MOONBASE CENTRAL

Sunday, 5 February 2023

THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE 1958

For Looey and everyone!

TERRANOVA47'S 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE TREE

Back in 1953 I was the proud owner of a gray Sutcliffe submarine with a decal on the top front hull with a picture of Queen Elizabeth II as a Coronation souvenir. I bet Charles III doesn't get such a cool Coronation souvenir.

After years of warm baths the clockwork finally ceased and the model was buried in my parent's garden in North London in order to confuse future archaeologists.

About 1972 when traveling outside London with the person who was to become my wife, I saw in a shop window a Sutcliffe Nautilus which I promptly bought and still own.

Before lockdown I created a diorama using a Nautilus Christmas Tree ornament and metal crew figures from the 1954 movie.

Then during lockdown I created a small diorama of Nautilus attacking a sailing ship.

I was lucky to see both the Disney movie and Mysterious Island on the big screen when they were released but Herbert Lom was no James Mason who for me was the perfect Captain Nemo.

If Kirk Douglas wasn't such a comic relief with that annoying seal, the Disney movie would have been a better telling of the book!

But then later versions have been far worse and certainly the Disney Nautilus can never be bettered. It was far superior to Verne's description of a submarine with smooth sides like a cigar tube. Who would believe an underwater craft like that could work?

Here's a close-up of my Nemo crew and Christmas Tree Nautilus ornament.

When she was about 10 my daughter gave me a birthday present of a VHS Tape of the Disney 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea plus this wooden, hand painted Nautilus she made at summer camp!

Terranova47

USA

PRECIOUS JULES: The Vernian Toy Designs of Libuše Niklová

In 2015 I posted an obscure plastic bubble bath toy inspired by Jules Verne's Nautilus.

Peering further into Jules I discovered the designs and oeuvre of Czech Libuše Niklová described as the 'world queen of toys'. She is seen as an icon of accordion-based plastic toy design.

According to Wikipedia the Nautilus was a Vernian toy she designed for Fatra Napajedla in 1966. Niklová designed 3 toys based on Jules Verne’s novels: Nautilus, Albatros [from Robur the Conquerer] and Epouvante [the Terror from Master of the World]

Designed for Expo 1967 in Montreal, Canada, they didn't appear due to the previous Czech regime's politics [they were seen as too Western]. Eventually they got into production, the Nautilus in 1967, The Terror or Epouvante didn't get further than a prototype.

You can read more on the website devoted to this famous Czech designer.

https://www.libuseniklova.com/

There are quite a few video's featuring her work on You Tube like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MktMAQvd518

Here are some pictures of the beautiful blue plastic Libuše Niklová Nautilus from the net.

Have you got one?

Saturday, 4 February 2023

AN ISLAND CRAWLING WITH MYSTERIOUS TOYS

I've just watched Jules Verne's Mysterious Island the movie from 1961.

I've seen it many times and despite crawling with the giant crabs and hungry rocs there are still a few toy related observations I can make.

One of the high points of the film is the appearance of Herbert Lom's Nemo and his futuristic submarine Nautilus. Nowadays they'd call it steampunk but back in the day when the first Nautilus appeared on the big screen in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, in 1954, a Leeds-based company got in on the underwater action.

Sutcliffe Pressings created the Nautilus tinplate toy, an icon of vintage play and a glint in the eye of most collectors. A beautiful toy pressed in various bright colours, what I hadn't realised was just how close Sutcliffes was to Moonbase. Literally half an hour away in Horsforth, Leeds!

Now the site of a residential car park, the Sutcliffe glory days are sometimes celebrated at the local Horsforth Museum and this is one of their past displays of submarines. You can also read about Sutcliffe's here: Sutcliffe Boats of Horsforth [there's a picture of the toy sub being sprayed in the spray shop!]. Did you own a Sutcliffe?

Watching Mysterious Island again I was also struck by Nemo's wondrous electric rifle and how it completely captured the atomic age vibe of many space rifles. See what I mean ...

There were many toy space guns like it and here's one off the top of my helmet, the sensational Pyrotomic Disintegrator by Pyro. Did you have one of these bad boys?

Can you think of a better space rifle like Nemo's?

The last toy link to the film and one I've blogged before is Ray Harryhausen's giant octopus and its influential suckers.

This large cephalopod slipped into the mind of one Mel Birnkrant back in the Sixties and its tentacles re-appeared in his triumphant Outer Space Men with Colourforms, one of my all time favourite toy figures as a kid.

The octopod of the Men was one Astro-Nautilus, perhaps the only figure of the original series I didn't have. Sadly all my Men have have left the ship but pictures still abound on the net. Here is the Man from Neptune.

Did any one you ever see the Nemo and Nautilus movies at the flicks? Has anyone got any other toys from the two movies?

Friday, 3 February 2023

MIKE TRIM'S UFO MARKERS UNIVERSAL TRACTOR

Continuing our thread of the 1964 GM tractor ....

here's some pictures and footage of the similar Markers Universal Tractor designed by Century 21's Mike Trim for the TV show UFO.

The prop was listed on the Prop Gallery site.

The full listing is as follows:

https://www.thepropgallery.com/filmed-in-miniature-the-models-of-ufo

Scoop reported on the prop's appearance at SHADO Con 2 in 2018.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2018/07/shado-con-2-original-props.html

Here's a clip from SmurfyDan I found too on You Tube showing the prop tractor and model trailer being remotely-controlled at the convention

Do you like this vehicle?

Antique Week Tonka's

Just after Xmas, I received a comment on an old blog post I had created a few years back on the short lived Tonka Totes line.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2020/02/tinkering-with-tonka.html

Tonka Totes were the companys attempt to break into the market shared by Hot Wheels, Zylemex and matchbox, with small fast rolling vehicles, as opposed to the usual lumbering pressed steel construction trucks, they were famous for.

Totes are plastic cars on a steel chassis, with nylon bearings in the wheels, not unlike Mattel cars, to allow them to run faster. Designs covered dragsters, utility and hots rod vehicles and each came with a small launcher or a belt clip, so they could be carried around easily - hence the name.

Eric Bryan, a writer for Antique Week - a stateside broadsheet for collectors, asked if he could use the shots from the blog, for an upcoming article, but as the resolution was too low for print purposes, I offered to do a dedicated shoot for the magazine instead.

The January 31 issue of Antique Week has just been published and Eric kindly sent me a proof of the article, shown below. It makes very interesting reading and has expanded my limited knowledge of the toys even more!