BOWIE MEMORIES

David Bowie died on this date 5 years ago and I'm still feeling flat in a Bowie-less world.

I thought I'd write about him again to cheer myself up. One day I'll dig out my scrapbook from the Seventies and post a few bits from it but till then...

Space Oddity was the first album of David's that I got. I bought it through a magazine called Disc, who were offering his first three LP's mail order, No idea why I didn't just go to a record shop.

This debut album was full of gems. Some were brilliant, some were just great and some OK. My favourites were Memories of a Free Festival, Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud, Letter to Hermoine [which I could never pronounce] and the epic Cygnet Committee, a personal favourite. Less appealing were Unwashed and Slightly Dazed, Janine and God Knows I'm Good. An Occasional Dream sits between the two somewhere.

The LP contained one of DB's most memorable images for me; the sun machine is coming down and we're gonna have a party, as found on 'Free Festival'. He also used a toy Bontempi organ on the song, a toy organ I had as well! I still have one [may be called a Rosedale].

I was hungry for more and got hold of his next album The Man Who Sold The World. A much rockier darker affair, I adored it with a passion. As with Oddity my preference was for the other tracks on the album rather than the title track and TMWSTW was stuffed with monsters. From the off it's simply a work of genius and the Width of a Circle, like Cygnet Committee, is the album's stand-out song.

A complex, sinewy journey, The Width of a Circle was deeply deep Bowie. I even used it as the basis if a school English essay, comparing it with Robert Browning's long poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came! What literary fun I had but i don't think the teacher agreed with me!

The Man Who contains so many other fantastic tunes.

Do you like Bowie?

CORGI D.A.F. MOON BUGGY

Just started watching 'Diamonds are Forever' on the U.K. tv channel, ITV 4, and thought I'd dig out my old photos of my Corgi Moon Buggies.

Captain Scarlet Magicar Pursuit Set by Triang Rovex

We have perviosly seen some static images of the two Captain Scarlet 'magicar' sets on the blog, featuring a unique stop/go action. Captain Scarlet afficianado Terry has provided us with a video of the set in action and an explanation of how the special motor actually works! 

The Triang/Rovex ‘Magicar’ motor iln all its glory an inside out version of the typical electrical motor. Whereas cutting the supply to one coil field would result in a stop/start activation of the motor Triang/Rovex flipped this upside down and put the magnet on the spindle/axis and a coil field around the outside. This resulted in the ability to start and stop the the motor by simply stopping the vehicle . A cranked motor spindle acting on the end acted like a set of points or contact breakers on a combustion engine.

Terry Harle Collection

Pics courtesy of Ebay

MOEBIUS SEAVIEW

A few previously posted photos of my large Moebius Seaview model.

Star Car Museums: Lots of Vrooms

Woodsy

Here are some more interesting film clips from You Tube. 

First up, a tour of the Hollywood Star Cars Museum in America. 

A good selection of vehicles, starting with the TV Batmobile, and including the Ghost Rider motorcycle, 26 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NvcIr7ZHIo

A display of vehicles from science fiction and fantasy films at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, 20 minutes. Mostly from modern films, just a few from the 1960s and 1980s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPvhfuFjHNo

Yours Sincerely,
Paul Adams from New Zealand

THE FOG ON THE LINE

I did some fire prevention training at home today - all part of lockdown employment - and there were some invisible sections that needed illuminating.

It so reminded me of something from childhood and all I could think of was invisible writing but I'm just foggy about what it actually was.

For some reason I have those Witch pens in my head. Were they for invisible writing? Were there other invisible writing pens?

Can anyone de-fog this?

DINKY FAB 1

To compliment my Dinky Thunderbird 2 yesterday, here's another look at some photos I took a while back showing the Dinky Fab 1.

SEVENTIES ORANGE ROCKET LAMP: COR!

 

Remember this rocket lamp?

I saw this pic online.

My Mum and Dad had one on the staircase landing. I thought it would blast-off one day!

I remember the orange plastic was a scratchy coarse material.

Did your folks have one readers?