JOURNEY THROUGH THE SOLAR SYSTEM

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SUPER DINKY BATTLE CAR

 

I was looking at this online spare part chassis of a Dinky Battle Cruiser? and thought, hmmm, that looks awfully like .... Supercar!

Could Gerry Anderson's Supercar have influenced this Dinky?

or am I seeing things?

WHAT IS THIS THAT STANDS BEFORE ME?

Its been a strange week. A couple of highs. A small act of kindness made me feel valued and appreciated at work today and my Grandkids seem to have got over their recent ill-health. A couple of big lows. A very close and elderly family relative is going downhill fast and Missus Moonbase is struggling greatly with it.

We have been torn as to whether to continue with our long-standing planned holiday this coming long weekend but have decided we might as well worry and fret in a beautiful place rather than stew in worry at home. Because of Covid restrictions internationally, worry and fret is about all we can do anyway so we are going to go away Tomorrow. Blue the Moonbase Mutt will be looked after well by our live-in dogsitter. The ancient castles nestling around the Northern English coast beckon from the far lands and the promise of newly re-opened restaurants will keep us true on our heading North.

In the meantime and prior to packing I am listening to Black Sabbath. I'm a huge fan of Sabbath and have been since I discovered Master of Reality in my older brother's LP stack in the mid -70's. Its only in the last ten years that I've come to appreciate their defining sound and place in rock history as the originators of heavy metal, the musical genre closest to my heart. I have come to love the groundbreaking debut Black Sabbath, the musical mother of metal and equally adore the following three albums, Paranoid, Master of Reality and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. 

In these three LP's we really do find the genesis of a genre which would eventually sweep the world and spawn countless imitators and sub-genres, which are still stomping round today. The pulsing leaden funereal riffs, banshee man vocals and doom-laden lyrics smashed through the beats of the late Sixties and created a sound so heavy that the world wavered on its axis as we stopped to listen to this nunataq of gothic magnificence.

But like all masters of the universe this single glorious vision couldn't last. Like my other great Muses Budgie and Rush the original furious fires in which they forged their majesty faded. It was inevitable. Black Sabbath 4, which came between Master and Bloody Sabbath is a pale shadow of their true coronations and the rot really sets in with what came soon after, Technical Ectasy - which I am currently listening to - and the later doldrums of the waning Seventies and Eighties. Heaven and Hell is a wholly new sound and hardly Sabbath at all and what with Ronnie James Dio at the mic it might as well have been Rainbow.

This dissolution of the true sound is a perpetual battle for all bands as they form, find fame and eventually fall apart. Sabbath's glory is early on and what dark empires we see in their genius.

What do you think readers?

RED ROVER READY

This week China landed a rover on Mars. It seemed to happen without much ceremony, certainly here in the UK.

Its called Zhurong and joins the American motors Curiosity and Perseverance as they trundle over the dust of the Planet Red.

Both superpowers have staked a claim then. Is that how it is?

Here it is, Zhugong, with its lander and ramp and Roger Dean-esque solar panels. What do you think?

I was intrigued to find out the USSR landed also landed a craft on Mars in 1971, which included a small rover on skis. The lander failed and rover never got out. It was called Mars 2.

Jersey Gigantics!

I don't need the Gigantics insect model kit, I got the real deal in my backyard!

-BrianF 

NJ USA

Anyone got anything bigger?

PLASTIC MECCANO? BAYKO?

 

I saw this on an online sale and saved the pic 'cos I SO remember it, plastic meccano or whatever it was called. I never liked the metal stuff but for some reason really took to plastic and I can still feel the torque of the nuts as I tightened them with the plastic spanner. Happy times!

Did you have plastic meccano?

DID YOU RECORD THE CHARTS?

Reader EW recently mentioned his old mix tapes t'other day and it reminded me of making my own tapes back in the early Seventies on my rectangular cassette recorder, the ultimate tech of the day.

I taped from the radio using a mic set up in front of it. This way I recorded the Charts on a Sunday. I think they played the top 40 but I probably only taped the top twenty. Would that have fitted on a C60? I seem to recall having to turn the tape over at some point! How awkward and I bet you could hear it on the recording!

Did you record the pop charts onto cassettes readers? Anyone still got any?

You Lift Me Up

Woodsy's earlier post about Lockheed Hypersonic designs prompted me to go a hunting again for useable info on the origin of the Project SWORD Scout vehicles. I had originally found a tantalising glimpse in TV21 some while ago, but nailing down the actual design proved hard. However, a bit of digging revealed the image above, which, while it isn't actually as close to the toy design, is referred to as a 'Martin Scout'. Further poking about suggested that it may have been a long distance nuclear bomber and the 'scout' designation referred to finding suitable targets for an air/space launched nuke.

So presumably, the Sword designers were looking for inspiration for their designs in the aeronautics and space industry and pinching anything they liked the look of. I also came across this YouTube video of the Lifting Body Era, which shows some great footage of tests of the vehicles which informed the design of the Space Glider. It also shows the horrific crash of the M1 F2 vehicle which saw light on the opening cedits of the Six Million Dollar Man!