MISH AND HIS DINOSAURS

Hi Woodsy.

As you liked my school Space Project drawings, here, attached, are some from my later Dinosaur one. I was probably about 14 at the time.

I started off with felt pen illustrations, as before, but moved on to painted ones, using water based poster paints.

A couple of them, the Allosaurus and the Triceratops, were done using Aurora Prehistoric Scenes kits and box art as reference material.

Hope you like them and feel they're fit to show.

All the best,

Mish

A Brush with Power

The 1980's saw the start of the japanese robot invasion, spearheaded by Transformers and their clones and a massive influx of mecha kits. Chief amongst them, was Imai with a vast range of Macross kits and later, other similar anime inspired models. I would eagerly buy each new release as they came out and later on, after the market became saturated, they appeared in discount stores for a couple of pounds and I bought even more!

Aside from the drastically different designs and weird new japanese aesthetic, the thing which really drew me in was the box art. Bold, exciting art like a robotic version of the early Airfix paintings showed the mecha in realistic poses and scenes.  I would strive to copy the paint schemes and weathering patterns on the boxes, as all the models looked like they had been built to fight a war and had seen the rigours of battle.

I've still got all the boxes and most of the models and it is great to look over them from time to time, admiring the artwork. It was however, only recently that I discovered who the artist who breathed such life into these paintings was;  Yoshiuki Takani. Takani is a sensei of the brush and has produced hundreds of paintings for models of all types, including mecha, military, anime and even book covers.

The beauty of Takani's work is that it is not just realistic, but it is dynamic and vibrant - swords vibrate with the force of the blow, tank treads clank and grind with the weight of armour and seas pound and wash the bows of ships in his work. Nothing is pristine, everything leaps off the canvas in gritty, exacting detail, with every tarnished rivet visible.

He is extremely sought after by kit makers to illustrate their packaging and his ultra-realistic work graces many shelves in Japan and the west. His style is a distinctive blend of bold colour, pin sharp detail and an almost calligraphic wash of tone.

His work can be found on so many different lines, such as these amazing military scenes, the large scale Seaview model, the Zoids Zevle box art and in this cool War of the Worlds inspired novel.

The combination of the real with the fantastic really brings the subject to life and with a lot of his paintings, is not just restricted to the subject model, there is always something going on in the background of a scene, as well as with the main focus.

LIKE PEAS IN A ...

I'm always on the look-out for ersatz toy parts including the Landrover from the JR21 Thunderbird 2 pod.

Here's a possible green pod contender in this vintage bagged Soldier set I saw on an old online sale.

SATURDAY MORNING SPECIAL: MISH IN SPACE

Hi Woodsy.

With reference to Wotan's 60's Spaceflight books, you may remember I said I'd done a School project about spaceflight in the early 70's in felt pen and that I'd dig it out.

Well here, here are some pages from it. 

Share them if you think they're worth looking at.

Regards,

Mish

UK

EXPLORER 12 TOYS: POLE POSITION

This lovely BHS Explorer 12 Polar Set appeared on Worthpoint years ago so I'm borrowing the picture.

I was too old for Explorer 12. It was a UK toy range for a later generation in the early 80's.

But Explorer 12 has enough Supermarionation chops to excite a Sixties kid like me and I suspect many of the Gerry Anderson generation.

It seems to combine elements of Thunderbirds, SpaceX and everything we like.

The magazine advertising and tie-in book art was also done by none other than Mike Noble!

Has anyone got the polar set?

What are the four silver balls for?

A BUSTLE IN MY HEDGEROW

It's funny. I'm currently selling off old toy stall stock; vintage toys, games, puzzles, books, LP's, videos and comics. The attic is full to bursting. A long spring-clean seemed to fit Lockdown and now School's out for the summer I can't stop!

The house is choc-full as well as after 41 years together me and the Missus have assembled a whole pile of life in general.

Sometimes I wonder how we ended up with so much stuff and I'm sure this is a common experience for people like us well over 50. Working life is drawing slowly to a close and we've surrounded ourselves with a life's-worth of ornaments, books, mementos, collections, furniture, pictures, pots and pans. Its how we filled our days.

But there was a time when I had very little at all. Almost a blank page in comparison to today and I can now see that period as a base-level for the start of our current heap of things piling up!

It was when I left my home town in 1980. For a couple of years I'd had a day job to pay for amps and guitars for a local teen rock band I was in, but in the September of 1980 all the other three group members left for Uni. They were 18. I was a year older, renting a flat and with a hippy's head full of Gaia I had no thirst for more formal education. I needed 'to find myself' as we would have said back then.

So in the late winter of 1980 I quit my insurance job and with no fanfare left my home town of Preston for good. My destination, the Ouse Washes RSPB Bird Reserve in the Cambridgeshire fens, where I'd signed up as a volunteer warden for a year, something which fitted well with the 'long hair' I was as I turned 20 that December.

I took very very little to the fens. I couldn't carry much anyway on the train. A hold-all, the guitar and the clothes on my back and that was it. What  I did have left-over from my former life, my childhood, I'd left in a cupboard - electric guitar, amp, LP's, magazines, books and a a built-up Aurora Witch and a Dracula candle -  in my old flat, which my older brother now rented. I'd chucked some other stuff, some clothes and hippy posters like Jesus is Coming and Bombs for Breakfast?, which my brother wouldn't want.

Besides, the accommodation I was in on 'the Washes' was tiny, basically a large hut called Cygnus. There was a combined living space and kitchenette and two bedrooms containing two bunk-beds for four people.  There wasn't room to swing a wren round!

Probably the biggest single item in the hut was my 12-string EKO acoustic guitar, which took up far too much space in the cramped living area. I kept in on my bunk-bed when not in use. My stablemate, Dave, also there for a year on something called YTS, took up some more of the hut and I think his biggest possession was his telescope and tripod. He was a much keener 'birder' than me and very knowledgeable about wildlife. I got to know Dave really well.

The other two lower bunk-beds were for weekend volunteers, which the RSPB was well used to, unlike us year-longers, who were quite new. The weekenders - bankers, teenagers, birders and office workers all wanting to graft in a beautiful place for a while and do some birdwatching - didn't bother me. I got used to their comings and goings and enjoyed the fresh blood they injected every week. I was a vegetarian at the time and a terrible, almost useless cook, so if any of them made me a plate of grilled courgettes and cheese they'd be my friend for life!

The weekenders, on the other hand, drove Dave wild and to be fair he worked much harder than me on the reserve - I did a lot of writing in the bustling reeds when I should have been grafting! - and needed his own space. We coped though and got through the winter nights all together listening to the radio - the BBC aired Lord of the Rings - and I played songs on the 12-string. I remember a young punk rocker birder listening to me play and sing Space Oddity by Bowie. At the end he said 'not bad Hippy!'. It was like the peace-making of rival tribes in the shifting sands of rock!

Even though I owned hardly anything that year and lived on the dole [volunteering was aloud back then] it was without doubt one of the happiest years of my life. A stand-out year unlike any other before or after and marked a clear watershed between my former self and what was to come. I'm glad I had nothing except my guitar. I have to admit I miss those days a lot. 

I left the fens in the Autumn of 1981 on the back of a friend's motorbike. All I had was my old hold-all. My guitar was left behind as I plumb forgot to take it. I hope someone somewhere is strumming Space Oddity to the applause of punks!

Did you have very little when you left home readers?

A Sting in the Tale

Seeing all the giant Scorpions running around Moonbase recently, here's a few of my own. First up the Tomy Zevle 'Zargam' or Deathpion. A 1/24 scale Zoid-like beast, the Zevle line was briefly released in 1992 and featured articulated 3" figures, rather than the tiny golden pilots. It may not have been a huge success, but the Deathpion is an amazing piece of robotic design. Battery powered, it scuttles forward, claws snapping and tail tail twitching.

At around 14" long, its well detailed and as with all Zoids models, extremely well made. This model has been built as a kit and painted professionally. (not by me, I hasten to add).

The resurgence of the Zoids line in the mid 2000's brought new life to the series and a wave of new models. One of the best must be the sea scorpion 'Death Stinger'. In standard Zoid scale, it is piloted by the gold android figure, but is roughly the same size as the Deathpion.

It has similar action, walking forward with claws snapping and tail moving. There are multiple folding fins and blades and the battery pack is disguised as a heavy dual gauss cannon on the back.

The head armour flips back to allow access to the cockpit and shows the red eyes and scissor jaws more clearly.

Finally from the Transformers film comes the Scorponok, as seen whizzing around the desert, giving the hapless Marines a hard time. Unlike most modern Transformer toys, it does not convert to a robot, but does have a complex gear arrangement, which causes the claws to spin as it is pushed along. The tail fires a harpoon too.

Although not strictly a scorpion, and more akin to a lobster, the Mattel Atlantis 'Leviathan' from the Disney cartoon is a modular toy which can break down into smaller vehicles too.

IMAI THUNDERBIRD MARS EXPLORER ZERO-X

Pic courtesy of Swordgrasshopper

You got one of these? I have, in my dreams!