MOONBASE CENTRAL

Monday, 1 February 2021

SPAM STORM

Owing to a sudden and massive spam storm on the blog I have activated comment moderation for the time being. Hopefully the spammer will stop soon but at least no more will appear on the blog as I will zap them all.

EW'S CASTLE

Reader Electric Wave's home-made castle!

Wow!

What do you think readers?

Sunday, 31 January 2021

CAPTION NEEDED!

I had to chuckle when this popped up on my ebay search for Golden Astronaut!

It needs a caption readers!

SIXTEEN 12 MICRO V.I.P. EAGLE

My final set of photos featuring the prototype Sixteen 12 Micro Eagle sets, this time showing the V.I.P. Eagle. Like the others in the set, it's 51/2" long, with detachable V.I.P. Pod, aluminium engine bells, and comes with a tiny in-scale Moonbase Alpha Moonbuggy. The light & sound 16/12 Moonbase Alpha Launch Pad is sold separately. As I've mentioned in my previous Micro Eagle posts, the models are 3D printed prototypes, so finer details,and out of line engine bells and leg pods etc. won't be an issue on the finished product.

Finally, a 'behind the scenes' shot.

A GALLERY OF ALL THE PROJECT SWORD TOY SPACE GLIDERS AND CLONES

Sometimes things come together.

Myself and fellow toy collector and blog supporter Arto have been collecting space gliders for years. It will have all started with a Project SWORD toy.

Now, years later, we have between us probably almost* every variant of the Project SWORD space glider around, so I've put together a gallery of my own toys, along with Arto's fabulous fleet, for your enjoyment.

Here's my Moonbase group:

Top row:

Hoover Glider silver switch, Hoover Glider Blue switch, white 2001 glider, red 2001 glider

Bottom row:

Grey Mego Space Tract, Kevin D Hoover silver custom, Century 21 Grey, Century 21 Orange

Arto's fleet:

L to R:

Orange Mego Space Tract, Tarheel Grey, Durham Green, Century 21 Grey, Hoover orange.

The one I forgot to photograph of mine! Doh!

The cheapo Day-f-ran Space Glider, 2nd from the left without its canopy but with its flower sticker.

and to see it nicely cleaned and complete with its canopy, here's collector Ferryman's lovely Day-f-ran [minus the flower sticker].

There are box variations as well with Tarheel's space gliders and the completist would want to have those too I imagine, but I have stuck to the toys. There maybe some undercarraige colour variations too.

If you know of any variations then please let me know.

The * next to 'almost' at the start of this post refers to the ones that got away. Yes, there are still some toy space gliders, of this size, that neither Arto or myself have got, namely three other variants of the 2001 toy above: white Spirit of America, white NASA with flames and green Spirit of America. Have you got any of them readers? Pictures by email would be welcomed!

I hope you enjoyed these gliders and I'd like to thank Arto and Ferryman for sharing their beautiful toys with Moonbase.

AMPHIBIOUS CAR BOATS: DRIVING ON WATER

Ever since I enjoyed playing with my Aquacar in the Sixties, I've always kept an eye out for amphibious toy cars.

The onset of the internet revealed a whole flotilla of vintage examples and here are two brands with a similar look and like all great toys they have battery operated propellers.

I've picked a few pictures off the net to highlight their slick designs.

Here's the Elektro Record 5555 by German stalwart Schuco released in the late Fifties/ early Sixties [date needs confirming]. This is a true boat but may be the origin of the Hong Kong amphibious cars that look a lot like it.

Here we have the above Record boat along with the 1960's boxed Amphibious Car released by T in a Circle / Tai Hing toys, a Hong Kong outfit who may have taken their inspiration from Schuco.

You can see this link more clearly with the Schuco Elektro Amphibio 5560 below.

Even the box art is similar. Here's the Schuco box.

and the T in a Circle box.

T in a Circle added new body colours and here's the lovely blue version.

Have you any amphibious toys readers?

Glencoe Models

Hi Woodsy

Having another look at You Tube, I found this brief history of Glencoe Models from Maxsmodels. The company mainly re-issued older kits from the 1950s and 1960s by some of the smaller US companies.

Often of subjects that no one else did, although the scales could vary. Maxsmodels does several of these company histories, all worth a look. This one includes spacecraft, missiles, dinosaur skeletons, and X-plane models.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quiNTQ17zqM&pbjreload=101

Yours Sincerely,
Paul Adams from New Zealand