A FEW MODERN WORDS

Here's some modern words which are either meaningless, elusive or just plain annoying. Again, no googling or dictionaries involved.

Pack: anything put together in a folder or a plastic wallet becomes a pack. The 80's were chock full with packs and they're still around. Almost without meaning.

Resource: anything that can be placed in a pack. Maps, cuttings, instructions, tickets, anything. Resource pack was my middle name in the 80's and now its plain annoying.

Manspreading: an unpleasant name for men standing with their legs apart. I don't manspread and don't use the word.

Double down: a Trumpism which has gone viral. It means to focus on something so why not just say that?

Yaw: a technical word, which I do like the sound of. I think it means to twist. Used in aeronautical circles.

Tare: possibly means volume. Often seen on lorries on motorways.

App: I still think an app is simply a program with a shortcut.

Life-hack: isn't this just a practical tip like the ones Grandparents told you?

Search it up: why up? Why not just search for something online, why search it up?

More to come.

JUST WHAT IS THIS FABULOUS THUNDERBIRD 1 TOY?

This Japanese toy is simply stunning, a working toy Thunderbird 1 launch bay! I mean damn! Anyone know what it is?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9ui4DP-aTA

Is it the TB1 part of this magnificent working model?

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

ALL REVVED UP

A little silvering on the Superfast big motor and this bad boy is ready to rumble.

When You Were Sweet Sixteen

I'm always keen to look at Hot Wheels cars and here is the aforementioned 'Sweet Sixteen' catalogue with the gorgeously sleek artwork representing the first releases.

later catalogues would use actual photographs of the models, but Mattel's initial release uses the wonderfully stylistic packaging to set the line apart from the more traditional Matchbox and Tootsietoy lines. 

Hot Wheels were always much superior runners, due to the sprung suspension and the physical weight of the cars, a feature that Lesney's Matchbox range tried to compete with in the later release of the Superfast line.

For me, the big attraction was the exotic and original space-age styling as seen in the Swingin' Wing or Splittin' Image.

Some later models included extra action features, such as the Whip Creamer and the spinning turbine in the rear.

The paint finish on Hot Wheels Redlines made them stand out from other cars, along with the 'mag' wheels with the signature red line stripe, Spectraflame paint is a fine layer of colour applied directly to the polished bare metal body, aloowing the shine to set off the colour and making the cars visually different from the standard enamels. These paints are available for use with airbrushes, allowing faithful restorations of old models to be carried out. Replacement wheels and reproduction plastic parts can also be purchased from specialist model sites.

The Twinmill was an early release which was re-issued recently in a casting similar to its 1970 version, but also updated with more modern takes on the styling.

The first catalogues showed a muscle car which did not appear in the line, but which was released as a new casting a few years back as a fan club exclusive and later as part of the main line. New York based Terranova found a Target Exclusive version in gold for me to grace my collection too.

MY OTHER CAR IS AN ESPADA!

I'm in love with the Lambhorghini Espada! Hows this for a cool motor! Its worthy of UFO billing!

wikipedia

THE FIRST SIXTEEN

The phrase First 16 means a few different things to me.

For one its the first sixteen redlines in the Hot Wheels range. I'm pretty sure I had a few if not most of them in 1968 and 69. Its hard put into words how much I loved Hot Wheels and the first sixteen will have been the wonderful debut of these cars in my young world. The metallic colours were the palette of childhood and no other toy car could really fill those hues. Nowadays their value is astronomical. I don't have any, never see any and my life is the lesser for it. By way of a compromise I collect the poor man's wheels, Superfast.

Those first redlines were part of my own first sixteen years, that fabulous launch of the young human form we all enjoy before landing on the planet where adults dwell. The final year of high school brings those years to an iconic close and the tentative steps we take from there into the unknown is a rite of passage that helps define us. My life was sweet up to the age of 16, a candied hamper of family, telly and toys and it was all good, as I hope and expect it was for most children. I'm glad I had that time, which shaped who I am. Sadly it ended seismically in my last year of secondary school when my Mum died tragically young and things would never be the same again.

The other first 16 - or maybe its the last - concerns Star Wars figures. I'm slowly gathering a handful of the 1977 releases again, after buying and selling many of them before in the past. Then it was as a dealer acquiring large collections and selling them on my toy stall and later on Ebay. Nowadays it's pure chance as forces align to put me in the right space at the right time to get just a few. I think I have now Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Stormtrooper, Boba Fett and a Taun Taun. Its fun to let luck just bring them my way and I'm taun about what to do next. Find more figures or succumb to the dealer still inside me.

Does the first sixteen mean anything to you?

SCREEN AND SCREEN AGAIN

I picked up these two old motors t'other day, a Superfast and a Corgi. Both had a window/ windscreen either missing or broken, the red one at the rear.

Tempted to call Autoglass, who offer free screen repairs on TV, I had a bash myself.

See what you think. Not perfect but not bad I feel. Some paint spots added too.

PEZ Museum Tour

Hi

          PEZ dispensers have featured a few times before on MC, so I thought you would be interested in this You Tube look at the PEZ museum. The video is a 25 minute tour of the PEZ Visitor Centre (or Center ?) in Orange, Connecticut. 

It is an amazing place, filled with new and vintage PEZ dispensers from across the decades. I do have a book on PEZ, but I had no idea the range was so vast. From American Presidents (including John F. Kennedy - to add to your Kennedy model collection) to Mr Bean (including his famous green Mini). 

Lots of TV, movie, and cartoon characters, Halloween and Christmas seasonal dispensers, and themed sets. Wow.

The PEZ Visitor Center - World's Largest PEZ Dispenser and Museum! - YouTube

Paul Adams from New Zealand