Chris Boucher RIP

I wanted to mark the sad passing yesterday of the writer Chris Boucher.

He wrote some 70's Doctor Who, including the sublime 'Robots of Death', was script editor for all of Blake's 7 and created Star Cops.

He consequently had a massive effect on my life. His characterisation and dialogue was the best.

Rest in peace.

Kevin
UK

ROCKEM SOCKEM!

I adored this toy as a nipper. Back then it was called Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, a sort of hand-operated plastic boxing match. Wacking the opponent's chin sent its head straight up on a long neck. Great fun!

Different to the set I had, this Marx set pictured is called Clash of the Cosmic Robots.

Is this a toy you had?

SCREEN AND SCREEN AGAIN

 

Just in case you haven't seen them, here are Toy Replica's repro windscreens for the JR21 Landrover.

I haven't had one myself but just in case you need one readers, maybe worth a look at ToyReplicas.com 

An Amazing Aurora Collection

This Max's Models Livestream shows the model kit collection of Aurora fan Phil Ceparano.

He has everything they ever did, and even things that only went as far as the prototype stage. An amazing collection.

There are also models by other makers, mainly US. There are many factory-built store display models on cardboard stands.

Max talks to Mr Ceparano as the video plays, going in to the history of the collection, and how the items were acquired. Two hours of heaven.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMOy8vnqWhQ&t=1101s

Paul Adams from New Zealand

RETROSPECTIVE

On a trip to Pontefract Museum to see Santa with the Grandkids yesterday I was taken with their small display of vintage items.

Here are the telephones. See anything you had or have?

Some Star Wars figures.

A Dinky FAB1 and a Dalek.

A tinplate Nautilus and some slot cars.

An old cassette player and a mix tape. Did you make mix tapes?

What do you think?

Does your local museum have a few vintage toys?

LANARD THUNDER BOAT

I'm quite impressed with this Lanard Thunder Boat I saw online. Dated 2002, it has those cool looks we enjoyed in the Sixties and Seventies.

What do you think?

Did you have a toy speed boat as a kid?

ERIC EDEN'S SUPERCAR

After seeing the recent post from Scoop with his excellent photos of SUPERCAR I was reminded of this.

The Eagle Times of Autumn 2000 had a write up on Eric Eden, one time artist on the Dan Dare strip. The center spread of the magazine was his version of Supercar from the early 60's Supercar Annual.

Here scanned for Moonbase readers.

Terranova47

USA

What If? LP had taken over from Tri-ang

 Well they say the devil will make work for idle hands and its a slow afternoon in work, so I decided to have a bit of a play. I love the old sixties box and card art and the original Spacex cards and boxes are probably the most standout examples of the period. Spacex used actual models photographed against backdrops for their card backs and despite one or two of the models being pre-production versions and slightly different from the toy, they are great little designs. I took some shots a while ago, of small LP and Imperial space toys on one of the blue vac-formed moonscapes, so today I thought I would mock up a card based on the idea that LP had picked up the ball for the space toy market after Triang and Pippin had ceased trading the line.

I had fun with some other models previously, making carded Excavators and SWORD miniatures on Moon Traffic cards, but I had never made a card back. So for this one, I used the photos I had already taken and superimposed them onto a Spacex card, which had all the text and imagery removed and just left the nice dog eared edge.

I also dropped the signature Golden Astronaut from the card too and went with the idea of a 'looky-likey' layout, which at a cursory glance might attract a childs eye to a toy line similar to the original.