QUERCETTI FIREBALL XL5

I love this old Quercetti Fireball XL5 magazine advertisement. The artwork is wonderful. What do you think?

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/9148005492919455/

Like Buses

 Like buses, certain yoys aren't seen for ages, then two appear at once. I fished out my old Schylling tin Bus Depot recently and had it on display for a while in the cave. Then this week, I spotted the locomotive version of it on ebay.

The train one seems to be the original russian variant and has clearly been sat i  a window somewhere for a while, as the sun has faded the paintwork. Needless to say it came without a key, but thanks to my dad's obsessive hoarding of stuff, I had a suitable key in my drawer.

A bit of a clean, a spot of oil and off it went! I do love the little tinplate vehicles and the buildings they whizz around. I'm not sure this could amuse a child for more than a few minutes, but they are nicely made vintage toys.

WORDLE MUDDLE

I see young kids playing Wordle online all the time.

I understand that someone invented Wordle during lockdown and sold it for millions. A classic game success story.

Strangely though I thought Wordle existed as a board game in the Sixties and Seventies.

There were hundreds of word based games back then but they're hard to name now. Wordle sounds like it should have been one of them!

I recall Boggle, Mastermind, Perfection. So many.

Am I dreaming? Did Wordle exist as a board game back in the day?

Do you Wordle?

CAPTAIN LAZER: THE NEXT GENERATION

I had a Mattel Captain Lazer when I was a kid in the Sixties. You know, Major Mat Mason's big chum that looked like Mister Spock.

Years later a whole new Generation of Mattel kids got to own a Captain, in a nifty bit of recycling, this time in the form of a Colonial Warrior from the Battlestar Galactica range.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3B6k-ejYsI

Which version did you have readers? 

Pez

I've always liked PEZ. Probably as a kid but definitely as an adult. I used to buy mint Pez whenever I could, keep them a few years and then put them on my vintage toy stall. Star wars were always popular, as we're superheroes.

I've got a Pez in my hand at the moment. It's a woody from toy story. I think we must have got it Moonbase Junior.

Taking a look at it there are all sorts of numbers. On the base is a long 7 digit number 191 243 0, also on the base is a 2-digit number 07. On the side is a single digit 6 and on the other side is the US patent number 75238 41.

I can imagine that these numbers are important to serious PEZ collectors. Unfortunately I can only guess at what they all mean.

The best, most collectible PEZ I ever owned was green head and body Creature from the Black Lagoon from 1965. I sold it it on my my vintage toy stall in the Noughties. It was great fun to own search a collectible PEZ for a while.

Have you got any PEZ readers?

STARTER WARS

Its Moonbase Junior's "sith" birthday in September. We are thinking of getting him some vintage Star Wars figures and maybe an old vehicle or two.

When I say vintage I mean the first 3 films. 1977 onwards.

The project has begun with an Ewok. We picked up an old Teebo the other day in a junk shop. We have started!

And so to vehicles. It can't be outrageously priced so I've been looking at Ebay. I'm amazed how many 3D printed spare parts there are - a Millennium Falcon with that many repro parts reminds me of my Brother's patched-up Ford Cortina in 1976!

Transporters and At-Ats are just too dear. We can forget the Falcon.

I'm thinking a loose Palitoy X-wing and a few vintage figures. A starter set!

What do you think readers?

NO INDY

Over the years I've found action figures and toys from most film series. Aliens, Robocop, Rambo, Jurassic Park to name a few. Car boot sales seemed to have something to find from the all.

One film though has eluded me, Raiders of the Lost Ark. In fact I've never found any second hand figures or toys from any of the Indiana Jones films.

I often dreamt of finding a Belloq figure or Marian Ravenwood or even more fantastic, the Map Room, the set based on probably on my favourite scene, the discovery of the map room, where the sunlight hits the sceptre and lights up the model.

Have you any Indiana Jones figures, toys or games readers?

COOL TOYS FOR THE JUNIOR SPY

If like me your'e a budding 006 and a half then you'll love this site about spy toys. There's some real crackers and in great condition. Have you got any spy or secret agent toys?

https://www.coolandcollected.com/hakes-has-everything-a-budding-spy-might-need/