STAR TEAM'S KENT... KNIEVEL?!

 I've done a few posts on STAR Team, Ideal's pre-emptive move on Star Wars toy releases, and here's the box art for the human leader of the STAR Team line up, Kent and his Cosmic Cruiser. The Cruiser is simply a retooled Evel Knievel Sky Cycle. I imagine this was released after George Lucas lost a law suite against Ideal.  The notable thing about Kent's space helmet is it doesn't have a closing visor, surly not a good thing when flying through space in an open- topped spaceship!

TORRO PLASTIC MECCANO

Hi

Here are the Torro Construction Set photos from Trade Me, which I think is NZ-made Plastic Meccano.

Did you get anything like this one Christmas?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

MARK'S AVRO LANCASTER 3

 More developments on the Lancaster by my friend Mark. Its coming together!

SHADOCON TOYS & MODELS

 Some more revisited photos from me, this time from the excellent SHADO CON event that took place at Derby in 2017. Here's some some of the  toys and models from UFO on display.

Siege Mentality

 Ive been a long time fan of Britains toys, as my dad introduced me to them at an early age. My older sisters collected Farm, Zoo and Miniature Garden pieces with theur pocket money in the early sixties and once I was old enough to appreciate them, my dad bought me soldiers. Britains models covered such a diverse range of themes and I had tractors, tanks and cowboys. One thing I never bothered with were the Knights range, even though my dad made me a wooden fort!

Besides buying the toys, he would religiously get copies of the Britains catalogue, which was alway well produced and fun to look through, to choose what to buy next. 

I bought a copy of Britains Toy Catalogues 1970-1979 recently, which reprints them well, even though I still have all the originals.

Recently, I came across one of the Medieval Siege Engines - one of two models that were made to compliment the Knights range. A catapult, missing the launcher arm and one or two parts, which I managed to bodge together. Soon after the second model, The Ballista - a heavyweight crossbow popped up and over the last two years, I have found a diecast catapult and another one of unknown make.

The Ballista really brings home the fearsome nature of these primitive weapons, when you consider the length of the bolt in relation to the figure. Its hard to imagine what effect such a device would have against a stronghold, let alone massed ranks of footsoldiers.

SMALL MERCIES: MINI BIBLE VIEWER

 Kitsch like this was everywhere in the Sixties and Seventies.

Seaside shops, lucky bags and Christmas Crackers.

Here are tiny plastic Holy Bibles, which you can peer into through a little window at the side and see the Lords Prayer.

Rather than being offensive it got the word out.

These are ear rings [on Etsy] but the ones I had were key rings.

I saw some of these toy bibles in a famous Hull joke shop window a few back too. 

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2017/03/dinsdales-jokes-and-tricks-shop-in-hull.html

Seasons Greetings readers!

AURORA MODEL KITS BOOK REVIEW BY PAUL ADAMS

Aurora Model Kits, by Thomas Graham, Schiffer Publishing, USA, 2004. An earlier version was published as Greenberg's Guide to Aurora Model Kits, Kalmbach Books, 1998.

The same author has also done a history of Aurora Slot Cars, initially published by Kalmbach in 1995, then by Schiffer in 2003.

Thomas Graham is an American writer who has done histories of all the 'Big Three' American kit companies, starting with the now vanished Aurora. The Schiffer volume runs to 175 pages on glossy paper, mainly in colour, with excellent quality photographic reproduction. 

The previous Kalmbach edition was 128 pages. A Third Edition appeared in 2017, which runs to 200 pages - this is still available.

The Aurora Plastics Corporation was founded in 1950, in Brooklyn, New York. It started out as a general plastics company, making products for other firms, but soon moved in to toy making on its own. 

It began producing model aircraft kits in 1952 - initially copies of Hawk models. The range expanded, with subjects including aircraft - from an extensive range of WW1 types to the latest military and civil jets, ships, cars, military vehicles, figures, and from 1962 their famous line of classic movie monsters. 

There were many film and TV related models. The company went through a number of changes in the late 1960s and 1970s, by which time the founders had all left. In 1977 the moulds were sold off to rival Monogram, and the Aurora name disappeared from model shops. 

However many of the actual kits have been re-issued over the years, by Monogram, Revell, and smaller outfits such as Polar Lights (a play on the Aurora name). Sadly, some kits have never been re-issued, and are now sought after by collectors.

This is a terrific book, with a detailed history of the company, and brief details of the people behind it. There are a few historic photographs in black and white, but most photos are in colour. 

These show artwork, box tops, built-up models, factory built store displays, and prototypes that never made it in to production. A full listing of all the Aurora models made, giving kit number, release date, periods of sale, scale, and brief notes. 

Re-issues by other companies and box art variations are covered. There is plenty on the various Aurora film and TV models of the 1960s and 1970s, plus coverage of short-lived oddballs, such as the Guys and Gals of All Nations, the Butterfly sets, and metal-foil covered craft kits.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

A CASK OF AMONTILLADO

 

Seeing this bottle of Amontillado in the local Supermarket reminded me of my favourite Poe rendition, the Cask of Amontillado in Warren's wonderful Creepy magazine in the late Sixties.

Fortunately I'm not alone and here you can read it with your glass of Christmas plonk on Professor H's Wayback Machine! Enjoy!

http://professorhswaybackmachine.blogspot.com/2014/12/poe-1965-pt-8.html