LIKE PEAS IN A POD

Watching Star Wars A New Hope again with Junior I was struck how similar the R2D2 escape pod was to something else in my mind.

This.

The Aries 1B from 2001.

Turns out they're completely different!

Can you think of any other pod craft like these?

SUNDAY'S LEGEND TV FILM LISTING

Here's the TV listing for the UK's Legend channel on SUNDAY 8th January. Will you be watching any of these films? Have you seen any?

3.00 PM
PRIMAL FORCE

Malicious monkey business starring Ron Perlman (Hellboy). A troubled, yet expert, guide is called in to lead a rescue when a plane crashes on a Mexican island populated by mutant baboons.

4.50 PM
APE VS MONSTER

Catastrophic creature feature. A scientific experiment goes horribly wrong, leading to a clash between a giant ape and an enormous Gila monster - with the future of mankind in question.

6.40 PM
EYE OF THE BEAST

Tentacled terror with James Van Der Beek. A scientist studying a drop in the fish population discovers the locals are disappearing as well - and there's something terrifying in the water.

8.30 PM
THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Series 1, Episode 3

A gunslinger hopes to restore his former glory when he finds a magic potion, but the effects are not what he expected.


9.00 PM
TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS

Eerie horror anthology with Donald Pleasence. A psychiatrist recounts four disturbing cases to a colleague, from a boy with an imaginary tiger to a cannibal luau organised by a literary agent.

10.50 PM
HORROR HOSPITAL

Horror comedy with Michael Gough. A disillusioned singer is persuaded to take a break at a health farm, but soon discovers that his fellow guests all have identical scars on their foreheads.

TONIGHT'S CELLAR CLUB FILMS

Here's tonight's offerings on the UK's Talking Pictures TV channel. I personally don't think I've seen any of these movies. Have you?

• 9:05pm

   The Order

  Horror (2003)

  A young Catholic priest adheres to a rare form of the faith. When he learns of the strange death of his mentor, he travels to Rome with a fellow priest and a woman - who once tried to kill him during an exorcism - to investigate the mystery. What he finds is the truth behind the myth of the Sin Eater, an immortal figure who takes on the sins of the damned to ensure their passage into Heaven.

  5.1IMDb
• 11:00pm

  Cellar Club with Caroline Munro

  Part Two: The Cat and the Canary

  The 1978 horror The Cat and the Canary is next up. Caroline presents the feature based on a 1922 play about a woman's vast inheritance making her the target of a mysterious killer.

• 11:05pm

   The Cat and the Canary

  Black comedy (1978)

  A woman's vast inheritance makes her the target of a mysterious killer. Based on a 1922 play which was also filmed in 1939 with Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard, the story contains all the ingredients of the classic `old dark house' mystery - a creepy mansion, will readings, rainy nights, and a murderous madman.

  5.6IMDb
• 1:05am

  Cellar Club with Caroline Munro

  Part Three: Little Devils

  Caroline Munro introduces the last horror of the evening, the 1993 feature, `Little Devils', directed by George Pavlov. This film focuses on devilish creatures created and released into the world by an evil scientist.

• 1:10am

   Little Devils

  Horror (1993)

  An army of pint-size gargoyles emerges from an abandoned crypt.

• 3:05am

  Cellar Club with Caroline Munro

  Outro Week 62

  Caroline closes the doors to the chaos and horror but not before providing a glimpse of the future.

• 3:10am

   All in a Night's Work

  Comedy (1961)

  The young heir to a publishing business fears foul play when his uncle is found dead after spending the night with a mysterious woman. Things go from bad to worse for the young man when he begins to fall in love with the woman.

AVENGERS EPHEMERA

 A few more bits of Avengers ephemera.

Starburst magazine was always full of decent cult TV articles, as well as articles on cult films. I stopped picking it up when it started to be filled with slash horror film articles.

Dave Rogers was a big Avengers fan and wrote several books on the subject. I believe he was responsible for starting up, Stay Tuned, the Avengers fan club.

This book, The Avengers Companion was translated from French. The Avengers was always popular in France where it was titled, Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir, which translates as bowler hat and leather boots!

Another Dave Rogers Avengers, this time 'complete.. I seem to recall Dave released at least one more Avengers book after this, so obviously not quite complete!

These are pages from the TV Times New Avengers Souvenir issue  which came out in 1976, to help promote the new series.

THE GREEK JOHNNY SEVEN

I've written about these before but I'm always amazed when they turn up on Ebay, the Greek Leizer 200 made by Alpha.

Its clearly a Greek knockoff of the much more famous Johnny Seven by Topper, but still its got some style of its own.

The red pistol at the front detaches too.

It would look the part in a Johnny Seven toy collection or even a Fireball XL5 toy rifle collection!

What do you think?

ANOTHER CINEMA CLOSED!

Hi there, Further to your Attic horror stories, i have my own to add to the pile..

My home cinema was hit badly by Covid and the bush fires and became an inadvertent dumping ground. I need to sort it out as I can't enjoy it!

Not so cheery cheers,

Lewis

OZ

P.S. on the Art Toy front, I'm scrabbling madly to get a project done so I can take it the 900 km to Melbourne for the grand opening of the new This Is Not A Toy Store store..

https://www.thisisnotatoystore.com/

ARTO'S JOHN STEED SWORD STICK

 Continuing my Avengers theme, long time blog friend, Arto Haarala has sent me some excellent photos of his own Lone Star Steed Sword Stick.

Arto points out it’s new-old-stock, and the header card is partially un-punched. Arto suggests this might indicate that the cards and sticks may have been joined by the retailer.

The stick is 62cm long, and serves as a water pump gun by placing the tip in water and sucking it up by pulling the handle; then simply pushing the handle down squirting the water out.

Firing the plastic corks follows a similar operation. Note the Lone Star logo on the handle.

The Avengers had a fairly long stint on and off as a comic strip in TV Comic. 

Here's Steed using his brolly as a sword stick!

Another blog friend, Lewis Morley also commented on my previous Avengers Memorabilia post about recalling a similar Adam Adamant version of the Lone Star Sword Stick.

The Adam Adamant version looks to be the same toy, with the same features, but has a slightly different handle, more like what Adamant is seen using on screen.

The stick also came with a monogrammed signet ring. The attractive header card featured Adamant in action with his Sword Stick in front of his Mini Cooper S car. In the series it bore the number plate AA 1000.

It’s hardly surprising that Lone Star repurposed their Sword Stick toy as a piece of Adam Adamant merchandise, as anyone who’s watched the series, would agree it takes some inspiration from The Avengers.

Like The Avengers, Adam Adamant had his own comic strip in TV Comic for a short time. In it our hero is hardly ever without his sword stick!.

Adam Adamant Lives, was originally shown on the BBC between June 1966 and March, 1967, and ran for 29 episodes, plus an unaired pilot.

Suave, Gerald Harper starred as the title character, an Edwardian gentleman adventurer, who in 1902 is frozen in a block of ice by his arched enemy, known as the Face.

He is found in 1966 during the demolition of the building he’d been left in all that time.

 Still in the block of ice, remarkably his body has survived the suspended animation, and is revived. Adam Adamant Lives!

The Flying Winnebago Heli-home

I just found this item on You Tube. A look at a flying camper van from the 1970s. Basically, you take an old, retired US Army or Navy helicopter, strip out the existing interior, and re-fit it with a camper interior - kitchen, bathroom, living area, beds, and everything else you might need in the wilds, then fly off on your adventure.

A company called Orlando Helicopter Airways, of Orlando, Florida, came up with the original Heli-Camper idea, using ex-military Sikorsky S-55 and S-58 helicopters. 

Then the Winnebago company (the major US producer of road-going motor homes) became involved, although it appears they were mainly interested in the publicity value rather than in actually producing what they called the Heli-home in large numbers.

Helihome: The Insane 1970's Flying Camper - YouTube

Later, Orlando again offered the Heli-camper on their own, but only a handful of conversions were actually produced. Apart from being used for recreation, the helicopter could be fitted out as a mobile office, or field testing laboratory.

At first, I was not sure if this was real, or a spoof. But it seems it was a real proposal, and there is a fair amount of information on You Tube and elsewhere on this idea. 

It even made the cover of Popular Mechanics magazine for September 1977, which featured a cut-away painting of a float-equipped S-58.

Well, that would certainly make for a 'different' model.

Seen anything like it?

Paul Adams from New Zealand