The Continuing Adventure of Dan Dare

"Honestly Colonel, when I said, Could I borrow your spacesuit because I'm allergic to shellfish I had no idea.................."

Terranova47

USA

Hot Pursuit

  

Since Woodsy gave me the heads up about a 'lost Redline' recently - the iconic muscle car designed by Otto Kuhni for the original Hot Wheels packaging, I've been chasing it down. Originally released as a Collectors Special in 2008, the car has recently been re-released in a slightly re-tooled version for the mainstream market.

Although the casting is subtly different and it doesn't come with the distinctive 'mag' redline wheels, its still a nice piece. The hood is now closed and the tooling is a bit less pronounced, but it still shines as a great example of automotive design.

As the blue Spectraflame version is now hard to come by, I am going to try and replace the wheels with vintage ones and give it a re-spray at some point in the future.

Kinder Surprise Superheroes

Hi Woodsy,

After seeing all the photos of great plastic Kinder Surprise toys on Moonbase Central I decided to have a look and see what they are making now - it is a long time since I bought any of the eggs. 

Things have changed since I last bought any of these. Instead of having no idea what sort of toy you might get, as in the 1990s, both the outer display box and the egg itself tell you what series the toy belongs to. 

I opted for a Justice League set, which contains eight superhero figures. The capsule within the chocolate egg is now a hinged one-piece moulding in light orange plastic, rather than being in two halves. 

These figures come in two parts, with a separate base carrying the logo of the figure. Each has both arms raised, so that a shield shaped object can be balanced on them, when the base is tipped forward the shield flies off - hopefully to hit a small paper target. 

Also included in the egg is an illustration of the whole series, on the back are assembly and playing instructions. Oddly, there is no mention of who the figures are - you are expected to know. Not being a superhero expert, I did have to look a couple of these up, I hope my identifications are correct.

There are various other sets available, with varying numbers of toys making up each set. Naturally, you are going to end up with a few duplicates as you try to build up a complete set - Batman was the last figure I needed. These are really nice figures, although Batman seems to have a rather small head. Overall height, including the raised arms, is around 60 to 65 mm.

Photo 1 The Kinder Surprise eggs are wrapped in foil; with the series name at the top.

Photo 2 What you get inside each plastic capsule

Photo 3 Left to right: Cyborg, Aquaman, Superman, and the Flash.

Photo 4 Left to right: Batman, Batgirl (these two figures have the same shield/projectile design), Wonder Woman, and I think Harley Quinn - who is a villainess not heroine, so why is she included in a superheroes set ? 

I'm confused.

Paul Adams

NZ

I really like this set - now, what should I collect next ?

KEV'S BOXED SPACEX SETS

Hi,

I recently had a lot of luck on ebay. Firstly, I was able to get the Spacex moonbase set with extra Spacex II toys in it and then, just a few weeks later, the other two sets crop up at the same time and I managed to get both of them too!

All 3 were in excellent condition for their age, the moonbase just needed a few small bits which Bill generously provided and the MLP was missing its walkways, which I scratchbuilt. 

Amazingly, all three still had their paper play surfaces. 

Very pleased with these indeed!

It's still out there,

Kevin 

TRANSPORTING: CHOOSE LOW

Searching the net for images of transporters, I did find a few.

I like this yellow and orange Hot Wheels Embosser,  a sort of transport truck.

It reminds me of the really cool yellow Grip Thunderbird 1 launcher truck, which has a Hot Wheels vibe I feel.

Other lowloaders that are pretty smart are:

Hot Wheels Deora

Matchbox rocket transporter Mission.

and my Grandson Moonbase Junior's uber- cool long flat airport crane wagon.

Have you got any flatbeds, lowloaders or transporters readers?

*

I think this is Lewis's new K2SO Rogue One Hot Wheels he mentions

THE LYSANDER

Hello Woodsy,

One of the things about the Lysander design was the rugged undercarriage that allowed it to land on grass fields. An important part of why it was used by SOE to land agents in France. The secret was the u-beam that supported it seen here in scan 1.

Scan three has the trade review of the aircraft and the others are the kind of ad that made me want to design trade ads rather than consumer ones.

Not necessarily of interest to the blog but possibly explains why I like the Lysander.

Some years ago when we went to the then new Aviation Building of the Smithsonian in Washington I was surprised to see a Lysander hanging from the ceiling. It was painted black in the agent landing role it took on later in the war. 

The US had been sent three Lysanders to evaluate during the war. I speculate that one was presented in black because OSS agents were landed in France by Lysanders thereby giving a US connection.

There are some interesting videos on Youtube.

Terranova47

USA

WESTLAND WENDOVER MODEL PLANE

Hello Woodsy,

While the blog looks to the future via old toys I'm stuck firmly in the past.

Many years ago I came across the Westland Wendover, one of the strangest looking aircraft ever. It was a Westland Lysander modified to become a flying anti invasion weapon. The idea was that it would 'strafe' beaches and German invasion craft. 

Luckily for any possible aircrews the invasion didn't happen and the idea didn't go beyond a prototype.

The Lysander was a very agile aircraft in it's designed role as an artillery spotter and would have been an ideal gun platform for a multi-gun turret, providing the invading Germans had no anti-aircraft defenses. 

The results of air defenses in the 1940 invasion of France against Bristol Blenheim bombers predicted a very short combat life for the Wendover.

Finally a project that waited to be completed is done.

Regards,

Terranova47

USA

CAR BOOT WALK-BY'S

The outdoor Sunday car boot sale we go to was massive this morning. Clad with our face-masks we spent a happy two hours in glorious sunshine browsing the countless stalls. 

Both me and Missus procured a few items for Moonbase Junior and also for possible investment. More on those later but for now here are a few things we saw which for better or for worse we walked by [pictures of similar items borrowed from the internet]:

1978 die-cast Hot Wheels Auburn in red and silver [broken windscreen]

1990 die-cast Corgi Batmobile - some paint loss - where have I seen that exhaust before?

1993 Captain Scarlet Adventure Game - a few of these have passed through Moonbase. The miniature SPV's are just great.

Dinky Bristol twin rotor helicopter - a few of these have come through Moonbase over the years too. It looks so futuristic in an old way somehow. 1950's or 60's? Not sure how to date these.

1988 Little Tikes Toddle Tots yellow school bus and chunky riders. A nursery was clearing out so there was tons of superb condition Little Tikes toys and vehicles from this era. I always get the figures confused with Weebles. Are they related?

Unlicenced Worzel Gummidge plastic figure. Aunt Sally was laid next to him in the tat box.

There were quite a few toy dealers there as it seems there'll not be any more indoor toy fairs this year in England. It's odd but nice to see top class boxed Dinky and Corgi die-cast at a car boot sale - with top class prices too.

Is there anything here you would have got?

Have you started going to sales and flea markets again?