MJ's G.I. Joe/Action Man Astronaut with Helicopter pack Custom paint Finish!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRhjWnN7U1c

Hi Woodsy 

Thought I'd share this with you since I've gone "Short Shorts crazy"!

Regards

MJ

Southcoast Base

UK

SIXTEEN 12 EPISODE 1 FREIGHTER EAGLE

 A look back at the first of the Sixteen 12 'Episode' Eagle model, the 'Breakaway' Eagle Freighter ,which appeared in October, 2018, and if I remember correctly, sold out on the 16/12 website before the official release date.

Limited to just 1000 units, and based on the earlier Product Enterprise Winch Eagle, this upgraded model now featured aluminium engine bells and its own  loading platform display plinth.

It also came with a nuclear silo cover and the now familiar Alpha Moon Buggy.

I should also mention the attractive packaging which to my mind, has an evocative nostalgic look about it.

ASTEROID KILLERS

Just seen on the News that NASA is sending a spacecraft to smash into an asteroid!

Its a test run in case its ever really needed.

Its the stuff of science fiction coming true!

Boy, I hope they get it right and keep that moonlet safe!

Do you think this NASA mission might re-ignite interest in space?

CEREAL FILLERS

I'm enjoying cereals again this Autumn.

It started with a box of Golden Grahams, those cinnamonny squares of sweetness. 

I followed these with a large box of Lucky Charms from the American aisle in the local supermarket. Amazingly it had a space them on the back of the box but like the Grahams there wasn't any freebie inside. 

My latest morning treat are Golden Nuggets, those crunchy yellow orbs. The old prospector on the box always makes me think of a goldrush type fairground ride I went on as a kid, probably at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Despite a dearth of those fab plastic toys from my childhood in any of them I still like my boxed breakfasts.

Not sure which cereals will come next. Any advice readers? Which cereals do you enjoy?

Which cereals would you like back and which freebie inside?

A QUANTITY OF OLD SPACE PLASTIC

 There's been a few mixed lots on the Bay this year, lots of SpaceX and Project SWORD and the like.

Here's a couple I spotted and saved the images.

This one, with its two SpaceX vehicles top right, has the nifty little orange space car in it, a clone of Billy Blastoff's car. Have you got one? What are those three figures at the bottom?

This lot has some SWORD and SpaceX as well as bits of other things. What else can you see readers?

Did you get SWORD and SpaceX toys for Xmas when you were a kid?

HOLY REPLICA BATMOBILE

 Way back in 2015, a friend and I took a trip to the Perch Rock fort in New Brighton to check out a replica Batmobile that was on display there. 

Behind the wheel!

Detect-a-scope.

The Batphone.

Don't touch the emergency Bat-turn lever!

Yours truly making a quick Batgetaway!

THE GHOST OF CAP'N KIDD: I KID YOU NOT!

 Sometimes I see an old toy I've never come across before.

Here's one I saw online, the luminous Ghost of Cap'n Kidd from the Matchbox Fighting Furies range.

At first I thought it was a Tomland monster - the feet look the same - but its a Matchbox.

I never associate Matchbox with action figures and I wonder how well this range did. Cap'n Kidd must be a rare old ghost.

Is he one that haunts your shelves?

WHEN DOES THE CHRISTMAS SEASON START?

I probably ask this every year but when does Christmas start for you?

Judging by UK TV ads it begins the day after Bonfire Night here. November 6th. I know this is simply the start of their marketing campaigns but there are so many excessive ads displaying the perfect Christmas that its hard to tell when it actually starts anymore.

There are Christmas markets around in November. Big ones in town squares and little ones in libraries and such. Still, it feels too early to truly be called Christmas.

However, we got our first Christmas 'card' the other day. Its always the first one every year. A printed list of all the Christmas masses in our village made in the form of a card and dropped in the letter box. Having said that I think Xmas card writing is one the wane in these environmentally-conscious times. I limit cards to my immediate family these days and I always leave it too late.

As always some pioneering spirits of luminosity have decorated the outside of their homes already and the first big displays of Santas, Reindeers and Snowmen have appeared on some lawns, much to the delight of sleepy drivers going to work in the dark. Yet these early switch-ons are just that. Early.

A more immediate test of when Christmas starts is when you can comfortably say Seasons Greetings in an email [or indeed a letter!]. I tried it this week but it felt far too early so I won't be signing off like that again until December I don't think.

December maybe it. December could be the key to Christmas meaning Christmas. Having grown up in an RC household and gone to RC schools in the Sixties and early Seventies Advent was always really important and if not the first of December then the first of Advent was the beginning of the festive season proper, both culturally and ecclesiastically.

I don't go to Church anymore yet Advent still holds some meaning for me but it's not the moment I'm after. Maybe its simpler than that.

Forgetting all the November shopping, the Black Fridays, the TV ads after Bonfire Night, the pictures of roasted turkey dinners on every magazine cover, no-one can argue that if there is a single moment, a single event that is the thing that ushers Christmas in, it is putting up the tree! 

There can be no more a festive ritual than decorating its branches in the spot we lovingly give over to it in the home. Like an evergreen lift-off to a new world this is surely where Christmas begins.

When does Christmas start for you readers?