THE REVELL GEMINI SWEEPSTAKES

Hi

Here is a very interesting item from Celebrating Aviation With Mike Machat, on the contests run by various model companies. One, the Revell Gemini Sweepstakes in 1967, offered a full-size, 19 foot, Gemini space capsule as the first prize. 

This is described as a prototype, built by McDonnell, who made the real Gemini craft. As it was a bit big to fit into the average home, it was a condition of the contest that the prize be donated to a local park or museum. You also got a Vox guitar and a full set of Revell kits. 

There were 29 Second Prizes, also of a guitar, which really seems like an odd prize for a model contest. Imagine winning your very own spaceship. Now all you need is a rocket to launch it into space.

MODEL CONTESTS - Selling Model Kits in the Space Age - YouTube

Paul Adams from New Zealand

GREEK JEEP

 This plastic Elvip Lyra military jeep caught my eye online.

It reminds me of the plastic Century 21 Toys Hurdler ...

But it also has a flavour of one of my big 3 tinplate toys I had as a kid in the Sixties, the wonderful Desert Patrol Jeep, a toy I managed to replace about 20 years ago.

Have you any Jeeps or did you have readers?

Johnny Keating's Getaway [1963] set to Attack from Space Fight Scene [1965]

Hi Woodsy thought this might be of interest. There's numerous scientific papers written about the cross colonisation of culture.

This video in it broadest sense shows the how eastern culture has taken on Western culture. That said I could watch this kind of bonkers all day long - the film is Attack from Space, Japan, 1965

I'm also not under the illusion this music came with the film, who ever put this on here deserves an Oscar, Best use of music in a motion picture!!

Do you agree?

Regards

MJ

Southcoast Base

UK

POSTSCRIPT: Woodsy here: I couldn't help noticing how similar that old 1965 clip of Starman taking on an army from Attack from Space is to the playground fight scene in Matrix Reloaded between Neo and the many many Smiths [2003]! 

Do I detect an inspiration here? What do you think?

PLAYMOBIL RESCUE HELICOPTER AND FRIENDS

I picked this little lot up at a car boot sale recently.

Supe and Spidey are holding up an old Rockets and Jets book.

 

The old Playmobil bundle appears to be made up of different sets from the 1980's. The figures are marked 1974 on their soles.

I do rather like Playmobil and we have a lot of it for Moonbase Junior.

Do you like it?

Space Oddities

On ebay recently was a little yellow 1980's space car, that I had come across many times and never felt the need to buy and alongside it from the same seller were a small lot of space items, namely a moonrock, astronaut, telescope and piece of equipment. It was a slow day, so I invested £3 and bid on the loose items. A few days later, I decided to check in to Hugh Walters wonderful Small Scale World blog and see what goodies he had found in the world of figures and toys.

Trawling along and catching up on the last few months, I found this entry:

 https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2021/08/o-is-for-original-generic-primogenitor.html

Which shows the space car as a Slo-Mobile which if you check Hughs blog article is a motorised friction drive that chugs slowly along, rather than whizzing off. The little vehicle was packaged with other items that I suddenly realised were the ones I had just bought - the seller had clearly not realised they went together!

Courtesy of Small Scale World

Hugh recognises the figures as those having been released as a rack toy from Toyway and I have one or two from this series. Not terribly well made, but the clincher for me was the moon rock, which brings to mind the Apollo Moon Exploring and LP rock pieces from the sixties space sets.

When I looked again, the buggy had been bought by someone else, but my lot arrived today and I am quite pleased with them.

Its unusual to find any actual space equipment with the figures, so I arranged the scope and the figure in one of the classic poses so reminiscent of the Chesley Bonestell paintings, with the giant planet Jupiter rising overhead. 

Hotter Still

We have seen the iconic Custom Otto Hot Wheels special on the blog before, a model based on the sleek muscle car on the cover of the early Hot Wheels catalogues. I was able to get a standard purple version recently from a supermarket. Like most Hot Wheels, there are always colour and style variations to be had, but sometimes limited editions too.

One such limited release is the U.S only Target stores Custom Otto in the Flying Customs range, a model which, being in the Uk, I was unaware of. Luckily for me, my good friend and blog supporter Terranova spotted it in his local New York Target and as product delivery shortages are predicted, snapped one up for me. 

 

Its a deep gold colour, very reminiscent of the original Spectraflame gold flake, with racing stripes and numbering, a classic Goodyear emblem and HW swash. A lovely surprise gift and one model which is certainly going to stay mint in packet!

BEAM ME UP BEZOS!

I found William Shatner's recent trip into space quite poignant. Having grown up with James Tiberius Kirk and his crew in Star Trek, the Captain came full circle when 'he' actually went where no Shatner had gone before. 

Despite being quite basic compared to the experience he'd had on the Enterprise old Bill seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed himself on the Blue Origin. I liked the fact that Jeff Bezos gave Shatner his seat for free because, like many of us, he loved Star Trek as a kid.

What do you think readers?

LUCKY BAGS ANYONE?

Lucky bags were just the bees knees when I was a nipper.

I loved that crinkly paper the bag was made of and the words Lucky Bag always brought a smile to my face.

I think they were crimped together along the top edge to keep them closed.

Inside was usually a small toy and some sweets. For some reason I'm seeing sugar coated almonds as one of the sweets but I maybe wrong.

No idea what the toys were now but I know I adored getting them.

Did you like lucky bags?