunders took over 1000 frames from a section of film, adjusted each and sharpened them individually, before stacking them together to create these amazingly clear images.

Its now possible to see the full extent of the damage to the Odyssey Service Module after a damaged wire vented the oxygen tanks and rendered most of the systems, including life support inoperable. More of Andy Saunders remarkable work can be seen on his Twitter feed. https://twitter.com/AndySaunders_1