KEV'S SCRATCH CYBERMAT

Hi,

Just to remind you what they look like, here is my Dr. Who Cybermat replica. 

Kevin

UK

A Man in Space

 The lockdown is proving really effective in turning peoples attention to de-cluttering and spring cleaning. As a result there's loads of interesting stuff appearing on Ebay and similar outlets. One thing I never see at car boot or yard sales is vintage space books, so I often have a trawl on ebay to see if there's anything worth buying. This week turned up a nice little gem, the Apollo story book by New English Library. A softback, but in large format, almost like a coffee table volume, in heavy stock with a good page count. Printed in 1972, it has a cover price of 80p and as it was slightly marked on the cover, it was priced at an affordable £1.80!

 The staining was restricted to the cover and despite a few dog ears, its in great condition. The clincher for me however, was the author - Peter Fairley. Peter was the front man for much of the tv coverage of the Apollo programme, along with Tomorrows Worlds' Raymond Baxter and James Burke. He would always be present on articles on magazine programmes such as Magpie and Blue Peter and TomTom, and was always thorough and engaging in his reportage.

 The Apollo Story is a case in point, with excellent coverage of the early planning of the missions, crew training and selection and early launches. The book is full of full page spreads of colour and monochrome photos and diagrams with excellent explanatory text.

Fairly was quite prolific in his publishing of space books and two of his annuals are particular favourites of mine. He also wrote a small paperback for 'Look In' magazine on the possibility of life in outer space.

PINCER MOVEMENT

"Digby! Leave me out of your shellfish nightmares!"

*

Terranova47

USA

COMIC SCENE DAN

Hello Woodsy

It's no surprise to you that I am a fan of the original Dan Dare and as this is now 70 years since his first appearance that has been noted by COMIC SCENE magazine published in the UK. 

The June 2020 issue has a scattershot history of the character and his incarnations over the years.

Sadly art directed without a thought for text legibility it at least recognises that SPACESHIP AWAY carries on the original values of Dare.

Regards,

Terranova47

USA

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