JAPANESE TIN TOYS IN A SPANISH CATALOGUE

I love this Spanish catalogue page of old Japanese tin toys.

Amazingly I found two of these toys, the top two, in an old box in a street around 1982, which was an amazing find. They both worked too, simply chucked out among old furniture waiting for the bin men.

The rest of the toys here are just fabulous. Anyone got any of these?

Sub Standard

Woodsy recently posted an article about a Gerry Anderson submarine vehicle 'World Navy Sub 77' which appeared in Stingray and other shows, which was built around a sixties blow-moulded toy racing car. The toy was unbranded, but quite distinctive in shape. As so often happens with the blog, one has just surfaced on ebay, so should anyone wish to try and recreate the sub, here's your chance!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354787549690?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=urgnYz8ZSPW&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=da68HmgHRHG&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
The ebay listing or seller is in no way connected to Moonbase Central and is a private seller, so caveat emptor!

 

BRIAN'S GONE GORGO!

Wow! Gorgo Week! My kind of holiday!

Here's Monster Base's tribute to the Monstrous Mother/Child duo.

You might be interested to know that an American toy maker, Titanic Creations is producing a Gorgo Mother action figure with an estimated release date of Fall 2023.They got my pre-order for sure!

-BrianF 

Monster Base 

NJ USA

THE PALMER GORGO AND CHUMS! CAN YOU NAME THEM?

1964 gave us these US unbreakable movie monsters. Such was Gorgo's monster chops at the time he got top spot on the header card! Move over Gojira! [is there a Palmer Godzilla?]

Gorgy is in green top left. Palmer plastics of Brooklyn NYC made these brilliant mini-monsters. They came in many colours and I imagine are very collectable in the US as these are all auction pics.

Can you name them all here readers?

California's Diener Industries carried on the good work in rubber too - I think later - but I think they left out the British Godzilla!

Can you name all these? and is there a Japanese Godzilla?

Have any monster rubbers?

Hands Across The Water: Max's Models

I thought you would be interested to know that Moonbase Central gets a mention in the latest video from Max, of Max's Models [USA]. There is also a shot of the Moonbase Central logo and Gorgo week!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWv1hsyOMgU

Paul Adams

NZ

ROB'S MONSTERS

Woodsy,

Your recent post about watching Godzilla v Kong made me wax nostalgic for some of my favorite Showa-era Kaiju flix, so I dug out my DVDs and offer them herewith, especially as it Gorgo week.

Some are budget labels, some are bootlegs, but as long as they boast the original English dubbing jobs, they are all gold to me!

Do you like them Moonbasers?

Rob C

USA

16/12 SWIFT TAKE TWO: MIX & MATCH

 Following on from my post on the 16/12 Retro Swift yesterday which went down much better than I expected,  reader Mish, was of the opinion that the tanks would look better in the original red. 

So I swopped the tanks on the normal Swift with the Retro to see the result.

I have to be honest, I reckon Mish is absolutely right, it looks pretty good. What do you other readers think?

Here's a reminder of it's intended look. 

Now, what about mixing and matching the white tanks with the original Swift?

Ignoring the Moonbase Alpha insignia, the green rings at the front certainly don't help, along with the bright yellow and red bands.  Personally, I'll stick with the original red tanks.

What do you think?

GORGO - THE NOVEL: RESEARCH BY PAUL ADAMS

Long before the film version of Gorgo reached the cinema screens of either Britain or America, Monarch Books in the USA had published a paperback novelisation. The book is credited to Carson Bingham, which was a pen-name of Bruce Cassiday (1920-2005).

Monarch Books were based in Derby, Connecticut, and published a wide range of titles, including film and television tie-ins. For a while, the film books were grouped together in a short-lived series called Monarch Movie Books.

The Gripping Story Of A City Threatened With Annihilation

By A Raging Prehistoric Monster - Gorgo - This classic thriller is now on the screen as a spectacular King Brothers' Technicolor Production.

Based on an original story by Eugene Lourie, screenplay by John Loring and David Hyatt. Novelisation by Carson Bingham.

A King Brothers Technicolor Motion Picture. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Release. MGM being the US distributor for the film.

MM603, Gorgo, carries a publication date of July 1960 (well before the film came out in March 1961), and sold for 35 cents. It contained 141 pages. There were tinted black and white photographs from the film on both the front and back covers.

Oddly, despite this being a British-made film, there does not appear to have been a British edition of the book. I do not know if the Monarch Books edition was available in Britain at the time.

In 2014 Bear Manor Media released a book on Gorgo, in both paperback and hardback editions. This included the original tie-in novel; the original shooting script for the film; and a production history.

The Amazon listing for the book includes a preview of a few pages, and some photographs.

https://www.amazon.com/Gorgo-Bill-Cooke/dp/1593934998/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1683105188&sr=8-6

Four photographs from Worthpoint.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

There will be much more on Monarch Books from Paul later in the week!