BY JUPITER!

 

This is a new one on me. I saw on a Brazilian site. The Jupiter Nave Espacial by Caixa.

I actually quite like it, its snub nose and rear wings. I like the box art too. 

The toy looks like its a die-cast. What do you think?

STAR TREK VIEW-MASTER

 

Following my Dinky USS Enterprise photos, our blog friend, Mish mentioned the Star Trek View-Master set which showed two Federation Starships on the cover, so I felt prompted to dig out my example and do a short post about it.

The cover does indeed show two Starships, the USS Enterprise and the USS Exeter.

The cover photo shows the three-foot model used at the time in several publicity photos, while the other Federation ship is a AMT model kit. The scene was set up by the View- Master camera team.

The episode featured is The Omega Glory, originally titled The Omega Story, and written by Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry as a story outline submitted for the second of the series' pilots.

The episode is considered by many to be amongst the worst in the original show’s history, due to the story’s heavy -handed allegorical and jingoistic content.

The story ends with Captain Kirk saving the day by reciting the US Pledge of Allegiance, which had been misinterpreted by the indigenous humanoids on the planet of Omega IV.

Key Hot Wheels Models

A couple of purchases to lighten the load of the weekend shop. As its nearing xmas, the toy aisle is filling up with a better choice of toys and there were three boxes of Hot Wheels to sift through today, rather than a meagre handful of models.

Chief amongst this lot is the 'Max Steel' Hot Rod, a nice single seater with a sombre air force blue livery and nicely detailed engine. A change from the usual cartoony offerings from Mattel, who seem to be concentrating on classic muscle and hot rod cars for this wave.

"Mid-life crisis? I don't know what you mean dear!"

By contrast, the Coupe Clip model eschews detail in favour of novelty and is in fact intended to be used as a key fob to show your Hot Wheels loyalty on your car keys.

So far I have seen two versions, so the lacquered red one will be for display and the base metal one will go with my keys. 

 

ACTIVE MAN

There are countless GI Joe and Action Man knockoffs.

Here's another, new to me.

Active Man!

There's something awfully nice about the name. He's fit, he's healthy, he's active! ha ha

Looking at the carded sets on offer here on an online auction Active Man appears to do everything that Action Man did including blowing things up!

Are you an Active Man?

BOLDLY GOING: A LOOK AT THE DINKY U.S.S. ENTERPRISE

 Here's a few photos of my Dinky U.S.S. Enterprise, the first licenced Star Trek die cast from Dinky,  which first appeared in 1976.

It's an impressive looking toy, even though the purists will no doubt complain its a tad disproportionate. 

The rear engine nacelles could certainly have been a little longer, but as the support struts are made of a relatively thin plastic that might have have proved problematic for the Dinky designers, as the metal nacelles set on the plastic struts are relatively heavy and struggle to stay at the correct angle. 

The saucer section is reasonably robust. However, the top section is plastic, and has a tendency to yellow in time. The large 'NCC -1701' clear sticker can also peel at the ends in time which to me gives an unsightly grimy look, plus the lettering fades. I decided to replace mine with a water slide decal.

The lower section is die-cast, and contains the simple firing mechanism for the 'photon' torpedoes. (my Enterprise has just 5 yellow torpedoes left in the weapons locker, however I believe it would have originally come with 8)

All the 'photon' torpedoes can be loaded together in the top, and rapidly fired by turning the metal 'bridge' trigger.

The main hull has a large orange sensor dish, and set of spring-loaded 'hangar' doors at the base, which when opened act as a stand for the model.

The 'hangar' houses a tiny detachable shuttlecraft in orange plastic. 

The original box which has a cardboard inner liner to protect the model, has the same painted illustration on front and back with written details in English on one side, and French on the other. The model also came with additional water slide decals which you applied to the underside of the saucer section and each side of the main hull. 

The packaging was later altered to a window box version.

A comic strip advert for the Dinky U.S.S. Enterprise from UK comic, Valiant.

The Dinky U.S.S. Enterprise was soon followed  by the release of a Klingon D7-class Battle Cruiser in 1977. This was later released as a double pack with the Enterprise, with cut-out features on the box. (A triple pack featuring the addition of a blue 'Galactic War Chariot' was advertised but was ultimately never released.)

Following that Dinky released a small Enterprise based on the updated  'Motion Picture' film version, and a small version of the Klingon Battle Cruiser. 

A small missile -firing updated Enterprise and Klingon battle cruiser, plus a  large version of the updated Enterprise was scheduled for release in 1980, but shelved, presumably due to the company's closure.

In 1982, Corgi released their own Corgi Junior versions of the updated Enterprise and Klingon Battle Cruiser to coincide with the Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan.

FANCY PISTON BOOTS

This made me chuckle. Fancy Piston Boots! ha ha.

Now that's a toy!

Its a jogging car with bump and go action and appears to be driven by Pennywise the clown! To top it off you have Mercury's cap!

I want one! Do you?

THE PALITOY LIFE GUARD

One of the enduring memories of mine from the Queen's sad State Funeral in September were the Life Guards.

I mean how resplendent they are and I don't often use the word resplendent.

What a combination of uniform, steel and gold trim, not to mention the jet black horses.

It brought back treasured memories of my Action Man in the Sixties and his perfectly produced Life Guard uniform by Palitoy. I adored it and it was my favourite uniform for my little fighting man.

Yes, others came close, like the German Stormtrooper and the Grenadier Guard, but the blue version of the Life Guard was tops. The breastplate, the belt, the fabulous helmet and the slightly curved sword and scabbard were just the pinnacle of toy design and manufacture for me and I played with them for hours and hours. The horse was the icing on the cake and God I wish I still had my old set now, but life has a way of not guarding what we had and out it went sometime in the early Seventies when I wasn't looking.

Out of sheer curiosity I looked up Palitoy Life Guard on Ebay and saw the above image, which I've borrowed from a seller. Its a dear do getting an original Life Guard. Even the 40th Anniversary sets command high prices. I recall seeing the 40th Breastplate and Sword carded sets in specialist shops at the time and should have got one of those at least.

Ah well, we can't get back everything we once owned but I can enjoy remembering the glory days of my Palitoy Life Guard whenever I want.

Did you have one readers? Do you have one?

COMPLETELY NEW TO THE BLOG! ARTO'S HOVER PROBE FORCE 2

My friend and uber-Project SWORD collector Arto has recently bagged from Canada something entirely new to him, me and blog, the Probe Force 2 released by Hover. 

It may well be the only one known!

Always likely but never before seen, this Probe Force 2 completes Hover's trio of Probe Forces. The boxes can be seen as direct copies of the American Tarheel photo-box versions of the Century 21 Toys originals.

Note there is no mention of Project SWORD on these Hover toys. For views of the other two then just click on the labels.

Thanks Arto for sharing this unique find with us!

Have you got anything like it readers?