HONEY'S GUN

I've been researching a small metal toy cap gun I have.

I had thought it was this from the Gilbert Man from Uncle action doll range but that's a different shape as shown in this old sale picture.

Its actually from the Gilbert Honey West action doll range as featured in this carded accessories set. This one on this past auction example has a white grip cover. Mine's missing this although .....

..... this image on another old sale features two examples, one with and without the white grip cover.

I have the instructions of how to operate this small cap gun in a book I have called Spy Toys by Cramer Burks. For the life of me I just couldn't cock the thing, never mind slip a cap in! I nearly cut my thumb open!

Anyways, I enjoyed looking into this mini pistol.

One interesting aside I came across was mention of another female action doll by Gilbert, Domino Derval from the James Bond film Thunderball. 

Its listed as such on the Doll Reference website https://dollreference.com/gilbert_toy_company_dolls.html

As far as I know Gilbert only released Domino as this small 3.5 inch plastic figure [borrowed from Etsy] and not a doll. 

Emilio Largo appears to be similarly mistaken as an action doll rather than a small rigid figure.

Have you any Gilbert action dolls or figures?

PARSLEY'S CAR ..... WELL, PAUL'S REALLY!

Hi Woodsy

I have just seen the Dinky catalogue pages, and thought you might like a couple of shots of 477 Parsley's Car, which was a 1913 Bull-nosed Morris, available 1970-72. 

The original model having been issued in 1965 as 476, a normal road car with a raised top; and as the 486 Dinky Beats, with three figures that looked a great deal like the Beatles, except for the absence of Ringo and his drums. 

Parsley was a green lion, and appeared in a BBC series called The Herbs, which I do not recall. I picked this model up a few years ago at a fair. Rather expensive, but in nice condition, and boxed.

Paul Adams

NZ

THOSE CREEPY ANDERSON DOLLS: CANDY AND ANDY

This rather neat scan is courtesy of collector Bernard Dunne.

Do you have any of these comics?

Their magic Dinky mini Stripey was rather dazzling too!

Did or do you have one?

This playworn Stripey was pictured on Worthpoint on an old sale.

MYSTERY THUNDERTANK

One of a number of old toys I treated myself to whilst on holiday was the little loose silver Thundercats Thundertank you can see in this shot I've borrowed from Worthpoint.

Since getting it it has been a mystery as to what it was. Superficially looking like a plastic Hot Wheels with mag tyres its date of 1985 made me look deep into the Thundercats toy world.

Turns out its part of the above set which was released by Rainbow toys in 1985 as part of their pocket money toys line of cheap Thundercats rack toys.

The set was called Power Booster and here's an example carded as featured on the excellent Thundercats Org website, without which I would never have ID'd this elusive toy. 

http://thundercats.org/collectibles/classic-1980s-merchandise/miscellaneous/pocket-money-range/

Have you got any Thundercats toys readers?

POSTCARDS FROM EAST ANGLIA

Holiday snaps are a thing of the past. Well showing them at least. 

Yawns and moans would break out as the bulging Kodak folder was produced back in the day.

Not any more. Its all digital and you can just walk away!

So, to the sound of mass groaning, here are a few impressions of our recent mini-break in the picturesque and historic English counties of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

Remote lighthouse on the River Nene.

Beautiful maritime building in Kings Lynn

Lonely barn on the shore.

Another Neneland lighthouse

The ancient cobbled alleys of Kings Lynn

Harbour lights in Kings Lynn

Old moored boat

Old drydocked boat in samphire

The mighty Ely cathedral

There were some old toys too!

To follow.

Stripey - The Candy & Andy Mini Car

Just for Mish!

DAZZLE SHIPS

The WW1 Dazzle camouflage was developed to make ships indistinct to submarine attack as the view trough a periscope was rendered useless. It was very effective but not used as much in WW2.

The German Airforce in WW1 used a similar idea sometimes on the top plane of a biplane. It was painted to move the center, off center so shooting from above would miss the pilot.

The 2017 Liverpool Dazzle paint job - see pictures - was an artist interpretation.

During 2014-2018 to remember WW1 several ships in the UK received WW1 dazzle paint work. There was one on the Thames in Central London.

Terranova47

USA

SIXTEEN 12 UFO TEASER

Sixteen 12 Collectables posted a teaser photo of what they describe as an exciting addition to their UFO die-cast range, that will be available to pre-order on Friday.

There's plenty of speculation as to what it may be, and collectors have tried to determine whether the surface detail is lunar or maybe seabed perhaps.

Some have suggested it might be part of a display for a UFO, or possibly a stand for an upgraded version of Skydiver. 

A couple of  folk have hopes it might be a completely new model of a Shado Moonmobile. All things are possible.

 What do you  think? Roll on Friday!