MOONBASE CENTRAL

Wednesday, 30 November 2022

SIGNORA PENELOPE

Here's a 1967 copy of a Spanish magazine called Triunfo [Triumph]. The cover shows a panel with Lady Penelope and Thunderbird 1 entitled Television Space Puppets.

Thunderbirds was a global phenomenon!

Did you see it outside the UK?

Hot Dog: The Fast Foodie Quick Bite

In recent years, Hot Wheels have been producing a sub-series within the Mainline, called Fast Foodie. Some of these are various food vehicles, others are motorised food items.

The 2022 line, which actually began to appear in the shops in late 2021, includes Quick Bite. This version is a Hot Dog truck. The model is mainly orange, with a Hot Dog on the side.

The name MG Food appears just ahead of the doors. The Menu sign on the side reads: Donut Drifter - Carbonator - Car-de-asada - Sweet Driver - $1 each. All of these being the other models in the 2022 Fast Foodie range.

According to the Hot Wheels Wiki, this model is one of the harder-to-find Treasure Hunt vehicles. Finding an example was therefore a bit of luck.

Hot Wheels Wiki entry.

Good Humor Truck | Hot Wheels Wiki | Fandom

Fun, and colourful, do you agree?

Paul Adams

New Zealand

WILL O's TV21 LINCOLN TOY STINGRAY

Here's Will Osborne's Lincoln International Stingray R/C Stingray along with its competition in TV21 comic.

The competition asked for two things, a three word headline for the mock TV21 cover shown and also a reason why the reader likes TV21 comic.

Easy?

Is this a toy you had readers?

Paper Planes

Further to the recent Aviation card pieces, here is the classic Brooke Bond series 'History of Aviation' from 1972. This is my original album, painstakingly assembled and for some unknown reason, slightly coloured in with a magenta felt tip.

As my dad was a very keen aviation enthusiast, there was little chance of me missing this set. It took some time to complete, but as we were a family of tea drinkers, as were the neighbours, it was completed fairly easily. The final card was No.23 the jet powered Heinkel 178, the first jet powered plane, which beat the Gloster Whittle No. 24, to the title by a slim margin.

As with all Brooke Bond cards, the painted illustrations are beautifully done and reminiscent of the classic Airfix kit box covers.

History of Aviation was preceded by two of my all time favourite sets, Prehistoric Animals and the Race into Space. next to come in 1973, was Adventurers and Explorers, which I found extremely dull and swerved, but immediately after came the set which for me was the tea card swan song - The Sea Our Other World in 1974. After this, Inventors and Inventions led the decline and my tea card collecting fizzled out, as the quality and subject matter declined sharply over the next few years.

Smack in the middle is an order form for aircraft kits, which I really don't recall, although I have filled in my address details at the time.

on the back of this is an advert for the Canadian sets, including the rather excellent Space Age set, which I got my dad to order for me. The cards in the set were really fine quality, with rounded corners and beautiful illustrations. Watch this space for a future update.

The set introduced some really rare aircraft such as the Dan dare-esque Short SC1, a vertical takeoff test plane, which I had never heard of at all!

As always, the final card depicts future developments and this one shows a HL-10 style Lifting Body on the way back to Earth from an orbiting station. A nice companion card to the Race into Space series from the previous year.

I have some swaps of this set if anyone needs any and I am more than happy to scan the album properly if required.

https://www.teacards.com/setlist/setlist.html

JAPANESE SPACE BIKES

These are new to me - and to the blog I think, a display card of space motorbikes from Japan.

I saw it on auction so saved the image.

I adore the header art. Looks like a Shigeru Komatsuzaki to me. What do you think?

The toy is difficult to make out. It maybe transparent.

Tuesday, 29 November 2022

HUSH! SPACEPLANES!

There's some fabulously old space plane drawings and illustrations on Hush Kits Extremely Sexy Spaceplanes article. See anything you really like?

https://hushkit.net/2021/10/23/10-extremely-sexy-spaceplanes/

HOT WHEELS TOP GUNS

The new Top Gun: Maverick movie has seen a large number of tie-in models released by Matchbox, but there is also a tie-in model from Hot Wheels (both brands being owned by Mattel).

This is a new casting of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat naval fighter. It is not part of the Mainline toy range, but is from the 2021 Replica Entertainment line. These models are more detailed than the Mainline toys, and are aimed at collectors. They also use more metal, and less plastic, in their construction, making them more expensive.

The Grumman F-14 Tomcat does not have an undercarriage, but does come with a clear plastic display stand. It also has working swing-wings, and a clear canopy. The model is just over 80mm long, making it smaller than the Matchbox Sky-Busters Tomcat, which is over 110mm long.

The colour scheme is light grey, with the number 114 on the nose and above both wings. However there are no US Star-and-Bar markings on the wings or the forward fuselage, and that just looks totally wrong. This also afflicts the Matchbox Top Gun models, and I assume it is to avoid paying a licence fee.

The backing card depicts two Tomcats, at almost the same angle as the model inside its plastic bubble, so they appear to be flying in formation. Just above the planes is the Top Gun (not Top Gun: Maverick) logo. Copyright date on the back of the card is 2020.

This is actually the second Top Gun model from Hot Wheels. Back in 2015, when the line was simply called Hot Wheels Entertainment, they released a model of the Kawasaki Ninja GPZ 900R motorcycle, in red and black. The card showed a Tomcat looming menacingly over the bike, and had a 2015 copyright date on the back.

Full listing of the entire Hot Wheels Entertainment line.

https://hotwheels.fandom.com/wiki/Hot_Wheels_Entertainment#Mix_1_8

The Tomcat photo is mine, while the Kawasaki is from Worthpoint.

What do you think?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Joan Porter R.I.P

Andy B, longtime blog supporter and Dan Dare fan, has just relayed this rather sad news.

"Joan Porter, one of the last remaining Dan Dare artists has just passed away, aged 96. She was with Frank Hampson's team, drawing Dan Dare for the Eagle comic from the very beginning, responsible for colouring Frank Hampson's early linework, including the very first issues. She left the studio, but returned (probably in the mid 1950s) to become Frank's "number two", responsible for the art materials, and more importantly, taking the many reference photos the studio used. When Frank Hampson left Dan Dare she worked on other projects with him.

Joan was a very private person, and rarely gave interviews about her time on Dan Dare, put off by the fact that much of what was written was inaccurate. However, in later years she collaborated on some articles in the "Eagle Times" fanzine, including one on some of the techniques used by the studio.

Joan had a puckish, slightly absurd sense of humour, and when I met her at a rare public appearance, and asked for her autograph in a book, she replied "only if you give me one of yours"... This led to several years of entertaining correspondence, which I shall very much miss."

Group outside the first studio "The Bakery", Left, Frank Hampson, then Joan Porter, Bruce Cornwell & Jo. Thomas.

Joan Porter was part of Frank Hampson's studio working on Dan Dare in the Eagle, primarily as a colourist, although she also did research, photography and secretarial work. She was part of Hampson's studio until it was disbanded in 1959 when Odhams Press took over the Eagle. Later, she assisted Hampson on "The Road of Courage", a retelling of the life of Christ. Hampson wrote to her at one point, saying "Wherever I am and whatever I am working on I shall want you for the colour."