AIRFIX MODELS IN PICTURE FRAMES

Hi

     I received this from Airfix. An update on the latest kits, and at the bottom of the page some models from a viewer, who has mounted half-models of the Airfix Concorde and Sea King kits in picture frames. An interesting way to display the kits, and effectively get two models for the price of one kit.

Chipmunk 75 - A spectacular new tooling in this anniversary year :: Hornby Hobbies (airfix.com)

Paul Adams from New Zealand

A Strange Oddisea

It was always great fun playing in the bath or the sink with a few toys. One thing I never took into the water were my precious cars. Mattel/Matchbox tried to overturn this idea a few years ago with the 'On a Mission Deep Sea Squid Sub' playset. Very similar in build to the Mega Rig redux sets that appeared a bit earlier, but this sub is specifically intended to allow kids to take a car to the depths of the ocean!

Rather than being issued with a small action figure to pilot the sub, the hatch drops and a car is driven in! Almost like a scene from one of the later Fast and Furious films, the adult mind boggles at the idea, but I suppose a kid would love it.

Its a nice rendition of a DSV, with plenty of scope for customisation. My only gripe is that the grab arms aren't articulated. Theres a winch on the back attached to a large 'squid clamp' to grasp the unfortunate mollusc, which comes with the set, in nice purple squishy rubber. It squirts water and has mini suction cups on the tentacles, making it perfect for posing.

 All in all, its a nice robust little toy, which would sit better with the large Mega Rig range, but also cries out for conversion to fit a smaller action figure.

KEV'S SCRATCHBUILT BLAKE'S 7 STARDRIVE SPACE CHOPPER

Hi,

Just finished my latest Blake's 7 scratchbuild. 

The Space Chopper from the episode 'Stardrive'.

In the series, these were leisure transport, stolen from museums (private, personal transport was banned) by a group of thugs called Space Rats. 

Their leader obviously had plans of his own as he recruited a Space propulsion scientist who adapted them to travel so fast that they could take out Federation warships.

Mine would probably be flown quickly as I made the pilot from an action figure of The Stig!

Maximum speed!

Kevin

UK

HOLLOW EARTH ANYONE?

When I was kid I noticed one of the Colourforms Outerspacemen toys was from Hollow Earth. I think it was Mystron from Series II, which I never had. You?

I think the Hollow Earth also appeared in some way in a movie I adored in the Sixties, Journey to the Centre of the Earth. I can see the film's heroes staring out over a vast subterranean ocean, which was a startling image for an impressionable kid. Did you see it?

Recently I was watching another more modern film - I forget which - King Kong v Godzilla? - and the concept of Hollow Earth came up again. Anyone know what I'm on about?

So just what is the Hollow Earth idea? Who is meant to be living down there?

THE TOTALLY TALL TIN SPACE SHIP X-7

 When I first got the collecting bug around 1989 I bought my first toy reference book, Kitahara's monsters, rockets and robots or something like that. A totally fabulous book about the foremost collection in Japan. I still have it.

This picture I saw online reminds me of that collection - it could well be Kitahara's toy cabinet - so I posted it again here. Bristling will tall ships, it was always the huge X-7, which caught my eye the most, the big green one at the back.

What a gorgeous space plane!

Here's a closer look at the X-7 in two different colours, an image again I've borrowed from Alphadrome online. I'm not entirely sure how tall these tin toys are but they look massive!

Have you got one or anything similar readers?

Eight Legs Very Good

Despite doing my best to downsize the collection, theres often something pops up that I just can't leave. A case in point were these two Multimac Ocean Discovery vehicles.

Called Octopathfinders, they owe more to crustacea than molluscs in their design, having jointed limbs rather than tentacles, but their are 8 of them, hence the 'octo' prefix. Being Multimac, all the elements are interchangeable and can be swapped between toys too, so spare elements from these two and the bag of loose parts that came with them, can fit onnthe larger toys in the range - such as the Crab Navigator and Lobster.

The figures, like most Multimac stuff, are the slightly larger poseable ones about 2" tall and lifted almost exactly from Bluebirds MANTA force range. Earlier Multimac were a scale down and borrowed Tomy Zoid pilots.

The basic saucer shape is quite pleasing and reminiscent of the heavy industrial look that Ron Cobb intended for the first Alien film. The jointed, articulated legs would not look out of place with Lego Bionicle sets.

The Ocean Discovery line makes an interesting change from space industrial styling and reaches even further into Zoids territory with the zoomorphic mech design.
 

TITAN II GEMINI TWO MAN SPACE CAPSULE

 

I saw this double act on an online sale and saved the pic because one the companies is completely new to me, Gladden, on the left.

I think they've produced a real gem of a toy with this two man capsule. It looks great and quite sturdy. It would need to be because its a parachute toy. I'm unsure how it works but there's a small orange tool up top and a white nozzle at the base. Oh and a parachute. I assume its thrown in the air. Do you know?

The Quercetti Tor is a classic chute toy and many of you will have had this or similar judging by how many times its come up on Moonbase. 

Did you have any parachute toys as a kid?

SATURDAY MORNING CAPTION TIME!

 

I saw this rubber fella online and he made me smile, the old jiggler.

He's not happy though. He needs some captions folks!

C'mon!