MOONBASE CENTRAL

Tuesday, 9 May 2023

LEWIS'S MADHELL SHOWSTOPPER: KENN DISPLAYS ALL

Whoo Hooo, Moonbasers!

I finally finished my Doll and Miniatures Show presentation literally a minute before the doors opened!

1) The finished display! What do you think?

2) HEY BOOMERS! Remember these toys? Major Matt Mason was dead as a toy line the moment Armstrong kicked the moon. But what if Mattel had tried to extend the line.

Two possibilities, cross it with Barbie and Ken or bring in some heavy duty villains (like the Big Jim range) instead of those cream puff aliens! Yeah, give America's boys some real Bad Guys so they can win a few battles....

3) This is Kenn, he's a really nice guy and he's the first American on the moon. He came for all Mankind, but he planted Old Glory while he was at it!

(Flag sold separately)

4) For the first day, life was really sweet for Kenn and he tooled across the Sea of Crises in his Moon Bugger.

An unfortunate naming caused by a last minute compromise between the Madhell Naming Department who wanted "Moon Buggy" and Marketing Department who wanted "Moon Crawler". The result was 40,000 boxes that had to have a sticker hand-applied to turn it into " Moon Bug"!

Several Madhell Heads lost their jobs that month ...

Further adventures to follow .....

A GOOD POINT! DIE-CAST PENCIL SHARPENERS BY PAUL A.

As I mentioned in my recent Auckland fair report, I was able to pick up a box full of 18 die-cast pencil sharpeners for just $10 NZ. That is about £5.

All are in an Antique Bronze finish. Some have plastic parts, usually in black or white. A couple are missing the actual sharpener, but most are complete. Some also have opening or moving parts.

I was only interested in a couple of the transport-related ones, but the lady wanted to sell the whole box, and I got a great bargain.

I recall when these sharpeners were in the shops, but I have not seen any around for years. There are usually one or two sellers at fairs with a few of these.

Most are loose, but sometimes you can find examples in either their original small cardboard boxes, or in a plastic bubble on a backing card.

The only boxed one I found this time, was an old naval cannon, of the sort that would have been carried by HMS Victory at Trafalgar.

A Rolls-Royce veteran touring car. I think the double-decker bus is a Routemaster.

Four assorted musical instruments. A wonderful fireplace, with a musket, broom, bed-warming pan, and logs in the grate.

A selection of what could be loosely described as household items: Washboard and tub; early electric fan; oil lamp; weather vane; alarm clock; school desk and seat (the desk top opens and the seat tips up); vintage camera (the bellows slides back and forth); water pump and bucket; rubbish bin; and an old-fashioned hand water-pump for fire fighting.

These are great fun to collect, they do not take up a lot of room, and they are usually fairly cheap. They are also useful, as they can still be used to sharpen pencils.

have you got any?

Paul Adams

Monday, 8 May 2023

In the Land of Submarines

Photo by 2H Media on Unsplash

Paul's Hot Wheels Yellow Submarine reminded me of a beat-up toy I found in a junk shop in the early Nineties, just like the mint one I had as a kid in the Sixties.

The beat-up Sub looked a a bit like the one pictured, courtesy of 2H Media online, though mine didn't have any periscopes or figures.

Overreaching myself completely I set about restoring my knackered Sub find.

I remember discovering Steve Flowers' Repro Parts Mail Order for the first time, buying the two sets of Beatles busts in plain metal for the two hatches. All I had to do was glue them in and paint them! I bought a metal propeller off Steve too and bobbed that on.

For some odd reason I decided to make my own periscopes and chose Fimo to do them in. Duly fashioned I then painted them yellow with a red peep holes. I have to say, despite being great fun they were a complete dog's dinner!

Probably my best discovery was repro'ing new coloured ports from paper. I did this by colouring in different patches of colour on some A4 paper and then hole-punching the ports I needed. Then I simply glued them on. It worked a treat!

I have no idea what happened to that Sub. All that's left is one chubby fimo periscope somewhere in a box forlornly looking at the dust gathering round it. I imagine I flogged the Sub like everything I had back then in the Nineties through my Mail Order service or at a Toy Fair.

For a while I did live with that Yellow Submarine and Liverpool's Fab Four.

Have you got one or spruced one up readers?

HERE'S TO LIVERPOOL AND KYEV'S EUROVISION! HOT WHEEL'S YELLOW SUBMARINE

After a very quiet spell for new Hot Wheels models, my latest hunting expedition proved successful, and I was able to pick up several new models.

One of these is another version of The Beatles Yellow Submarine. The colour scheme is the same as before. It seems the only possible variation with this model is the colour of the portholes.

On this 2023 version from the HW Screen Time sub-series, the rear portholes are grey with red outlines, but the forward portholes are rather different. Look closely, and you can just see tiny (and I do mean tiny) portraits of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, in red and white.

This is also shown on the backing card. I do not think any previous versions of this model have included portraits of the Beatles.

What do you think? Have you a yellow submarine?

Paul Adams

New Zealand

FIREBALL XL5 RETURNS TO UK TV

After a couple of weeks of rumours, I'm pleased to read that Talking Pictures TV, here in the U.K. has now officially announced that they will be screening Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's much-loved science fiction series, FIREBALL XL5 !

The mighty World Space Patrol vessel is due to blast off on TPTV on Saturday, 3rd June.

The series hasn't been on terrestrial TV since the mid eighties when episodes were shortened to allow for timings in ITV's morning schedules. Some even had the entire end titles and memorable song cut - sacrilege!

Well, my heart is still a Fireball, so I'll be certainly be tuning in, even though I've got some old super 8 films of the series, several episodes originally released on video, two DVD boxed set versions, and the latest Blu-Ray release!

Way back in 1962 the series started out as a hybrid live action /puppet series featuring the character , Joe 90. That idea was dropped in favour of puppets, with the Reg Hill designed spacecraft originally being named Century 21 (A sneak preview of the design appeared in the 1962 Supercar annual)

Here's a photo I took in 2015 of APF's merchandise director, Keith Shackleton discussing the early concept of the space series.

Finally, a photo of one of the original surviving puppets, owned by mega Fireball fan, Bob Bailey.

Steve Zodiac - The Fastest Guy Alive!

THERE'S A TOY CELLAR IN US ALL!

I had another blast from the past at my Daughter's house over the weekend. She returned a plastic box I hadn't seen in years.

This green box was one of many I had on shelves in my big old sunlit 'toy cellar' back in the 90's, when I used to trade stuff from there and do mail order as well. It was called Moon Zero Toys and I actually had regulars!

Having a full-time job as well, buying and selling old second hand toys was my hobby back then - it still is! - and these plastic boxes were how I divided up my stock into manageable parts. The one in the picture - TV Action - would have held all manner of oddments from the TV shows listed - James Bond, The Saint, the A Team, Bionic Man and Zorro - ranging from key rings, novels, action figures, jigsaws right up to small boxed toys.

Larger boxed toys and board games were stacked as they came, on a separate shelf and the biggest thrill was to see several of the same boxed item stacked up. I remember having three second hand and excellent boxed Batman Animated Batmobiles on top of each other and it used to make me so chuffed. Like a proper toy shop! ha ha

There were some inspirational toy sellers in the 90's, who took the hobby - for them a business - to a whole new level and it was always a buzz reading their mail order catalogues and sales lists on Model Mart magazine.

Notable among the many was the late great Jim Star Wars Stevenson and the inspirational Andy Foley and his TV Toy Zone, the catalogues of which are still a treasure of mine as they were really the catalyst, along with Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie, to start looking for old toys and collect the toys I owned as a kid.

My 'cellar' closed in 2003 when we moved and the new house didn't have one. Also with the advent of Ebay in the UK in 2000 my mail order side had already stopped. It was the end of an era and I was sad to leave that cellar behind. It had been a lot of fun.

I don't have any photographs of the old cellar so when I saw this box again this weekend it brought back happy memories of a time before Ebay changed our lives forever. Thanks for listening to an old man reminiscing!

Did you have an old store room, cellar or attic full of your stuff? Did you buy and sell or swap old toys? Do you still readers?

THE NASA SEV/ CHARIOT

Matchbox first released the NASA S.E.V./Chariot space exploration vehicle as part of the 2018 line, in white and gold, with NASA markings. It was a short-lived model, and was gone by the following year.

At the latest model fair in Auckland, I was able to pick up a new version. This is part of the 2022 Collectors Series, which comprises 20 models. The Chariot is 11/20, meaning model 11 in the series of 20.

It is an enhanced version of the original model - and it looks spectacular. Although the basic colour scheme is the same as before, the finish is much more detailed.

The lower body is moulded in a light gold plastic (much lighter than the previous version). Only the upper body is metal, and painted gloss white. The cab windows are tinted light blue. The wheel hubs are gold chrome, with light grey tyres.

Tampo printing includes yellow on the raised pipework. US flags and NASA emblems, including one on the roof of the cab. The lights are silver, edged in black; with a row of white lights on the gold lower body.

The Collectors Series models are bubble-packed atop cardboard boxes. These boxes are of standard dimensions, rather than being sized to each model. So, if you open the packaging and put the models in to their boxes, they frequently rattle around, risking damage.

The box and backing card are mainly blue and yellow, just like early Matchbox boxes. The copyright date is 2022. Made in Thailand.