Kev's JR21 toys

Hi,

Here are mine, not including my Project  SWORD toys.

Cheers, 

Kevin

15 MOST AMAZING ABANDONED VEHICLES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMtJXbc47-w

I love the Frankenstein Hearse!

Which do you like? 

BLUE THUNDER

The movie Blue Thunder, about a Police helicopter with an impressive array of sensors and weapons, was released in 1983. It was followed by a short-lived TV series in 1984, that lasted for just 11 episodes.

The Blue Thunder helicopter was actually played by a pair of modified Aerospatiale Gazelle light helicopters modified to look like the American AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. The Gazelle is a single-engined design, but Blue Thunder has a pair of dummy engines flanking the real engine. 

There are also stub-wings carrying various weapons, and a nose-mounted mini-gun (multi-barrelled Gatling-type gun). The tail rotor is enclosed within the fin, a style seen on a number of French helicopters.

The 1985 line of Matchbox models included a model that was clearly the Blue Thunder helicopter, although it was never referred to as such. Instead it was called the Mission Chopper or Mission Helicopter.

The model had a tail boom that telescoped inside the fuselage, so it would fit inside its packaging. There was also a folding, two-piece main rotor, which was later replaced by a much shorter, single-piece rotor. This is a two-bladed unit, although Blue Thunder, and the Gazelle, have a three-bladed rotor.

The model was never issued as the Blue Thunder movie or TV helicopter, and usually came in either Police or Army markings. I have seen it suggested that the reason the Mission Helicopter never appeared as an official movie model was that by the time it was in production, the show had already been cancelled. So it was released as a generic model, under a new name, without the need to pay licence fees to the movie or TV companies.

Only the upper portion of the fuselage is metal. The lower fuselage, including the landing skids and the side-mounted dummy engines, are plastic; as is the tail boom. The canopy is tinted clear plastic, which helps to hide the lack of a cockpit interior.

The US company Monogram did release a 1/32nd scale kit of the Blue Thunder helicopter in 1984, which was moulded in metallic blue plastic. This has the correct three-bladed main rotor. The Scalemates site lists this kit, and you can download the original kit instruction sheet.

Blue Thunder, Monogram 6036 (1984) (scalemates.com)

There have also been a number of other, cheaper die-cast knock-offs based on the Matchbox model. As well as several plastic toys, in various sizes, based on Blue Thunder.

Here are a couple of photos of the Matchbox Mission Helicopter; a cheap knock-off by Jin De Le, which lacks the dummy engines on each side of the real engine; and the Monogram box top from Worthpoint.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

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?