ARTO'S DATED BATTLE CATS

On MOTU Battle Cat versions, thought of sending you these pics for comparison. The upper one is marked (c) MATTEL, INC. 1976 TAIWAN whereas the lower one (c) Mattel, Inc. 1983 MALAYSIA. The green colour on the 1976 version is a bit lighter.

Arto

THOSE HUGE GLASS ASHTRAYS OF THE SEVENTIES

 

Further ashtray action today - 1970's retro action.

This big green glass beast is one I really remember in my parent's house and other homes. 

A huge heavy basin, it simply had a presence when placed on a table or a sideboard.

Not sure who made these behemoths but they made an impression.

Do you recall them?

VANDERSON

Inspired by your stories of Gerry Anderson style modern vans and things here's a selection I found online this week. Got most of them except a SHADO vehicle. All contributions of any other Gerry Andervans, vehicles or shop fronts welcomed by the way. 

See what you think of these bad boys!

and just to finish off, a nice cigar!

TRANSPLANTING THE MIND

The other night I watched a flick called Selfless. Its stars Ryan Reynolds as a man who's body is used as the recipient of someone else's mind, someone much much richer. 

As expected it all got rather messy and the golden rule of mind transplanting was quickly broken; never find out about your donor.

This sub-genre of the 'spare parts for the mega-rich' has a long history and has interested scriptwriters and directors for years. The real science behind it is sketchy. Head transplants do have some technical papers to hang on https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6511668/ and brain transplants have a wiki page at least https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_transplant.

However, there are many films about mind uploading and whole body transplants. Gattaca springs to mind and I was surprised to see a recruitment company of the same name! In Freejack a donor who escapes is called just that, a Freejack and a phrase I love is the name of the mind trap in it, the spiritual switchboard! Total Recall explores the whole mess with memorable lines like 'Get your ass to Mars' and the UFO-like Johnny Cab. I suppose films like Avatar and the Edge of Tomorrow had mind uploading at their heart too or are these something else?

Many mind transplant films and no doubt many novels reveal society's class system, where usually its the mega-wealthy preying on the underclass as they are the only ones with all the dosh to do it. I suppose its a form of feeding; the rich digesting the poor or at least taking their bodies for themselves.

Hollywood has always been intoxicated with class at the core of many sci-fi films but what about classic British TV and film? Did mind uploading ever come up in the likes of the Tomorrow People, UFO, Space 1999 and the like readers?

LEGO FLYING CAR

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/7dc03c31-17ed-49f5-809b-af5899745929 

Hi Woodsy 

Thought I'd share this with you, it reminds me of some of the space models made by Paramount, also I reckon if many of our readers register with the Lego ideas site we can push for or even create more sci fi builds to be released by Lego.

Regards

MJ Southcoast base

BIG JIM'S BATTLE CAT

On holiday our daughter put on a documentary called The Toys That Made Us, possibly on You Tube or Netflix.

The episode we watched was on Masters of the Universe, its origins and history. Quite fascinating stuff I must say and there were lots of things in there I didn't know.

One thing that stuck in my mind was how Mattel re-used earlier toys for the MOTU line.

Stand-out was Big Jim's tiger, which the company repainted as He-Man's Battle Cat. I for one will see this in a new light from now on. Unlike me, proper keen MOTU fans will know all about the Big Jim links. Did you readers?

You can read about loads of Mattel's Big Jim recycling here at Retro Junk https://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/1247/masters-of-the-universe

The Toys That Made Us is a series with each episode about a different toy line; Star Wars, Barbie and so on. I certainly enjoyed the Masters of the Universe one.

Have you seen the show?

TODAY'S CATCH

My last local car boot sale before work re-starts next week was most enjoyable with just a little Yorkshire drizzle. Not a huge amount in the net but fun nonetheless.

A soft toy Pokemon, Cap America bike and Batman nightlight for Moonbase Junior. Novelty snail for Moonbase toddler. Excitingly a Bild Lilli geisha clone in placcy tube and some old die-cast including some.... Superfast! Yay!

Any good?

ROB'S FANTASTIC BANDAI GETTERS: A SEPTEMBER SPECIAL

Woodsy,

Wotan was intrigued recently by one of my Japanese model boxes, so here are pix of the Bandai "Getter" series of model kits, which I don't think were based on any existing Anime program. 

The beautiful box art illustrations by Shigeru Komatsuzaki are dated 1973-1974, so I imagine that was their first release. The models I managed to snag were 1999 reissues. 

There are three in the series, and they each had identifier names like Eagle, Bear and Jaguar, but I have no idea which is which! 

They are very cool generic SF vehicles though, don't you think?


Rob C
USA