IN HIS PRIME ONCE AGAIN!

 A few weeks back I treated myself to an original 1984 Optimus Prime. A classic of its kind, it was incomplete but cheap as prime cut chips.

It was missing its two schrome exhausts and a semi-circular corner of the cab rear was missing.

Also the front chrome fender had both ends missing.

To spruce it up I snipped off two exhausts from an old rig in Junior's scrappers box [he won't mind!]

I repaired them, chromed them, made two small fender tips and chromed them too, re-chromed all silvered parts and stuck down dog-eared decals.

The finished results. Hope you like them.

ROB'S DIMESTORE DREAMS 3

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

ARTO'S SPACE GLIDERS

 To complete this year's Space Glider thread here's Arto's beautiful fleet too.

From L to R:

Orange Hover NASA Space Tract*, Tarheel Grey Space Glider*, Durham Green Space Glider, Century 21 Grey Space Glider, Hoover orange Space Glider.

*= Not in the Moonbase Fleet.

Have you got a Space Glider?

The Real Space Glider

Woodsy, I loved your space glider collection post - way cool!! Thought you'd like to see this photo of the H-10 Lifting Body taken at Edwards AFB in 1982.

From Vegas Base

Ed

A BONNY LOT DOWN DONNY

Today's meagre but interesting and inexpensive haul from Doncaster Car Boot.

At the rear, two blister carded Dictator toy Pistols made in China [I was drawn to the Transformer artwork on the backing card], an old Britains farm trailer with Shawnee Poole Rear Dump decals, an unbranded die-cast pull-back Dodge Charger [my fave muscle car], 

a Corgi Rockets die-cast Todd Sweeney body [no wheels, my fave Rockets car as a kid!], a die-cast red Citroen CX Palas made in Spain by Miniaturas DA or IDAI?, a Corgi Juniors die-cast Batmobile for DIY restoration, a GEN1 Transformers without the bonnet [my second like this] and the very front, the Lone Ranger and a tiny He-Man/ Galaxy Warrior miniature.

The Lone Ranger is from the 1980 Legend of the Lone Ranger figure line by Gabriel. Amazingly, having never found any of these figures before, I found General Custer two weeks ago in York! Who's next? Tonto?

THE MOONBASE TOY SPACE GLIDER FLEET 2023

Over this year I've at last added to my collection of plastic Space Gliders.

In particular I've furthered my 2001 Space Glider fleet with the help of friend Paul Vreede, who secured an elusive yellow variant for me being sold in Germany. As the UK is no longer in the EU, buying old toys like this from the EU has become much more difficult, so I was very grateful to Paul for sorting it [thanks Paul].

So without further ado here's my Space Glider fleet kindly photographed as a group and individually by Wotan [thanks Bill]. Hope you like them.

2001 Space Glider, yellow, sonic control

2001 Space Glider, white, with aerial, radio control

2001 Space Glider, red, radio control

Hoover Space Gliders, two different switch colours

Mego Space Tract [see Arto's Hover version]

Day-f-ran Space Glider, the cheapest quality glider

Kevin's chromed Space Glider custom

Durham Space Glider [see Arto's Tarheel version], no box

Century 21 Toys Space Glider, orange version

Century 21 Space Glider, grey version 

 - the forerunner of all toy Space Gliders and also the starting point of my Project SWORD collection way back in 1990 [bought for £20 at Normanton evening toy fair!]

For more Space Gliders, including Arto's amazing collection, click on the labels below.

There are still a few more to go!

Have you got a space glider readers?

KEVIN'S RESCUES

 Rescues sent in by Kevin. 

Have you got any rescue trucks readers?

Space Cadets

 

Yet another foray into the world of sweet and cigarette card collecting revealed an older set of cards from Cadet Sweets, who are interesting advertised on the back of the card as being based on the famous Slough Industrial estate which was home to Century 21 in the sixties. These cards are a reproduction set from originals produced in 1957.

The majority of the set covers the usual fare, with the origins of rocketry and early attempts at powered flight, before moving on to early rockets and missiles. As the set is effectively prior to the first manned space mission, the space exploration theme which follows is exclusively speculative, taking its cues from the work of Werner Von Braun and Arthur c. Clarke. 

Many of the manned program images owe their inspiration from the March 1952 issue of Colliers magazine, which featured an expansive article by Von Braun and Willy Ley, entitled 'We Will conquer Space Soon' and showed the classic Braun designs for space wheel and multi stage rockets.

Interestingly, the actual proposed landing vehicles for the Moon and Mars are more akin to the design showed in Arthur C. Clarke's seminal publication 'The Exploration of Space' from 1951, in which he proposed a simple cylindrical moon lander, as opposed to Von Braun's vast machines composed of a skeletal framework surrounding fuel tanks and crew capsules.

     

Among the more futuristic example cards are a pair showing a commercial airliner, with a forward swept delta wing configuration. Whilst Thunderbird 2 is probably the most memorable example of the swept wing in science fiction designs and the concept may appear to be very contemporary, the concept was first discussed as far back as 1934 and was considered my the Soviet and nazi military in 1944.

Ju 287 Bomber

The Junkers Ju287 was a jet engined swept wing bomber and the earlier Belyayev DB-LK was a proposed flying wing design for the russian airforce.

Belyayev DB-LK

The Eagle comic was an early exponent of space travel in the fifties and sixties, with the Dan Dare strip, and often featured cutaway features of various aircraft and spaceships, by the artist Lesley Ashwell Wood, who also later published his work in the excellent 'Inside Information' series of children's books. One of his illustrations for Eagle shows a large cylindrical ship reminiscent of the Cadet vehicles.