THE LASER BY ANTEX 1980

We've seen something like this before. Gakken maybe? I think Wotan has some similar water toys. 

I saw this on an Argentinian auction site.

Have you anything like it?

THE OLYMPICS ARE COMING!

The world maybe sort of  gripped by Olympic fever soon - if Covid will allow it - as the Games commence in Japan. 

I'm not a sport person by any means but having read that Karate will be included this time, incorporating Kata, I am intrigued and would love to see some Olympic Shotokan or Wado Ryu. Regular readers will know that I was nuts about martial arts as a young teenager and I even considered running away to a Zen Monastery in Northumberland!

I've seen quite a lot of live martial arts in my youth including Judo demos and exams in Stretford, Aikido with Chiba Sensei in Chorley, Wing Chun with Sifu Joseph Cheng in Preston and the pinnacle, a huge Wushu spectacular at Belle Vue in Manchester, which was mind-blowing.

I'd have loved to have seen my old Karate and Kung Fu heroes at an Olympic Games: Gichin Funakoshi, Morihei Ueshiba, Keinosuke Enoida, Jhoon Rhee, Ip Man, Jimmy Wang Yu, Joseph Cheng,  Angela Mao, Roald Knutsen, Donn F. Draeger, Mike Finn, Jim Kelly and of course Bruce.

Still, I look forward to a new crop of Karateka and Judoka pounding the mats in their spiritual home, Japan.

Other sports new to the Games this year include climbing - which I would watch - skateboarding, surfing and baseball/softball.

Like the sunshine World Cup in 1970, I was hooked as a kid by the Olympics that came in 1972. I was 11 years old.

I remember how everyone was just amazing there. Superhumans with athletes like Kip Keno, Nelly Kim and Olga Korbett, who have stayed with me ever since. 

I got totally into collecting stickers for a cool sticker book from those Games in 1972. Do you recall those games? Did you have this sticker book?

Are you taken by the Olympic flame readers?

Published by Esso, my Dad got me the stickers for the book when he filled up the Zephyr or Ford Granada. I was 11 when it came out and it remains my quintessential Olympics possession

ISS FLY-BY

 

My daughter Miss. Moonbase sent me this clip she took of the International Space Station passing by her house last night!

You can clearly see it sliding across the night sky!

To think, there are people in it!

How cool is that!

Have you seen the ISS fly by?

Hot Wheels Wonder Woman 84 Jet

Hi

          The film Wonder Woman 1984, or WW84 was released in late December 2020.

Hot Wheels have included a die-cast Wonder Woman Jet in their Replica Entertainment line for 2020. This is the Panavia Tornado strike jet, which was a joint British/German/Italian design from the 1970s. It is a two-seater, with swing-wings. The Hot Wheels model has its wings fixed in the forward position, for take-off or landing, but no undercarriage. 

The model is provided with a clear plastic display stand. It seems to have been modelled as a single-seater. There are large fuel tanks beneath the wings. The colour scheme is overall dark gunmetal grey, with a black nose tip, and smoke-tinted canopy. The only markings are a USAF style serial number in black on each side of the fin, and above the starboard tailplane. 

This is AF73 097. The model is a lot smaller than a Matchbox Sky-buster, more like the handful of aircraft that have been included in the main Matchbox line, such as the S-2 Jet or the F-14 Tomcat. Copyright notice on the underside says DC Comics. 

The packaging is the new style, with a small clear plastic bubble on a heavy card backing. This uses less plastic than the older style packaging, but offers much less protection to the model, and makes the models harder to stack.

     Here is a site which includes information on the whole Hot Wheels Entertainment line, the exact name of which has varied over the years.

Retro Entertainment / Hot Wheels Entertainment / Replica Entertainment | Hot Wheels Wiki | Fandom

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Who Knew ?

I watched a fascinating documentary last night, tucked away on BBCs iPlayer, was an earlier edition of the arts programme 'Arena'. This particular episode (see links below) was about the relatively unknown composer of the original Dr Who theme, Delia Derbyshire. 

The first black and white episodes of Dr Who literally scared me witless as a child, mostly due to the utterly unearthly sounds and visuals emanating from the tv. I always assumed that the theme was the product of the Radiophonic Workshop under the aegis of Ron Grainer, but as the documentary shows, Derbyshire was the true genius behind the sounds.

Besides the obvious importance of the BBC theme, Delia was instrumental (no pun intended) in the development of sound engineering. Being a mathematician and a musician, she approached the design of sound effects from a completely different direction to her peers. 

The docudrama is written and directed by Caroline Catz, who also plays Derbyshire in the programme and shows some of the hurdles Derbyshire had to overcome in the male dominated industry and in the strictured confines of the Radiophonic Workshop, whos working practices, although unconventional, were very rigid.

Derbyshire eventually outgrew the BBC and struck out on her own along with other like minded individuals and brought about the dawn of a new age in music and sound design. The documentary is based upon the discovery of a number of lost reels of audio discovered in the attic of her family home after her death and a number of childhood drawings and letters that were stashed inside the chimney breast of her bedroom.

Below are some choice links t various resources and sites relative to her work, but i would recommend watching the Arena programme first, especially if you are unfamiliar - as I was - with her amazing work.

N.B - theres a fascinating part in the Arena prog about the lost BBC sci-fi series 'Out of the Unknown', for which Derbyshire recorded a robotic 'song' called Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO  from the episode 'The Prophet'. The robots in question are the White Robots from Dr Who, painted black!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000w6tr/arena-delia-derbyshire-the-myths-and-the-legendary-tapes

https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/pioneering-women/women-of-the-workshop/delia-derbyshire

http://www.delia-derbyshire.org/

https://deliaderbyshireday.com/delia-derbyshire-the-myths-and-the-legendary-tapes/

https://www.effectrode.com/knowledge-base/delia-derbyshire-recording-the-future/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH8qvNI06Ws

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p008y2q7

https://www.artofthetitle.com/feature/doctor-who-50-years-of-main-title-design/

USSR METALLIC ROCKET LAUNCHER

This was listed on an old auction thus " Rocket Launcher Wasp Vintage Rare Baz Osa USSR military toy Soviet Anti-aircraft Missile System Armoured Car NATO classification SA-8 Gecko."

I don't know what it means but I love the design and the metallic sheen! What do you say readers?

GETTING MY FEET MEASURED

I had a flashback today. 

I was a kid and sat in Clarks the shoe shop in the Sixties. The shop assistant had my socked foot inside a sort of wooden machine. She drew a bar towards my toes and another one at each side of my foot.

It was a shoe fitting and the best shoe fitting I ever had. 

In my mind I was being measured up for Clarks Commandos or Wayfinders but I bet it was for some really boring school shoes or even worse, sandals!

Anyways, my feet will have been size 7. They have been all my life!

Did you have a shoe fitting as a kid readers?

Which were your favourite shoes?

TOYLAND PARADE

I like this Toyland Parade.

I saw this on auction a while back.

It looks like fun.

Any idea of the maker?

*

Postscript

Reader Antonio has kindly told us about Geyper's similar Walky-Son. Here's some You Tubery. Its not the same but similar, yep.