TO THE ETERNAL SEA: RICHARD DONNER RIP

Richard Donner died yesterday aged 91.

He was a top drawer Hollywood filmmaker who's hand was on the tiller of many iconic movies. the News is focusing on The Goonies, an important film for a late Seventies generation chomping popcorn to the gang's antics in 1985.

Donner also gave us the Christopher Reeves' Superman films, milestones in bringing DC to the big screen and icons for a certain age-group. He also produced that wondrous flick The Lost Boys and later kicked off Marvel's new onscreen universe with the X-Men.

But its an earlier film he directed that really gets my vote and one I adored as a teenager, The Omen. Starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick I can almost replay every scene in my mind and I think I could the recite lines as they played out on the screen. On the slimy heels of the Exorcist the Omen was more palatable to a lot more people and was seen by many as it didn't get banned! 

The whole iconography of the Omen was terrific; the Dr. Who priest, the lightning rod impaling, the Rottweilers of the old Cerveteri cemetery and the knives of Megiddo. And who can forget seeing THAT scene as a teenager, the one with the spinning head and the sheet of glass!

And so, as the eternal sea rises as cited in the film, I say goodnight to Richard and thank him and his family for his marvellous films. Rest in Peace.

Which of his movies did you like readers? Have you any collectables from them?

SIKU CIVILIAN CHINOOK

Hi Woodsy

Here is my new Siku CH-47 Chinook helicopter, in civilian colours. 

The card describes it simply as a Transport Helicopter, model number 1689. The fuselage is 120 mm long, making it slightly larger than the Matchbox Sky-Busters version. 

Mainly metal, painted red, with a black plastic rear loading ramp, which opens; folding four-bladed rotors (the real Chinook actually has three-bladed rotors); smoke-tinted cockpit windows; the cabin windows are printed on; the wheels revolve; Made in China.

 A nice, solid model. The real Chinook has been around since 1961, and there have been many models of it over the years, both in die-cast and plastic.

Paul A

NZ

Current Events from April 1969: High School Covers the Moonshot

Hi Woodsy!

Here is something I acquired recently on ebay, which I thought might be fun for Moonbase readers. 

It is a copy of Current Events from April, 1969, a special 8-page issue on the upcoming Apollo moon shot. (Current Events was a small newspaper for middle school and high school students, which I remember reading back in the day.) 

The text is interesting, but I thought the illustrations and pictures were very cool so I pass it along. I thought it might be a fun addition if you are planning an Apollo blog thing. Enjoy!

Rob C
USA

NORMAL SERVICE?

Hello Folks. 

It's been a while since I posted but as things just might be getting back to some sort of normality in the UK,  I thought I'd briefly get back on the blogging horse!

I'm still working on my Wave Skydiver model. As many will know it's a vinyl kit, not the best material for a model, but I'm slowly persevering when I get the time, and I thought I'd share a few photos of where I'm up to with the build.

I've more or less finished paint detailing and weathering the Diver part, or as far as I want to go, and getting it ready for the decals. The next part will be the paint detailing and dirtying down on Sky 1.  

  

HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING THE WATCHMEN?

I caught Watchmen again on telly last night. I saw the first hour before I had to retire. There were another 2 hours after that - till 2am!

With Rorschach's grim narrative it always reminds me of a noir movie with a hard-boiled private eye. Its a great film and I had to look up some of the actors.

The chap who plays the Comedian has such a huge smile, I knew I'd seen him before this year and there he was. He's the swashbuckling CIA cowboy in the Rock's monster flick Rampage. I know he's been in many other things but I haven't seen them.

Molock is Max Headroom I think. Is that right?

The Watchmen is a slice of eighties paranoia when the cold war was part of our little lives. The idea of retired and weary super heroes is fascinating and the film takes it further by killing them off. I don't pretend to know the background to this flick at all. I haven't read the famous comic but I do appreciate how it might sit well in DC. I find DC's own roster of older heroes really alluring and I'm drawn to the old DC universe in general. So the reboot of the Minutemen into another band of heroes in the Watchmen - the Watchmen? - is very appealing to me.

I liked Bird Man for the same reasons. Michael Keaton/ Batman is fabulous as the tired old Bird Man of the title. 

Retirement for super heroes is hard.

So to borrow a phrase from the movie, who has been watching the Watchmen?

*

American Postscript:

In reply to watching the Watchmen....I was unaware that there were movies made of a comic I had paid no attention to.

I recently bought this book for $8 rather than $40 not for the subject matter but rather to read/enjoy art by Dave Gibbons whose work I enjoyed when he was a fanzine artist in the early 70's.

A little light summer reading, when I get to it.

Cheers from America's Birthday!

Terranova47

USA

PAUL'S HAUL

The Auckland Lion's Club had their book fair recently. I got three books in all, on British films, guns - mainly antique types, and a biography of a pilot who was in the RNZAF during WW2 so some WW2 coverage. 

I got four CDs. The Shirelles and the Shangri-Las (both all-girl singing groups of the 1960s), Blondie Greatest Hits, Vintage British Comedy Vol.3 with the likes of Arthur Askey and Stanley Holloway.

Then on to the market. Got a total of 18 die-casts at three different tables, for $35 NZ.

Five Matchbox Sky-Busters aircraft, and a Tonka helicopter (the red and yellow one in the photo). The plastic P-38 Lightning I have already sent you a couple of photos of. 

The mixed photo shows a small die-cast Mirage, an unknown tank, and an old Lone Star Treble-O railway carriage, but this is missing its roof. 

The group shot shows a large Hot Wheels truck, three Corgi Juniors, three more Hot Wheels, and a 1970s Matchbox truck. 

The last photo is a close-up of the Hot Wheels Fast Fortress, which is a custom car version of the Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress heavy bomber. This came out in 2007, but the blue version is from 2009.

Paul Adams

NZ

DO TOYS HAVE A GOLDEN AGE?

Does each generation have its own golden age or is the idea of a golden age fixed?

For instance for me the golden age of toys were the Sixties and early Seventies - Major Matt Mason, Project SWORD, Johnny Seven and so on - but my 36 year old daughter's golden age of toys is the Eighties and early 90's when she was a kid. So Rainbow Bright, Cabbage Patch Kids and Game Boy.

So does this label of golden age simply move with each generation of toys? What about comics? Films? Kids' TV? Model kits? Do they have golden periods which are set in time and what followed was therefore forever lessened?

What do you think readers?

BILLY BLASTOFF'S BABY CAR

I saw this lot on Ebay a while ago described as possibly Marx or Giant brand vehicles and figures. Many of these you'll recognise as SpaceX. Golden Astronaut and Apollo Moon Exploring.

The vehicle I like the most is the small orange space car in the middle, which is popping up more and more these days. it seems to me. You never used to see that much it really. 

The little orange baby car appears in various sets and packs and is a miniature clone of the larger Billy Blastoff space car, which some of you may have had or still have.

Do any of you have the orange car or big Billy Blastoff uncle readers?

Here's the Billy version in all its glory as shown on the quite gorgeous Billy Blastoff website by Maurice [thanks], well worth a visit or three.

http://billyblastoff.net/home.html