DC SUPER POWERS: THE MODERN BOOKS

My Missus and me recently picked up three modern thick card My First DC Superpowers books for our Grandson Moonbase Junior.

As soon as I saw them I knew they were related to toys I know, DC Super Powers by Kenner. In fact I was covinced they used the same artist as the toy card artist, the name of which I don't know.

DC Super Powers is one of my favourite action figure ranges. I've only discovered it later on in life and have none of the figures myself but I adore the whole like and appreciate the effort Kenner put into it back in the 80's. Its always a huge treat to see these figures and vehicles at toy fairs. Here are the figures courtesy of Pinterest.

Figures in the books include Hawkman, seen here with Hawkgirl.

and the wonderfully designed Batmobile, the toy version shown beneath.

There's Aqualad [i'm sure I've seen the whales before. Hanna Barbera's Moby Dick?]

Cyborg and the wonderful Kenner figure beneath.

Wonderwoman, Lex Luthor and the super cool Kenner Lex figure below.

The Martian Manhunter.

The whole line.

and all the books.

How cool is that readers?

Land of the Giants Promo Film

Hi

Here is a most interesting promotional film from the 1960s for the latest Irwin Allen TV series, Land of the Giants. Found on You Tube, although it looks as though it might be an extra from a DVD release ? Just under nine minutes. There is no footage at all from the series itself, everything is shown using early concept art. The Spindrift is totally different to what we see in the programme, and looks to be the Jupiter 2 from Lost in Space - why waste old footage ? The characters and names are different in some cases. The clip ends with actor Dan Matheson, who played Mark Wilson, stating that this is the story for the first episode of the new series - and then encountering a giant cat.

Land of the Giants, promo film (1967) - YouTube

Paul Adams from New Zealand

UFO ROCKET CLOSE UP

Hi,

Here's the best image I could find online of that UFO rocket [which was on the Monty Gum card yesterday]. It is from the episode "Close Up" and it is a NASA rocket that launches the probe for SHADO.

Cheers,

Kevin

Anyone else seen UFO's "Close Up"?

HACK TO THE FUTURE: A CIGARETTE LIGHTER DELOREAN!

Being a home model toy tinkerer of sorts I always appreciate it when I see how other folks knock up home-made toys, especially when they use whatever they can find in the house like I do. 

Usually scratch builders are much much more adept than me and its really great to see what can be achieved with proper talent and the right tools like Kevin does on a regular basis on Moonbase.

This You Tuber is no exception either and with ingenuity and his dremel kit he creates something truly amazing from something we all have somewhere in the home, a gas lighter. I was so hooked that I watched it all. I was blown away with the result. 

It also struck a personal chord as I have a scar on my finger tip pad from when I was a kid and tried to cut a plastic toy bus in half to create, yes, a spy's cigarette lighter! I succeeded in simply removing a chunk of my finger and nothing more!

Anyways, back to the future, see what you think of this, Ank Creative's light tinkering. Just need McFly to turn up now!

If you liked that then maybe check out this You Tuber's equally brilliant cig lighter Mustang! Hot Wheels or what!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H8Hpj0t7Ps

UFANGLO 1970

 I've been peering at UFO cards this year. There are loads on Ebay for a start.

Here's one that caught my eye, the Anglo #59 "STUDIO", dated 1970.

Its a montage of people and vehicles. There's Forster's car [or is it Straker's?] at the back but is that the vintage car from Secret Service at the side? And is that Aysha walking towards us?

I wonder if the 'studio' ever actually made anything that was shown in the UFO series?

MEGO DYNA-MITES: A FISTFUL OF POWER

 

I saw this on an online auction and quite liked it so I saved the image. its a new one on me, the Dyna Mites line by Mego from 1981. Looks like you pulled the rear load back and the thing zoomed forwards. Quite a neat device that! This Cargo truck has a sort of SpaceX/ Gerry Anderson vibe to it as well.

Do you like it?

DID WHAT YOU ATE AS A KID HARM YOU?

There's a modern and probably understandable obsession with the diet of our children. 

Sugar, carbs, red meat, sugar, fats, additives, roughage, what they eat in school and so on and so on and so on.

What was it like when you were a kid?

Did we really eat loads of crap every minute of the day like people think we did? 

Sure, I myself ate a lot of sweets. I loved sweets and I'm pretty sure my teeth have suffered as a result. But the rest of my diet was pretty balanced I reckon. My Mum, the head chef of my childhood, provided lots of different Sixties and Seventies grub using a whole range of ingredients and pans including a pressure cooker and a chip pan.

Meals I recall, some home made, some not, were: Mince and onions, sausage and mash, fish balls and croquettes, Lancashire hot pot, butter pie and marrowfat peas, cheese and onion pie and peas, pea soup with ham shank, vesta chow mien, vesta paella, vesta beef curry, fried egg and new potatoes, poached eggs on toast, finny haddock and boiled spuds, salad and chips, ham salad, toasties, sunday dinner and of course, fish and chips and my personal favourite, suet pudding and chips.

There was local and regional nosh too: onion rings in vinegar, red cabbage and vinegar, thick pea soup with juicy ham on the bone, parched peas and the coastal pickled vegetable, samphire.

We also had a chest freezer full of convenience foods like mini pizzas and probably some ready meals, although I don't think there were many of those back then.

Oh, and there was lots of fizzy pop like Tizer, Dandelion and Burdock and Sarsaparilla. 

Yeah, I suppose it was a fairly traditional diet for a kid growing up when I did in Lancashire. Lots of meat and two veg and puddings to follow. There wasn't much aubergine or any star fruit and probably no avocado.

Yet I'm still here and I'm not a drooling zombie incapable of rational thought - as far as I know! OK, I do have a few teeth missing and high blood pressure but I don't think I was a fed a toxic pile of slurry by my parents. Any dodgy foods I've eaten probably came later and is my own silly fault.

Do you think you ate badly as a kid?

THE EFJAY BOAT CAR 1963

Now that was livin'!

Have you driven through water?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agS2B2b4ykQ