JOSEPH'S MOONBASE

Greetings,

I hope you are well and staying healthy. You posted photos of several of my dioramas, back in 2014. Thank you! It is amazing how much time has gone by. I have expanded and updated my Moonbase diorama, and also created a few other Sci-fi/space related dioramas to follow.

Thank you, hope you like them,

Joseph Svec

THE MYSTERY OF THE GALACTIC BOOM

These are new to the blog. I saw them on an online mosey round auctions. They are called Galactic Boom and are blister carded spaceships. I assume they're plastic but I don't know. There are another two words to the right of Galactic Boom in red and yellow but I can't make it out.

Have you come across these before readers?

TODAY'S ROTOR

This helicopter is so damn cool. I love the design, its large cockpit, the massive exhausts and the downward tailfins. Its all very Gerry Anderson. Do you agree?

Its the XZ-7 by ASI of Japan but beyond that I know nada.

Do you know more?

IS RETIREMENT A SECOND CHILDHOOD?

Since going back to work after Christmas I spend more and more time dreaming of retirement. My enthusiasm for working is at an all-time low.

I find that I'm increasingly uninterested in what's happening in the workplace and its petty politics, whilst gaggles of young newbies strut about like they own the joint!

It may be an effect of turning 62 or even having been in the same job for way over a decade and possibly even the British winter, which makes me just want to curl up and hibernate.

Things like having to get up early every day and spend my best daylight hours in a place I don't want to be are increasingly irksome. I keep saying to workmates 'I'm getting too old for this!"

On the flipside, I envisage retirement to be a sun-lit vale filled with joy, jammie dodgers, car boot sales and chocolate milkshakes! 

I would get up late, eat boiled eggs and soldiers and idle away endless happy hours spent messing with toys and doing marvellous stuff like write another toy book, pen some short stories or catalogue the hundreds of vintage big box VHS horror videos I have!

There would be plenty of time for more trips out with the family and even more holidays. Basically fun, fun and more fun! 

Gorblimey, it sounds like a second childhood!

But what is it really like? Have any of you retired?

HAWK'S GRASSHOPPER KIT

The US company Hawk, of Chicago 31, Illinois, produced some odd kits, including a small line of giant insects - called the Science Series. For some reason Hawk decided to personalise these models, by giving each one a name (Revell did the same thing with their 1950s animal kits).

Firstly, I must declare that I know nothing about Grasshoppers, so I am on shaky ground here. Pancho is a male name of Spanish origin, but I think the kit depicts a female Grasshopper. At least judging from these drawings:

How to Determine Male vs Female (lucidcentral.org)

The kit is described on the box top as

Hawk Science Series: "Pancho" The Grasshopper (American)

12 Inches in Length

Molded in Natural Colors

Authentic to the Smallest Detail

Faithfully Reproduced From Actual Specimens Supplied by a Leading Museum

The side of the box says 'Watch for these other Hawk Science Series Insect Models'. Illustrated are the Dragonfly, Stag Beetle, and Carpenter Ant. Of these, it seems only the Beetle was ever released.

The kit contains more than 50 parts, and is mainly moulded in green plastic, with clear tinted plastic for the wings and eyes. Unlike the ITC Bumble Bee, these are injection moulded, not vac-formed. The three-piece stand is gold coloured. 

There is an extensive decal sheet with a label for the stand describing the subject, and black stripes and patches for the various body markings. According to a vintage advertising poster, the model is 12 1/2 inches long, and 5 inches high. 

It is '4 1/2 Times Actual Life Size' - a picture on the decal sheet shows the size of a real American Grasshopper.

However, I am not too sure about the claim on the poster that this is 'THE MOST EXCITING plastic kit advancement in years'. That might be an exaggeration.

Hawk 151 Pancho the Grasshopper kit original Hobby Shop Advertising Poster 1960 | #1794472604 (worthpoint.com)

The kit carries a copyright date of 1959. Model number 151, retail price $1.50.

Instructions and copyright date.

vintage 1959 Hawk Pancho Grasshopper plastic model kit - parts | #3757771660 (worthpoint.com)

Decal sheet.

Hawk no.151 - "Pancho" the Grasshopper - 1959 Release - Hard Box - MINT | #2007676990 (worthpoint.com)

General views of the kit box and parts.

Hawk Plastic Model Kits Pancho the Grasshopper Science Series Complete with Box | #3861560540 (worthpoint.com)

HAWK "PANCHO" THE GRASSHOPPER PLASTIC MODEL KIT SCIENCE SERIES | #335227745 (worthpoint.com)

MODEL KIT HAWK GRASSHOPPER 1959 MINT UNBUILT AURORA | #1788215521 (worthpoint.com)

1959 HAWK "Pancho" The Grasshopper Plastic Model | #1806145329 (worthpoint.com)

This Hawk Catalogue from Worthpoint, stated to be 1958, illustrates the Carpenter Ant kit. Model number 620, price 50 cents. The accompanying text also mentions a Dragonfly, but this is not shown.

1958 Hawk Plastic Model Kit Catalog, Atomic Airplane, Spaceship, Missile | #1797991538 (worthpoint.com)

All photographs from Worthpoint.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

JOSEPH SVEC'S DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS

After many years absence from Moonbase Central Joseph has shared photo's of one of his new but relatively modest dioramas, H.G. Well's Day of the Triffids. Hope you like it.

 There is much more to come from Joseph as worlds have continued to go to war on a vast scale at his home for the past 9 years so Watch this crawlspace!

Photos: Joseph Svec III

STAR MISSION ROBOT: A ZEROID FOR WHEN YOU'VE NO BATTERIES!

When you can't get enough Zeroids then there's always a knockoff! Here's one I saw on auction and saved the pics.

 

It's Durham's Star Mission Robot.

Its from 1978.

No batteries needed, its clockwork!

Anyone got one?

Also known as Astroid, Scoop posted his own brill blue version last year

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2022/06/zeroids-relatively-speaking.html

FUNNY BONES: THE PARTWORKS BODYPARTS

The old Renwal Visible Man and Visible Woman kits, both released in 1959, have been mentioned a few times on MC. 

Each included a skeleton, body organs, and outer shell in clear plastic to show off the interior. Each stood about a foot tall, the Man being slightly larger than the Woman.

This is a similar kit, but issued as a partwork a few years ago. Funny Bones - Discover the Human Body was published in 77 weekly parts by DeAgostini. The price in Britain was £3.99 per issue, in New Zealand it was $11.50. 

As with many partworks, the first one or two issues were sold at a reduced price, to get you to start collecting the series. Binders for the magazines were also available, at an additional cost.

There is a copyright date inside of 2003 © RBA Coleccionades S.A., followed by slightly later date for DeAgostini. What looks to be the same kit, or one very similar, was also available from National Geographic, under the name How Your Body Works.

Each part came with a 16-page magazine, and one or more parts for the model. This stood 1.1m tall, or just under four feet. That seems to be life-sized for a boy of about 6 years old. So it was a good deal larger than the Renwal kits of the 1950s, but you did not have to wait a year and a half to collect all the parts needed for the model - with the Renwal kits everything came in the box.

There was a weighted stand from which to hang the assembled model. The bones were a creamy colour, while the organs and muscles were either opaque or clear-coloured plastic. Our guide to the world of anatomy is Arthur, a rather crazed looking skeleton, with large, staring eyes.

The magazines not only explain how the human body works, but there are sections on the anatomy of various animals. Part 59, which I recently excavated, covers the Brown Bear (known as the Grizzly Bear in North America). Pages are devoted to its form and skeleton, hibernation, and other bears. 

There is a two-page quiz section called Arthur's puzzle pages. Then two pages called Your guide to building Arthur. The back cover shows the contents of the present issue; and what will be included in your next issue.

Most illustrations I could find show only the skeleton and internal organs, without the muscles that were also part of the finished model.

Paul Adams from New Zealand