THE HOOD AND HIM

 

With his extravagant costumes, I read somewhere that The Hood from Thunderbirds looked a little like Yul Brynner in the film The King and I.

What do you think readers?

KEV'S SCRATCH UFO FLEET

Hi,

These are the scratchbuilt UFO models that I've got.

Positive track,

Kevin

UK

Gear Head

I had to laugh this weekend as we were going round the supermarket and I stopped in the toy aisle. My wife gave me the lazy eye and remarked "How many Hot Wheels do you actually need? It's not like you're a gear head!"

Needless to say, some found their way into the basket. An earlier purchase was the diminuitive 'The Nash', a souped up coupe with extra wide slicks and a pop out engine. The Nash isnt especially new and has been released in a nice cool green, but so far I have been unable to find that version, so I settled for second place with a gunmetal finish.

Another elusive model is the Armadillo Drop Ship from Pixar's Lightyear. Although the film itself wasn't exactly a roaring success, Mattel have wrung the franchise dry with new product. Its a tiny little thing though, shorter than an average HW car and not really in scale for any other toy, apart from the Lightyear triple pack in the states.

As a companion to the fifties style Nash, I picked up a 57 Chevy Bel Air this weekend, complete with high fins and white walls. This style of classic motor has grown on me over the years, probably as comtemporary cars have become more generic and boxy.

The last of my weekend finds, along with the Armadillo and the Chevy is a Twin Mill, decorated in braille. Made with the Blind Association charity, its a standard Twin Mill V1 with braille lettering on the sides and rear.

The engine modelling is dialled back to make a smoother profile and the entire upper body is diecast.

Its a very unusual model and a great move towards making mainstream toys accessible to the visually impaired.

Finally, a little Matchbox Model A Ford from about 1979. At the time of its release, I had reluctantly given up on buying Matchbox cars, due to pressure from my parents and also having other things taking precedence, so this series were left on the shelf. Not long after, MB cars lost their originality and charm and became quite dull and boring, until Lesney went under and were picked up by Mattel. Oddly, the line never really recovered its originality and remained a more staid and ordinary range.

 But the Model A was one model which stood out from the rest of the boring coupes and estates, so when I spotted one recently at a charity shop, I made sure it came home.

Incidentally, in response to my wifes comment about Hot Wheels, I came back with "As many as it takes".

ROB'S DIME STORE MEMORIES

Woodsy,

Here are pix of some of the vintage dimestore toys I’ve collected over the past several years. 

I remember vividly being allowed to buy one such toy if I was a “good boy” during a trip to the doctor or dentist or some relatives. 

Usually, I’d get a car or a truck, but sometimes, I’d get a magic trick or a puzzle or a toy musical instrument. This would be early 1960s. And even back then, I would obsess on the cool graphics on the headers!

What do you think?

Rob C

USA

DOME SWEET DOME

Last weekend I invested a fiver in this large HM Forces Harrier Jet. It came with a modern Action Man but it actually needs a 10 inch figure, which I haven't got.

No matter, I wanted to clean it up anyway.

I took the wings off and gave them a wash

I wiped down the whole body.

To mock-up a canopy blister I swiped a plastic half-dome from the garden. I tied string round it to compress the sides and placed it in a bowl.

After pouring boiling water over it I ended up with this.

It sat on the jet quite nicely.

I then made a hinge extension for the blister so it would open and close.

and glued the extension to the blister

So far so good.

I then decided it needs a collar. Bad idea!

The original is grey so I purloined an oil bottle from the shed and cut it into shape.

I created a sort of grey collar but it didn't fit.

I then tried cardboard but that was rubbish too.

In then end I ditched the idea of covering the gaps and went for  a simple trim around the blister using an elastic band coloured black. I suppose I could have used a wider rubber band but hey ho, I was severely harriered!

Anyways my blister's next to my new 1999 Thunderbird 2 [that needs repairing! oh no!]

On location it's a passable blister I guess, though not what I'd hoped for. 

Maybe I should stick to colouring small cars!

The big jet itself is great.

Before.

After.

Dome is where the heart is!

COMING SOON: SMALLSPACE 10

 With just a week to go before the next Smallspace event, I thought I'd share half a dozen photos from last year's show featuring a few shots of the main guests and others, all of whom have had successful careers behind the scenes in the world of television and film special effects.

Lee Stringer, Chrissie Overs and Steve Begg.

Gary and Jan of Model Behaviour model store who had brought along an impressive model of a Rebel Dreadnought, being presented with their winning award for best  model on display.

Presenting the award: Chris Trice, Chrissie Overs & Steve Begg.

Mega modeller, Richard 'It's An Ashton' Ashton  who always brings along a good selection of models. He's been recently working on a studio scale 'Liberator' from Blake's Seven, which might well make an appearance next Sunday.

Alan 'Rocky' Marshall a.k.a. Mish: a fine artist and another special effects expert,  who, all being well will be attending Smallspace as one of the guests at next Sunday's event.

The special guests open their presentation gifts - an exclusive Smallspace mug.

Here's my post giving a fuller account of last year's event :

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2022/07/a-look-at-smallspace-9.html

A link to the Smallspace 10 website:

http://www.hamex.co.uk/smallspace/smallspace-gen/smallspace-gen.html

THE FAIRYLITE FIREBALL XL5 AND BOX

This is a toy I've never seen in the flesh, the wondrous Fairylite Fireball XL5. 

It's as rare as hen's teeth and we first saw it, on the blog, in 2009 via super collector Jim Lewis, who owned a loose example, one of only several known.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2009/07/fairylite-fireball-xl5.html

It would appear the box was not known until recently judging by some of the custom fantasy boxes for this toy on Ebay.

Here's one with its super rare original box, the first I've seen, as it appeared this year in May on auction at C&T:

Beautiful!

https://bid.candtauctions.co.uk/m/lot-details/index/catalog/134/lot/46467

Look at the final price!

Have you seen one? Have you got one!

*

I had thought it had appeared in this old clip too, about the Phil Rae - Mick Hall Gerry Anderson collections on Noel Edmond's Telly Addicts in the 90's, but its the huge American Fireball XL5, so I was mistaken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aXMOSwfQKU

Anyways, have a go at Noel's Gerry Anderson quiz! How did you do?

TEARS FOR SEARS

 Years ago the blog's focus was on Project SWORD toys and their many relatives.

One such relative was the wondrous US Rocket Base released by Sears in the mid-Sixties. Its an early version of the Project SWORD Apollo Saturn. There are Japanese versions too. Bill has one of those.

I don't 😥

I've just found this short video on YT about the Sears Rocket Base. Have a gander. Do you have anything like this? What do you think?