LEWIS'S LATEX ET

Hi Woodsie, stretching out the ET thread if desired...

In the early 80s, I was on a roll as a fanboy trying to turn Pro. I'd made a life size sculpture of Yoda which was displayed in Sydney's Hoyts Cinema and I was gaining a name as a props maker. 

I got a call from a Licensing company that wanted to make ET merchandise and the film distributors wanted an ET like figure for promotional work.

As it was, none of these projects came to anything, despite me seeing an advance copy of the movie and sculpting up a life size head and working on the body. 

The only thing I have to show for that period is a small rubber concept model I made and my wife painted up. 

Amazingly it's still on reasonable condition 40 years on, despite only being slush cast latex!

And the take home message for all those other wannabe people trying to break into the big time? Get a deposit payment before you put all that effort in!

Cheers, 

Lewis

Oz

MORTAR THE POINT

https://youtu.be/BL1dYaQhdwg 

Saw this and thought kids of the 60's would have loved the first 2 items on this video!

Did you have a toy mortar back in the day?

Regards
MJ

Southcoast Base

ZELL: ZERO LENGTH LAUNCH HISTORY

Hi

         In reply to the item on the Hawk Guerrilla Combat Team kit from the early 1960s, I thought he and others might be interested in a short history of this US programme.

Zero Length Launch involved mounting a rocket engine under a normal jet fighter, and simply blasting the aircraft in to the air. The rocket motor would then be jettisoned, and the aircraft would fly its normal mission. 

 The idea was to get aircraft in to the air as quickly as possible, and allow them to be dispersed away from airfields that would be under attack in the opening stages of World War Three. To make deployment easier, the aircraft and launching ramps would be mounted on heavy trucks. But you still needed a normal runway for landing.

Experiments using fixed ramps were conducted by the United States Air Force in the 1950s, involving the Republic F-84 Thunderjet (as modelled by Hawk), the North American F-100 Super Sabre, and the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. 

The tests were successful, but the system was not adopted for service use. Having small groups of jets scattered all over the countryside would have posed plenty of problems in command and control, and supply, as well as field security.

First up, the original entry on the Hawk kit.

MOONBASE CENTRAL: Hawk Guerrilla Combat Team Thunderjet (projectswordtoys.blogspot.com)

Next, here are a few references.

Wikipedia entry for ZELL.

Zero-length launch - Wikipedia

Several film clips of ZELL in action, including this documentary, which includes a German Starfighter, and a Soviet version using the MiG-19.

Cold War Tactics | ZERO LENGTH LAUNCH - YouTube

Episode 3 of the US TV series Steve Canyon, Operation Zero Launch, is based around the ZELL trials, using the F-100 Super Sabre. The colour is poor, but the film is great.

Steve Canyon TV 1958 colorized s01e03 "Operation Zero Launch" - YouTube

I do not think I would like to be aboard an aircraft launched this way either.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

WILL OSBORNE'S SPACENIK

Hi Re the recent post about tomy space toys, the 2 rovex spacenik sets.....made by tomy. Regards. Will

MORE SPACE 8

 

Moonbase likes a bit of Space 8 and you can't keep a a good set down so here's a few more from Tomy's 1971 toy catalogue.

I really like the big job the grateful kid has in his mitts. Is that one compatible with Major Matt Mason figures?

I wonder why they chose 8 as part of the name?

FOCUS ON THE 16/12 WHITE HAWK

Some photos I’ve taken of the Sixteen 12 ‘Wargames’ Special Edition White Mk IX Hawk.

As most Space: 1999 fans will know, the original model Hawk props, designed by Brian Johnson and built by Martin Bower were originally painted white as per instructions, but following delivery to the studio it was decided viewers might confuse the Hawks with the white Eagles during the ‘Wargames’ space battle scenes, so the more familiar orange paint scheme was applied, although a few pre-publicity photos of the White Hawk did appear.

On screen the sleek, wasp-like Hawk only appears in the first season episode, Wargames, and is instantly recognised by Moonbase Alpha’s science expert, Prof. Bergman as the Mark IX Hawk!  The intonation in his voice leads me to think that these craft are far more deadly than its assumed predecessor, the Mark VIII!

In spite of its single appearance, the Mk IX Hawk has certainly proved a fan favourite, and over time some magazines and comics have given the Hawk spacecraft various historical back stories relating to the Space: 1999 universe.

Probably the most notable came from the American ‘Starlog’ magazine during the late seventies/early eighties, which did champion Space: 1999 at the time.  The magazine’s writers concocted an ‘imagined’ detailed history suggesting that the Hawk is a further development of the SHADO Interceptor from Gerry & Sylvia Anderson’s previous series, UFO, with upgraded Mark 10 Hawks  stationed in the orbiting Space Dock, (Starlog writers  christened the dock, Centuri ) until the Dock’s destruction, as seen in the opening 1999 episode, Breakaway!  

While I don’t really buy into the UFO connection, I do like the idea that the Hawks operate and are despatched from a space station.

They don’t have any obvious landing gear so, inspired by some of the fan-built model Hawk landing pads I’ve seen at convention model shows over the years I thought I’d scratch- build a small landing cradle  myself for my own smaller version.  Then I built a space station hangar diorama to fit it in, taking some inspiration from the Moonbase Alpha Eagle Hangar.  

The question has been asked by some as to why Earth needed a fleet of elite fighter spacecraft.  A hint in the series might be in the second season 1999 episode, The Rules of Luton, in which John Koenig recounts to Maya how his wife had sadly died during a terrible global (and presumably a space) war that took place in 1987. At its end all prejudice was apparently wiped out, and survivors witnessed the rise of a new and enlightened civilization!

When it comes to its size, the Sixteen 12 Hawk is 8 1/2” in length, slightly shorter than the 10” MPC plastic kit. (The Sixteen 12 Eagle is 11 3/4”)

Although you don’t see both a Hawk and an Eagle in the same shot during the episode I’m assuming both the Eagle and Hawk are supposed to be the same relative scale based on their cockpit windows, so I imagine the size has been worked out taking into consideration the length of the original props which, again I’m assuming are intended to be the same scale .The large original Hawk props are 31” and 15” (as well as with a much smaller 5” model) The main Eagle props are approx. 44”, 22”, and 11” ( along with a smaller 51/2” model) 

The Sixteen 12 White Hawk model, limited to just 1500 units, comes in the usual attractive Sixteen 12 packaging, along with a neat in-flight display stand.

Major Matt Mason on Maxsmodels

Hi

                Max from Maxsmodels is back from his latest trip, and has just done another Livestream. I actually managed to catch this one live. The first item up is Major Matt Mason, and the story behind his space suit. Thought it might be of interest to you. Many other subjects are also covered.

Maxsmodels Livestream 28, The After Hours Soiree - YouTube

What do you think?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

WHAT KIND OF SECOND-HAND TOY SELLER PATTER DO YOU LIKE?

I visited a local car boot sale yesterday after a long boring hiatus. It was great fun to be outside and rummaging again.

Delving into boxes of tat I listened to the stall holders' chatter and sales patter and it reminded me just how different they can be.

My favourite kind of seller is one who keeps quiet whilst I pick though the boxes and scour the table top, only speaking when I ask about the price. Obviously a bit of banter is OK - the weather, the site, the price of potatoes - but I do like to get on with my search relatively undisturbed. It's more or less how I used to sell at toy fairs.

Of course there are toy dealers at car boots too. Some toy-based chat is often fun and if they're toy fair standers then informative too, especially now as toy fairs begin to re-open.

Then there are the car boot price-changers. A typical conversation about a crate of battered Matchbox might be:

"Everything in that box is a pound mate"

I pick up a Superkings truck.

"That's two pounds. Its bigger!"

Then there are the anti-hagglers, who simply will not bargain.

"That's a fiver"

I offer four.

"Nope, I'd rather take it home"

Four fifty.

"Its worth five"

I'm not sure why they sell at a boot sale if they can't haggle but hey, each to their own.

Yesterday I came across a new seller technique, one I'll call the tracker, because he tracked everything I did and commented all the time.

I bent down to rummage and he said everything is 50p in that box. I picked out a podless die-cast Thunderbird 2.

"I knew you'd pick that" said the seller with a knowing grin.

I stood up and picked up an action figure on the table and the seller said "Three". I picked up another and he said "two". One more confirmed the tracker's patter. "One". He wasn't a countdown either.

Bearing in mind I was simply handling these figures and not asking for the price, I found this particular technique off-putting and I paid for my Thunderbird and moved away. Maybe I'm over-sensitive to a talking price tag.

What kind of sellers do you enjoy readers and dare I ask, what kind of seller are you?