Zero In

Very far removed from actual dioramas, here are some simple desktop tableau that I have made featuring BlueBird Zero Hour, Matchbox Mission Bravo and similar futuristic army toys.

 

DOCTOR WHERE

I've just been skimming over the long Wiki page about missing Dr.Who TV episodes. My head's spinning like a Dalek on ice! Its a fascinating and convoluted tale of chance and passion as the missing episodes have been searched for across the globe over the many decades and fortunately with some success.

A chap called Ian Levine seems to have been the springboard for early finds in the late 70's and 80's and there's an amazing tale about two BBC staffers buying episodes off each other and giving one or two of them to Ian Levine as they were part of the lost! 

I do love stories like this as many people must do as well judging by the numbers of documentaries and TV segments there have been on the subject. There's even one called The WOTAN Assembly about retrieving that particular series. I haven't seen it.

Finding missing TV reminds me of finding missing toys. I imagine finding anything at all thats been missing is just as exhilarating.

Have you been involved in looking for the missing Dr.Who episodes readers or indeed any missing artefact?

PLASTON SOUTH AMERICAN SUPERCAR CLONE

Browsing the fab Mike Mercury Supercar site I noticed this cool Supercar toy from Argentina. I must admit I like the colour scheme! What do you think readers?

Its at the bottom of the page.

http://www.mikemercury.net/page15.html

Topping Models

Hi

Just found a very interesting video on You Tube, from Max's Models, on Topping Models. This US company made display models for industry, mainly aircraft, missiles, and spacecraft (including a massive 19 foot long B-70 jet bomber), other models included engines, boats, tractors, a washing machine, and other less common items. Really interesting to see modelling at the professional level, as apart from movie and TV effects work, the professional side of things is rarely covered. Do you know of them?

Topping Models, a brief history - YouTube

Paul Adams from New Zealand

DIRTY LOOKS

 

I saw this dirtied down Task Force 3 last year on auction. I kept a pic because I wanted to ask you if you liked the effect its created, the dirtying down?

Personally I don't like it and prefer to see toys left alone but that's the collector in me. As a kid I also messed with stuff like you will have done. Maybe a kid did this?

MEN IN BLACK: KOLCHAK?

Reading further into my TV Horror book I was amazed to read something about Kolchak the old American TV series. It says that there was an organisation in it called Men in Black. is that right? Is that where the comic version and the later Will Smith film comes from? Do you know readers?

BATMAN'S PORSCHE

Being a fan of both Batman and sports cars I thought this Argentinian Carrera was a cracker!

Bats looks so relaxed in his comfy seat under the canopy.

I suppose you could stick a Batman decal on anything and make it a Bat toy. Argentina produced hundreds of presumably unlicensed plastic Batman cars of different types and this is just one of them online.

Do you like it?

Have you stuck a Batman sticker on anything?

Zero Sum

Well it was interesting to note Woodsy's comment the other day as to what we were collecting. I said that I had moved away from most space toys due to their inaccessibility. This happened a while ago, and to fil the gap, I sometimes bought unusual army toys. One line which I really enjoyed was the late 90's line from Bluebird, 'Zero Hour'. The basic line was a range of armed forces facing up against a renegade terrorist group, called Bad Brigade. The toys took cues from M.A.S.K toys, allowing commercial vehicles to transform into fighting machines.

Recently, I was really pleased to hear from Richard Dixon who was the chief publicist and photographer for Bluebird and he shared a lot of the displays he built for the model shoots. Richards work can be seen on the blog and on his site which is recorded here:

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2018/05/richard-dixons-zero-hour-in-beginning.html?m=1

It was great to hear Richard's story about how the line was publicised and through him, I was able to get a better picture of the full extent of the line. As a result, I finally managed to secure the last set in the line, a Bad Brigade Ambulance which can be converted into an assault craft for amphibious attacks. The set also comes with troops, a frogman, a sea scooter and an inflatable power boat.

So with this line finally under wraps, I can concentrate on maybe building a diorama like Richard's!