FAB1 STORY

This was interesting, a take on the history of FAB1 by Marc of Sixmania. Part 2 is linked in the article.

http://www.sixmania.fr/en/la-fabuleuse-histoire-de-la-vraie-fab-1-premiere-partie/ 

What did you think?

METAL EARTH VOYAGER

Hi,

Got this as a Christmas present from a friend. It is a 'Metal Earth' model kit of the Voyager probe. The kit consists of two flat sheets of metal with all the parts on them. You have to cut them out, bend them to shape and fit them together by putting microscopic tabs into equally small slots and then bending them over. No glue required in theory!

I hate working small anyway and this kit is highly detailed and quite small. It was like threading a needle using pliers! I ended up cheating and using glue and epoxy putty in some places.

Looks nice when done though.

Just nipping out to the oort cloud,

Kevin
UK

THE FUTURE IS HERE! HOP ON!

Moonbase Junior's Superfast coach on its overnight trip to tomorrow!

IS CHRISTMAS TV RUBBISH NOWADAYS?

Apart from the Ghost Story for Christmas on Christmas Eve and Alistair Sim's Christmas Carol a little earlier that week, I thought the 'normal' telly schedules were rubbish over Christmas this year in England. Some days on Freeview you wouldn't have known it was Christmas!

I dunno - like the big Sixties kid I am - I wanted Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad or any Harryhausen, lots of Laurel and Hardy, lots of 1950's B-movies like Them! some Thunderbirds [from the Sixties] and maybe a whole haunting of ghost stories.

Having said that we were out a lot so it may have been just our bad luck to miss all of the above if they were on!

This year was the first one we didn't invest in a Christmas Radio Times. Maybe that had something to do with it!

What do you think readers? What's Xmas TV like were you are in the world?

BATGIRL BIKES: A CASE IN POINT

 

I saw these lovely cased Batgirl Bikes in a Charity shop late last year. They were a fiver each. I was sorely tempted as they as so damn attractive.

They're just two of the many vehicles issued in the Batman s=range by partworks kings Eaglemoss a while back.

Have you got any Batgirl stuff?

UNBRANDED T IN A CIRCLE MERCURY MARK SPACE SHIP

I used to be a big collector of T in a Circle/ Tai Hing plastic toys.

One I haven't got is the Mercury Mark IV Space Ship like this one I saw online.

Its a lovely thing but this particular one appears to have no branding. Not T in a Circle/ Tai Hing, nothing.

I can see wording on the battery cover which I think says Made in Hong Kong.

Have you anything like this readers?

NEW YEAR'S SUPER SHOWROOM

 Well, the dust has settled on Santa's sleigh for another year but the season offered some fine die-casts for me to drool over and have fun restoring paint chips.

Whilst in Whitby I treated myself to the lovely Superfast Dodge Charger - left - in a collectables shop. At £4 it was a bargain, just the windscreen chipped. The body is divine. In a mad fit of over-confidence I bagged another cheap Dodge on Ebay last week for its better windscreen hoping to recycle it.

Drilling out the rivet I managed to split the damn windscreen! Still I did find a nice purple Sharpie that patched up the small chips on the spare Dodge - the one at the back below - so my finer Charger will just have to suffer its chipped screen!

It is a beauty and the windscreen and sides lift up gullwing style [is that right, is it called gullwing?]

The rear black grille is just fabulous.

Another car I touched-up is this Matchbox Super Kings Shovel Nose Clipper. Luckily there was a similar pale yellow in my new acrylic paint pens [thanks Wotan!].

Its a fine looking futuristic motor. I just spotted it with yellow, some silvering and black panel colouring.

.... a lift-up windscreen too! I just need a smaller Superfast version of this now!

Some shades are proving difficult to match to anything I have in terms of Sharpies and paint pens. These two, a Superfast and a Corgi Junior, are good examples of paint chips I can't restore until I get similar hues of yellow and orange.

So here's the line-up of the all the Superfast I got over Christmas, the ones I've since managed to restore the paint chips, which all turned out rather nice.

The two Superfast at either front end needed no work as they were in such good shape.

Right, these are ready for the display cabinet.

Have you or did you have any of these toy cars readers?

BLACK HOLE PĹAYSUITS

As I've quite a fondness for the film, 'The Black Hole', I really need some more information on these awful looking playsuits!