The modern Mission to Mars toys by Playmobil are pretty darn cool. Moonbase Junior has got most of them now. They remind me a bit f Major Matt Mason toys!
Here's the Playmobil TV ad. Do you like them?
These guys arrived at Junior's house on his birthday.
Playmobil Mars Mission and Masters of the Universe.
That space station could almost be Triang SpaceX!
Do you have a space station?
Its conker season and British schoolkids are as busy as squirrels collecting chestnuts.
However despite the collecting I see very little if no actual conkering these days. You know, where a hole was drilled [how did we do that?] through the chestnut and a knotted string was pulled through.
Boy, did we have fun back in the day when conkers where a seasonal relief from pitch and toss and kick the can.
I was never really much good at conkers, never mastering the killer blow that could shatter a lesser nut in a single thwack. I did try though.
I imagine top winning conkers were guarded by rottweillers. I never had one.
Back in Preston where I grew up they were actually called cheggies or cheggers and not conkers. I understand that conker comes from conquer, which makes perfect sense. No idea where cheggies came from!
Did you smash each others' chestnuts as a kid in your part of the world readers?
It never really made it as a toy did it. A plastic conker?
There used to be jobs at school when I was a kid. Secondary school I mean. the two I remember where Monitor and Prefect. Like Project SWORD ranks, they both had badges.
I think Monitors checked whether you had all the equipment you needed. Pen, pencil, ruler and so on. I'm not sure if they had spares - like an ice-cream vending person at the cinema? Maybe they monitored other stuff too.
Prefects were altogether more important than monitors. Fifth year Marshalls these Young Guns for hire patrolled the dark corridors of the institution searching out miscreants and forcibly pointing out the errors of their ways with a clip round the ear. A bath full of scorpions was preferable to a corridor full of Prefects! At least that was my experience in a mid-70's Catholic High School in Preston. So much for saintliness!
Prefects also decided how much and what type of food we got. With one of this breed sat at every table like a dinnertime Sheriff they ladled out the meals and the puddings. If you said you hated swedes that's mostly what you got. I learnt not to say I hated skin on my custard. I learnt to keep stumm pretty quick!
I was never a Monitor nor a Prefect. I just watched them.
Were you one readers? Were you something else at school?
I came across an old ad for the Eldon Scenics kits that have appeared before on Moonbase, and did a little further digging. There is not a lot of information on these kits. This is what I found.
First up, from the Alamy site, which seems to be professional stock photos for publishing, a full-colour magazine ad for the Moon Survey set. The sets were 19 inches by 12 inches, and came with a frame, curved backscene, as well as Testors paints, cement, and thinners.
Vintage Toy Advertisements of the 1960s (Page 3) (vintageadbrowser.com)
Eldon have been mentioned a couple of times before on Moonbase Central, these are the posts.
Pages from an old catalogue, showing the kits.
MOONBASE CENTRAL: THE ELDON ARMOURY (projectswordtoys.blogspot.com)
A short film clip of the 1968 British Toy Fair, with the Eldon Sea Lab kit on the Wells Brimtoy stand, I assume they distributed the kits in Britain. Shown at the start of the clip.
Now a post showing the assembled Moon Survey kit, and an old magazine ad from the American magazine Boy's Life for November 1966 'announcing a new hobby', so I assume these kits were released in late 1966, just in time for Christmas ?
This ad says that the Sea Lab kit is also available, and that there will soon be a Prehistoric Kit, with more Scenic Kits to come. The only pictures I could find of the actual kits were for the Lunar and Sea Lab sets. Despite being shown in the Eldon catalogue, I am not sure if the planned Prehistoric kit was actually released.
There really does not seem to be a lot of information around on these kits. They are not mentioned on the Scalemates or Old Model Kits sites, and I could not find anything on You Tube. The fact they were shown in the Toy Fair video at least suggests they were sold in Britain.
Here are the references I could find.
Say; Hello Spaceman: Eldon 3D Scenic Moon Survey Model Kit (1966) (sayhellospaceman.blogspot.com)
Then some items from Worthpoint.
RARE 1966 ELDON 3D SCENIC MOON SURVEY MODEL KIT | #156172983 (worthpoint.com)
That is about it for now. Take care.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
