Ex Libris : Wotan - More Small Steps

Its been difficult over the last few years to find any toys worth adding to the collection, as popularity for certain lines has meant that choice pieces are either squirrelled away in private collections or are being offered at hugely inflated prices, to try and make a fast buck. As a result, I have moved onto my other collecting interests to satisfy my cravings!

One of the easiest (and cheapest) is vintage space books. In the seventies, as the moon race peaked, bookstores were awash with space related books and magazines and other memorabilia. As a child, I loved adding to my collection and in more recent years, it has been fun to scour these old volumes for toy design origins.

One of my favourite authors was Kenneth Gatland, who wrote Manned Spaceflight and Frontiers of Space, along with a host of others. Gatland's books always offered good quality research and writing, as well as excellent illustrations. A search for the authors name on book sites brought up a few volumes I hadn't seen, so for a few quid I bought one or two blind. This is the only difficulty with the cheap second hand book markets, unless you know the book, there is very little info to go on. As it transpired however, the Gatland volumes were both excellent. 'The Space Diary' is a children's book, which shows salient events in space exploration history from the late fifties up to the development of the shuttle. A small photo accompanies the entry, with some unusual shots and rare vehicles.

'Battle for Space' is only co-edited by Gatland, but his influence is very clear. The content looks at the cold war spy systems used by the US and Russia and the gradual escalation into the projected use of space weaponry through the Reagan 'star wars' era, to particle beam and laser weaponry. As it is a post glasnost publication, there is plenty of information about Soviet satellites and the Salyut stations, which were fitted with large optical telescopes for live operations over the USA. 

It also shows the development of Soviet lifting body technology and notes the russian objections to the US Space Shuttle design, as the cargo hold was apparently the perfect size to accomodate a Cosmos or Soyuz vehicle in the event of a direct american intervention.

On a less unnerving basis,  'Your Spaceflight Manual' suggests we could all be space tourists within 20 years. Given that it was published in 1992, this seems unlikely, but it does offer a great insight into the project. Again, primarily aimed at teens and adults, it includes lots of excellent illustrations of projected trans-atmospheric passenger vehicles, with air breathing boosters to take the rocket shuttles to the edge of space.

Large colourful and detailed illustrations show the abandoned British Aerospace HOTOL design and the Sanger-Bredt system, along with other more fanciful designs for the space tourist industry.

Coming back down to Earth in terms of space vehicle development, the bound copies of the 1965 'Space' magazine, by Cockatrice Press, arrived in a nice hardback cover and include 10 issues running over a year. As the magazine was pre-Apollo, a lot of the information is very early and not overshadowed by the major developments in NASA. The photography is excellent and the reportage is more scientific than journalistic.

It covers most of the early space probes like Pioneer, Mariner and Telstar, but also covers early lifting body experiments such as the HL-10 and the British MUSTARD project.

In a similar vein, the Nelson Doubleday 'American Science Service' booklets have been a favourite of mine for some time. Covering a wide range of science subjects, they are aimed at school age children and have a self adhesive sticker set included for readers to fill in. 

I recently found a lot of booklets in discrete binders, which besides the space volumes I was after, also included books on Gravity, Photography, Sound, Bridges and other subjects. The owner had clearly been very meticulous in his cataloguing of the booklets, as all three versions of the Man in Space booklet were included, the first edition has a Dyna Soar Glider on the cover and dates from 1960, whereas the later versions follow Apollo and have a Lunar Module. Besides the stickers for the book, the space editions included fold out posters too, the 1960 edition focussing on Gemini and the later edition a Lunar Module. 

All of the stickers and other illustrations are again, quite rare depictions from space history and the Universe edition also includes a fold out Find a Star Planisphere card.

The Science Series gives space exploration a very comprehensive coverage with a number of space themed booklets in the series, all of which are excellent, with unusual and rarely seen photographs.

Finally,  a piece which I have been looking for, for some time, the 'Touchdown on the Moon' pack. This would probably been available at newsagents and is a plastic carrier with a number of separate items included.

Amongst the technical data sheets and specification data, there is a 45rpm single record, a couple of books and some great fold out artwork, including a large post of Robert McCalls 'Roll Out'

Possibly my favourite part is the large format Flight Plan poster, which is accompanied by a press out card model of the final stage of the Saturn V rocket. This could be followed along the flight plan, during the course of the moon mission, to recreate operations in Lunar orbit, back in July 1969.

Again, the artwork is well executed and colourful and some of the pieces are designed to be replicas of actual NASA  documents.

John Sissons runs an excellent blog on space books and ephemera here:

http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/

Palmkirmis: The Local Fairground

THE MATCHBOX TWIN BLAST

Hi

This is an update on my old 2021 post Paul's Haul, with further details of one of the models I picked up at an outdoor market, what in Britain would be called a Car Boot Fair.

Something I did not realise until it was pointed out by reader MJ Southcoast Base (thanks MJ) was that this model resembles the title aircraft in the Clint Eastwood movie Firefox (1982). 

It is not an exact match, the nose is less angular, the fins are angled out more, and there are upturned winglets to both the main wings and the canard foreplanes. But the basic shape and layout are much the same.

The Matchbox model is part of the Sky-Busters line, and is called Twin Blast. I assume because it has two engines. Model number SB103. The copyright date on the underside is 2011. Made in Thailand, so there is the usual small elephant logo.

Only the white upper body, including the canards and fins, is metal. The wings, including the air intakes and the centres of the exhausts, are black plastic. The lower fuselage, including the square engine exhausts, is red plastic. Black plastic undercarriage, with metal axles.

Tampo printing only on the upper surfaces, including the SB103 number behind the cockpit. Other colour schemes have been issued. Length 115 mm, wingspan 91 mm. A nice, solid model.

Do you like it?

Yours Sincerely,

Paul Adams from New Zealand

STAND BY FOR TROY TEMPEST SCANSHOES!

I decided to take a punt on this bagged pair of  vintage 'Tempest Scanshoes' slippers, as they don't come up too often.  

I think it's fair to assume that this is another example of some cheap old ex-shop stock that's found its way into the collectables market.

The hook for me was recalling the advert that appeared in my early TV Century 21 comics.

The ad suggested that the Scanshoes should be worn by all off-duty members of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol . An added feature is they are anti-magnetic and give complete protection against cosmic dust. Not sure how that would benefit budding aquanauts, but Troy's pal, Steve Zodiac probably has a pair tucked away on XL5!

TV21 also ran a couple of competitions to win a pair. The first competition appeared in December, 1965. This was for the less ostentatious 'W.A.S.P. badge' variation of the slippers.  

The second  competition was some time later, in May, 1966, and this was for the much more impressive, but probably highly impractical 'model heads' version.

They were available in three different colours; red,  white or blue, and judging by the few photos of others I've found, appeared  to have  slightly different lettering and artwork on the header cards.

Back in the day either the model heads or WASP badge type retailed for 9/11d , the equivalent of .50p, but taking into account  inflation that would be about ten quid in today's money.

Oddly, there's no manufacture's name on the header card, (I don't know whether anything is written on the inside of the slippers, or if there's a separate leaflet tucked inside) however the TV21 competitions say they were  made by Church & Son Ltd, and reading  the adverts,  were distributed by Mornstar Ltd, or alternatively according to the TV21 competition , Audrey Noble & Co. Ltd. 

The example I eventually bid for had been offered for sale a couple of times prior on that well known auction site, but with no takers, and as  I only really considered them a bit of a nostalgic curiosity ,  I wasn't prepared to pay over the odds.

The next time it resurfaced  the vintage slippers had 'dive, dive, dived' to a much more tempting starting price! Four other bidders did attempt to 'scuttle me', but in those final 'marine minutes' I managed to fend off borders and claimed the treasure for what I considered a more reasonable sum!

So, do I have  treasure, or just a shipwreck? 

Well,  for a piece of Stingray ephemera  that's managed to survive more or less intact for 58 years it doesn't look too bad.

The header card, which I'd original thought might have been a replica, but on closer inspection actually looks original, is quite simple in design. It features a rather simple generic Stingray illustration , the kind that appeared on a lot of merchandise from the time.  The word, 'Foreign' is written in small letters underneath. I've seen examples of this and other header cards, some with a slightly more defined Stingray illustration, and a different font. At first I considered that maybe as these were labelled as foreign maybe that was the reason, but I honestly can't say for sure.

The card is copyright dated 1964 to A.P.Films Ltd. & I.T.C. Ltd.

The Stingray logo lettering is orange, although I can't be sure whether it's simply faded from red over time.

The original staples in the header card have been removed, or simply disintergrated over time, and have been replaced more recently 

The polythene bag which also has 'foreign' written on it, has a little damage and shows signs of an old sticky tape repair.

I can't say whether the 'Scanshoes' themselves have ever been removed from the bag, but both are still neatly folded, and sat on a silver card keeping them in place. 

The plastic model heads are in good condition.  I should admit they don't resemble Troy or Phones at all, although there are slight differences, and the one with the wide-eyed look does have a sort of 'Troy Tempest' raised eyebrow!

The Scanshoes are white, possibly leatherette, with what looks like a suede type material on the soles. The header card describes them as medium size.

There's also a hanging string which obviously would have been used to display the Scanshoes.

Overall, a pleasing , if unusual piece of vintage Stingray merchandise .

Terranova47's Old Stuff Popping up

Have I been surprised by old stuff popping up?

Last weekend I was going through a box of papers from the 90's, mostly old medical claims which were shredded. Amongst them were some cartoons of me drawn by a co-worker at the New York Daily News.

One in particular (see attached) referred to dummy magazines I had created for the sales force to use. They didn't take that long to assemble, so the contents of the memo is quite funny.

I forwarded this scan to that co-worker who's now in his 80's but he didn't remember it, he had drawn so many. He was always appreciative of my work ethic as most of the department were grossly under productive.

Terranova47

USA

Fender Render

Hi Woodsy. Here is a watercolor painting I made in high school.The painting was an exercise in basic watercolor technique and perspective.

Most of the time,stuff like this would usually be left in the classroom and eventually thrown out.Little did I know,my art teacher held on to this one,and gave it to my parents some ten years after I graduated!

They eventually had it framed and gave it to me as a surprise gift!

BrianF NJ USA