Do I wish I'd started making toys earlier? I've been trying for twelve years to do just that, but my manufacturing technique wasn't good enough for limited production. The advent of 3D modelling, scanning and 3D resin printing has been a complete game changer.
I was looking at my Peregrine Besset prototype character toy (on the far left) and I was shocked to see it's dated February this year! I've only been 3D printing for 18 months and DIY scanning since April this year -Amazing!
I still haven't got my joint technology up to the level l want for limited toy production, but I'm using my Magnaballs magnetic joints system so i can at least make posable figures that sort of qualify as toys!
Many thanks to the people who inspire me and keep me going, like all you Moonbasers and my new found Art Toy friends in Melbourne.
I clocked this Lunar Rover on auction and thought, yes, I could trundle over the regolith on those monster wheels as I search for a suitable spot for Moonbase!
Part of the Monster truck craze of the 80's and 90's I guess, I'm unsure of the maker. Could be a Road Champs?
As a monster nut in the Sixties I adored the monster art around at the time, which in my mind was at the heart of the craze.
Two artists stand out and basically had the monster craze resting on their shoulders, one each; James Bama and Basil Gogos.
Bama was responsible for those wonderful and atmospheric box art illustrations on Aurora's iconic monster kits. I wonder which is your favourite readers? One of mine was and is the Phantom of the Opera. I was obsessed with the screaming man behind the bars as a kid! Just who was he?
Gogos, along with James Warren and Forry Ackerman, may have just kicked off the whole American monster thing with his fabulous covers for Famous Monsters of Filmland covers. I was chuffed to get hold of a the Curse of the Werewolf edition some years back from the estate sale of one Screaming Lord Sutch, erstwhile goth rocker and founder of the Monster Raving Loony Party.
Do you have a fave Famous Monsters of Filmland?
Both titans of monsterdom, I wonder if Bama and Gogos ever met?
I'm torn about military toys these days but as a kid in the Sixties I was as gung-ho as the next young sapper.
My inner-child is still drawn towards any toys that remind me of those glory days doing battle with my friends with our plastic bazookas, mortars, grenades and Johnny Sevens. We were war-like baby boomers and that's the way it was.
I still have a Johnny Seven like I had back in 1965 or 6.
Its the most expensive vintage toy I've ever bought as a collector. It was in the dying moments of an NEC memorabilia fair circa year 2000 and having seen it earlier in the day I found myself back in front of the seller, a kindly young Yorkshire chap from Snape I think, asking that classic punter's question: what's your best price mate?
£300 later I walked off with a minty boxed One Man Army! I mean, just look at the old TV ad and you'll see why!
Did you have a Johnny Seven or any army toys?
So when I saw the Dorset Tank Museum Shop's online plastic arsenal I couldn't help enjoy a frisson of that old guilty pleasure recalling past bubblegum skirmishes in the back garden, where we just counted to ten if we were shot.
The Tank Museum offers cost a lot lot less and here's the best of the bunch. What do you think?
I had a mortar like this back then. Oh what fun we had.
This Bazooka looks terrific I have to say. In '67 we would have stormed the sandpit bunker to get it! There's been lots of bazookas over the years, many using ping pong balls, including a rare Dr. Who version we've covered before on MC. Did you have one of those?
The symbol of a Sixties childhood, the plastic GI helmet.
and maybe the best till last, this toy missile gun recalls my Johnny Seven's green massive anti-tank shell. With plastic ammo like that our frenemy opposition, hiding behind their deck chair barricades, would have surrendered before they could say Sekiden.
See anything you like in that Tank Museum shop?
Are you torn about military toys nowadays? Would you buy them for your kids/ grandkids for Christmas?
With its Zeroid arms I love this little droid I saw online. Not sure about the cherry lips on top though. The chest TV is just fabulous, tho' I don't recognise the artwork. You?
Comically this toy was released by our old chums Imperial [yep, Apollo Moon Exploring] so that's this guy an Imperial Droid!
Reader Mags kindly sent me pictures of her Puzzletime publications connected to magician Paul Daniels and published by Century 21 Merchandising no less. What do you think?
