THE HOT SEAT: EXITING THE MOON ON A CHAIR

Amidst the myriad blogs and sites about the space race and its countless concepts I occasionally stumble into a new one which holds fresh nuggets of conceptual gold.

One such blog, False Steps, warranted further inspection and out popped a superb illustration that immediately made me shout loudly 'That's got Major Matt Mason Written all over it!"

I give you General Dynamics' 1964 'Study for a Lunar Escape Device', a scary looking space deck-chair with a rather natty rocket engine strapped to space hoppers! 

The False Steps author has a disarming and comical style of writing, especially the titles and captions to his posts. 

He amusingly describes this device as 'literally flying from the seat of your pants!", which really made me chuckle. Have a peek yourselves; there are more graphics of this escape unit plus much much more. 

https://falsesteps.wordpress.com/page/5/ 

[Sadly the False Steps blog is dormant, ending in 2017 and presumably as a result of the author Paul Drye publishing his book of the same name].

As for its Major Matt-ness, the brilliant escape device above calls to mind all those wonderful space flyers, chairs and boards that Mattel magicked up for their wired man in space, such as:

The fabulous Recono-Jet 

[courtesy of Blueflamechevelle]

The Space Station Chair as seen within this TV ad by Our Nostalgic Memories

and the never-produced and glorious Space Rover as seen on the magnificent Wildtoys website. Super modeller Frank May recreated it too, which is showcased on the Wildtoys site.

http://www.wildtoys.com/MMMPage/MMMresources/mmmCustomFranksRover.asp

Do you think the General Dynamics Escape Device would have made a good Major Matt toy?

Can you think of other toys that are majorly Matt Masonable?

I LOVE A LAMB CHOP

 

I used to love Lamb Chop. I think I had a crush on Shari Lewis!

Always good to see some some Chopables on the net. Here's the ERTL Charlie Horse, which I've never heard of. You?

SCOUT'S HONOUR

I saw this bundle recently on a well known auction house website, who specialise in toys, so I was very surprised to see this lot listed as a Project SWORD Re-Entry Task Force No.3, with vehicle, badge and manual. 

The box is indeed for the red Task Force 3 but the yellow vehicle itself is a SWORD Scout 2.

No doubt an honest mistake but one that could have been avoided with some gold ol' scouting..

Have you got a Scout 2 readers? Has it got its missile and landing gear?

THE VIVID TECH STEFAN KNOX LASERSTRIKE JET COMBAT TOY SET 2002:

 I found these tall plastic and heavy jet thingies in a charity shop last year going for a song.

Turns out they're Laserstrike Jet Combat by Vivid Tech, which is pretty hard to find any info on online.

Here's the box I found a pic of.

Its a sort of gloved jet battle, where the jets gyrate - is that called yaw? - around the hand. I got mine working and its very a strange feeling! How did they manage to get it to spin motorised around the hand to about 180 degrees, whilst the hand stays in position?

Its an intriguing design for a toy and the mechanics must be complicated. It says on the toy it was designed by Stefan Knox 2002 and its unusual to be able to pin down an actual designer's name.

As it happens Stefan Knox has his own website!

https://www.stefanknox.co.uk/case-studies/toys/

What do you think readers? A good idea for a toy?

Rush Hour

A little package arrived this week, hot off the plane from the Apple. My good friend Terranova sent me a little parcel of goodies, which included these wonderful plastic cars.

Mostly unbranded, they include a red truck made by Marx and the green sedan at the front with the name 'Carzol' underneath. I'm not sure if this a makers mark, or a product, as I have found similar toys to these which were given away with soap and other cleaning products.

Most of the vehicles are hard plastic, but the lime green coupe and the small car transporter lorries are soft polythene.

The slightly deco styling of the vehicles puts me in mind of the 1930's views of the future cities in America. In the background are two trains which would not look out of place on New York's famous Manhattan El, or elevated railway.
 

MYSTERY ANTENNA

I often check Vectis auctions for Project SWORD and JR21 toys. Here's an old auction box of treats some lucky bidder got.

I was interested in the red antenna at the bottom in the middle below Thunderbird 3. Anyone recognise it?

LOOEY'S FUNNY HE-MEN

Here's my parody He-Man busts I made based on my Peregrine Besset comic character! 

Hope you like them!

Looey

Oz

THE ANIMATED STAR TREK AQUASHUTTLE

Hi,

Something a bit different. I've made a replica of the special shuttlecraft seen in one episode of animated Star Trek. I built it around a radio controlled boat, so that it goes on water.

Float on,
KevinD

UK