Sometimes a Great Logo ...

 .... Can make you go loco!

This weekend at Sherwood Forest I bought a Hot Wheels car. There were loads of great loose Matchbox cars and Corgi Juniors on the car boot stall but the Hot Wheels brand and more crucially the year, 1971, made me go with my gut and not my brain.

The car said underneath '1971 Buick Riviera'. The colouring was a nice old looking but somewhat battered metallic blue. The year and the colour made me think of Redlines and the magpie in me swooped and like Robin of Loxley I handed over my taxes, the princely sum of one pound.

Not long afterwards on another aisle I realised my blunder and knew instinctively that this was no Redline. For a start it didn't have ... well, red lines! It also had a swirling silver Hot Wheels logo and most telling of all it said in capital letters, MALAYSIA!

Looking the thing up later I could see that 1971 was part of it's name and nothing to do with the date of its Hot Wheels release, which was in actuality sometime around 2005 onwards.

I blame the blazing sun!

I could have swapped the car for another one pound special but I'll happily donate it to Junior's scrappers pile for re-conditioning next time he's over!

Have you been flummoxed like this readers?

Mr Whippy is indestructible, you are not! Remember this and do not attempt to stop him and buy one!

 Courtesy of Looey and his Missus in Spitalfields in the UK last week!

A Captain Scarlet Ice Cream Van!

Like it?

THE COMBAT MAN TRAIN DOWN SHERWOOD FOREST

 We're just back from a weekend away in the pleasant River Trent countryside around Newark in Nottinghamshire down the road from Sherwood Forest.

Newark has a large castle ruin, a big river with very fine slow cruises [we enjoyed it a lot] and many good shops, including, yes .... charity shops!

Despite the number of charities, I was only tempted to buy a bundle of seven old Conan the Barbarian comics for seven quid.

The car boot sale down the road at Sherwood Forest [Robin Hood jokes welcomed!] was better and I came away with a few die-casts for Junior and me, two Sontarans and a neat boxed Combat Man Military Train set, which was my fave purchase.

I know the Combat Man brand from my interest in knockoff Action Man figures. Its a Mego/Lion Rock line from the late 70's/early 80's and was essentially a 7-inch articulated male figure, like the earlier Little Big Man, with loads of carded WWII uniforms. There were also small plastic soldier sets and my Military Train Set [with Chug Chug Sound!] is one of these, although it wasn't released with small plastic soldiers. There is no Mego or Lion Rock branding on it all.

The UK Combat Man brand mark is like a soldier's dog-tag and often says 'and his adventures in World War II'. Lion Rock also issued it as 'Johnny Action' in the US. It was re-branded in many other countries and the Mego Museum lists them all here https://www.megomuseum.com/lionrock/index.html

It's sister set is a vehicle set, which does contain small plastic soldiers and a missile launcher not unlike the Merehall one many of us have in our own collections.

Trafalgar Toys, as seen on this box from an online auction, were likely the importers.

My Combat Man train set is all complete but doesn't work. I'll need to scrape off the old battery acid from the battery unit contacts in the big loco and give it a rejuvenating dose of WD40.

The previous owner, no doubt a pesky youngster [I ask you! ha ha], had stuck a load of stickers on the rooves of the two main carriages, so I'm currently soaking them in my special perfect-fit carriage soaking bath.

As soon as this train set is ready for combat operations I'll alert Moonbase readers stat!

Oh, and like the Conan comics, it was 7 pounds.

Any good?

LIVE AUCTIONEERS LOTS MORE SPACE

 

Another lot I saw on Live Auctioneers caugfht my eye,

The Space Aircraft far left is a new one on me. You?

The Space Ship X5 with the green base reminds me of the JR21 New Flying Saucer. Has anyone got one of these Space Ship X5's?

EMBATTLED!

Looking ahead to Moonbase Junior's next visit I was planning on watching Battlestar Galactica with him.

First issue is age rating. He's only six and can't handle all PG's, which I assume it would be. 

Second issue is format. I looked it up and it appears to be a TV series. I thought it was a film. There's also mention of some episodes bundled up as films. Then there's a modern remake at the back of my mind.

I'm confused. Can anyone explain?

Also, is it any good?

LIVE ACTIONEERS LOTS OF SPACE

This is a strange one, the ship second from the left called Space Ship.

Is that a Stars Wars influence I see?

Do you like it?

A SINGULARITY

 Whilst Moonbase Junior was over for half term we watched The Black Hole.

Still ecstatic from Close Encounters of the Third Kind the day before, we looked forward to Disney's peek beyond the rim.

Alas, despite decent special effects, ecstatic we were not. Personally I found the acting wooden and the storyline boring. At times I'm pretty sure the music was nabbed from Thunderball and overall a poor effort from Walt. Even the robots were clunky and wooden.

I fell asleep.

I woke up when Junior was shouting for me to turn it off as a dead ashen-faced Doctor was slowly spinning across space. I shouldn't have slept!

A read that Black Hole has become a minor cult classic.

Did you venture into it readers?

WORKIN' IN THE CITY

A while ago I posted a mystery City worker I thought was an ARCO figure. 

I managed to find another one online and can now say its actually Meccano and not ARCO.

Result!

Have you any mystery figures?