Have Shogun, Will Travel - Part 1

Hi there Woodsie! I'm impressed with your restoration projects, so I thought I'd show you and MC some of my recent jobs.

Here's a brace of Popy die-cast "God Phenix" (sic) models. You may remember the Phoenix from Battle of the planets. 

Their owner said if I did up both, I could keep one - a great deal! 

The general blue paintwork was good, so I added red spray enamel accent stripes. The stickers were missing, faded or ruined, so I reconstructed them in Corel Draw and printed them with a colour laser printer.

The beak nose cones and the upper deck on the left toy got a little high tech as I 3D modelled and printed them.

What do you think?

Much more to come!

DEEP RISING: RISEN TWICE

I watched Deep Rising last night. I've seen it before but seeing as I'm a fan of sea monsters and always have been I thought I'd give it another whirl.

Deep Rising - which sounds like a baking term - is basically a combo of Under Siege and The Abyss. Its leading man is Treat Williams, a reliable B-lister, who I remember mostly from Hair, Flashpoint and Mulholland Falls. Amazingly he had an uncredited role in The Empire Strikes Back too.

The other actors include Anthony Heald who played Dr. Chilton in Silence of the Lambs, Famke Janssen who we know better as Jean Grey [she was also a Bond Girl but I didn't know that] and Kevin J. O'Connor, the gratingly whining Beni in the Mummy [his discordant whining voice being similar to that of Bobcat Goldthwait, the little guy who get's fired at the start of Scrooged].

I enjoyed Deep Rising second time round - a second wind you might say - and its appeal seems to have grown over the years generally. I imagine part of this is the involvement of Star Wars imagineers ILM and Rob Bottin the effects guru. The special FX in the film are top notch and I really like the slithering ravenous beastie as it plunges along the corridors of the stricken cruise-liner.

I understand that Harrison Ford was tipped to play the lead, which would obviously have given it blockbuster chops, but he turned it down.

Its original working title, Tentacle, isn't too bad. There was a schlocker called Tentacles in 1977, which is probably somewhere on the net to see.

The monster in the film is called Octalus, although I never heard the name used. It's a big fella that's for sure. I couldn't find any toy or kit versions of it, which is a shame.

Do you like Deep Rising? Can you recommend any other sea monster movies?

Hot Patch-Ups: 1974 Heavy Chevy

 Before

After

James Bama RIP

Hi

I have some sad news today. James Bama, the artist responsible for the box art on the Aurora monster kits in the 1960s, as well as many book and magazine covers, has passed away. Here is an obituary on Max's Models. Mr Bama was 96.

Coffee with Max's Models 4/25/22 - YouTube

Paul Adams from New Zealand

THE KNiGHT STUFF

As a kid in the Sixties I had a few Marx Knights, which I adored. My fave was the gold knight. 

So when I saw this modern silver knight, a gothic action figure by Kaiyodo of Japan, I was blown away. What a toy!

What do you think readers?

WONDERDOME

 Some photos of the Sixteen 12 'Bringers of Wonder' set which is currently set for release towards the end of this year.

Eagle & Nuclear Dome:

Pilot Ship:

Nuclear Dome:

THE VISIBLE GIANT AMERICAN BULLFROG

Hi

Here is another Visible animal model, this time from a small American company called Superior Plastics. They did not make many kits, and were only in the kit business from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. Most of their moulds ended up with other companies.

Superior Plastics Giant American Bull Frog

Yet another frog kit, this time the Giant American Bull Frog, by Superior Plastics Incorporated. Later re-issued by Educational Products, and Lindberg - all three companies being based in Chicago, Illinois.

Superior Plastics Incorporated, Chicago, Illinois

Superior was one of several smaller American kit companies active for a short time in the 1950s and 1960s. Their boxes are easy to identify because of the triple-diamond logo in the lower right corner, which the later Educational boxes lack. Helpfully, the copyright date of 1960 is printed on the box top.

The top and sides of the Superior box proudly boast that the kit is moulded in Superlon plastic. As far as I can tell, this is a type of High Density Polyethylene used mainly for plastic piping, and other heavy duty industrial items, rather than kits. It is difficult to glue, and many modern glues would not have been available in the 1960s. That might explain why Superior did not last long in the kit business.

Scalemates say the model is 1:1 scale, but do not give a catalogue number.

Bull Frog, Superior Plastics Inc. (1960) (scalemates.com)

The box top lists several features:

Finely detailed - Life-size body over a foot long

Fit-together vital organs for both male and female

Full-size skeleton - flexible, assembles and disassembles

Fun to assemble - an educational study model - fully dissectible.

EXTRA ! Display showing life cycle of frog

The body of the frog was moulded in the usual translucent green plastic that is almost standard for frog kits, white for the skeleton, and brown or purplish brown for the internal organs. The lower body half has a large opening, with a separate cover, allowing the internal organs to be seen more clearly, or removed. There is a flat moulded plaque with raised detailing showing the Life Cycle, from egg, to tadpole, to froglet. There is also a small Juvenile Frog in clear green.

Vintage Bull Frog Model Kit COMPLETE 1960 Dissection/Biology with DIRECTIONS | #3766963050 (worthpoint.com)

1960 Giant American Bull Frog Model Kit | #3674795679 (worthpoint.com)

VINTAGE 1960 SUPERIOR Plastics Giant American Bull Frog Model Kit & Box - $15.99 | PicClick

Educational Products Incorporated, Oak Lawn, Illinois.

Oak Lawn is a suburb of Chicago. The box design is the same as the Superior version, but now has the Educational name on it, and a new copyright date, 1967. The top and sides of the box no longer mention Superlon plastic, so the Educational version was presumably moulded in conventional polystyrene. This company offered both the complete Bull Frog kit for $3.50, and the Skeleton on its own for 75 cents. I could not find anything on the Skeleton beyond a couple of old ads, including a leaflet that was presumably included with the Educational Bull Frog kit. I do not know if Superior also sold the Skeleton as a separate kit.

Detailed & Unusual Visible Giant American Bull Frog Model Kit, 1967 | #2027208136 (worthpoint.com)

Vintage (1967) Science Decor Giant Bull Frog Model Kit Dissection *Biology | #3779738441 (worthpoint.com)

Lindberg Release

In the 1970s Lindberg of Skokie, Illinois, another suburb of Chicago, acquired the Bull Frog, and has released it in a number of different boxes over the years. The colours of the plastic have varied. Although the boxes still refer to vital organs, there is no longer any mention of separate parts for male and female frogs. I have no idea if they were still included. Lindberg had an extensive range of human anatomy kits at the time, but this seems to have been their only animal kit.

Full colour box, copyright date 1973, model number 1310. This kit was still listed in the 1981 Lindberg catalogue, but was not included in the 1982 edition.

White box/green frog, model number 1303.

Blue box, model number HL301/12, date 2009. This was from the time when Lindberg was owned by Lloyd International. The name of the kit changed from Giant American Bull Frog to Transparent Bull Frog on one side - and Transparent Giant American Bull Frog on the other. The box also says the model is only 11 inches long, rather than 'over a foot', as on previous releases.

According to Cybermodeler Online this kit was again re-issued by Lindberg, now owned by Round 2, in 2013 as 0301.

Lindberg 0301 1/1 Transparent Bullfrog Kit First Look (cybermodeler.com)

Lindberg Transparent Giant American Bull Frog Educational Model Kit NEW,SEALED | #3851336387 (worthpoint.com)

Giant American Bull Frog Lindberg Vintage Model Kit 1973, New Sealed # 1310 | #2007681139 (worthpoint.com)

New!Sealed!!Giant American Bull Frog Lindberg Vintage Model Kit 1973 | #2059407164 (worthpoint.com)

New Lindberg Transparent Giant American Bull Frog Plastic Educational Model Kit | #3860961063 (worthpoint.com)

Vintage Lindberg Giant American Bull Frog Anatomically Accurate Model Kit # 1303 | #1785287384 (worthpoint.com)

All photographs from Worthpoint or Ebay. Six photos, in three batches.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Found In the Net

Some unusual thingies came up in this week's catch. Check these out. No idea what the grey oblong with rollers is. The little racer says Barlux. The jet is Bandai 1985. The gold Hot Wheels feels like plastic. Is that correct?