ENTER THE GUNG FU ZEROIDS

 Another set of old Zeroid photos, this time with special guest Gung Fu King, Bruce Lee!

I took these in 2016 when Woodsy decided to devote a week of posts dedicated to  Bruce Lee , and being a big Green Hornet fan, I thought I'd  join in the fun.

Don't worry, no Zeroid robots or Gung Fu Masters got hurt during the shoot!

SUPERMAN AND THE MOKES

 My handful of purchases today at Elsecar Antiques.

A quartet of old Superman Pocketbooks comics in superb condition, yet to be dated. £2 each.

Do you know them?

and a really interesting little boxed wagon, part of the MOKES range, again needing to be dated.

The Part 5 The Awakening box is slightly bigger than a Matchbox one and contains the small pink and orange wagon, four collectors' cards, a sheet of decals and a mini-comic book.

Turns out the MOKES are a race of vehicles that are in conflict with another race of vehicles, the STUKKAS. Each has a planet. It reminds me a lot of Transformers, with Autobots and Decepticons, except these tiny vehicles don't transform.

I have no idea where MOKES were sold but they originally cost 99p. Mine was £3. After pulling off all the sellotape from the box I'm quite chuffed with this intriguing boxed set.

Any good?

THE EMPORIUM STRIKES BACK!

 Just visited a large antiques emporium in Elsecar, South Yorkshire. I've been before but forgot how big it was.

There'll be something just like this near you but here are a few snaps of the place so you get the idea anyway.

Tell me if you see anything that stands out.

Middle item is Davy Crockett soap!

A huge Sindy Jeep, a new one on me.

Boxed Stewardess dolls

One of countless die-cast cabinets. I loved the metallic red mini, top shelf, as a kid, and the speckled dune buggy next to it!

Alas, this has come out blurred. The two bikes are 'rare' speedway bikes from the 60's by Britains.

More die-casts, sorry, blurred again!

Action figs including Mandalorian figures on 'retro' blisters.

Lots of gubbins.

A small boxed Japanese ALIEN toy, unknown to me.

Britains Mini-Sets, which maybe a bargain at £4.50 each?

There were lots of vintage dressed Action Men like the cricketer and tons more interesting stuff basically. Oddly enough I used to have a cabinet there too about 15 years ago! Small world!

I was pleased to see also that evening toy fairs are back on there and I hope to get top the October one.

I bought a few little thingies and will blog them soon.

See anything you like?

S.T.A.R. TEAM 'STAR HAWK'

 Some photos I've previously published of my S.T.A.R. Team STAR HAWK,  made by Ideal Toys, and which appeared in 1977. 

This was simply a reworked version of the Ideal's  earlier 1970 Zeroid Z.E.M. XXI toy, and was created to blatantly cash in on the popularity of Star Wars.

A pocket size Marvel Comic was also given away free at the time - Raiders of the Black Nebula , written by Archie Goodwin, and drawn by Dave Cockrum, which featured the Star Hawk, and it's occupants , the Red Zeroid pilot, and Blue engineer, both reworkings of the previously released Zeroid Zogg robot , and android, ZEM 21, which used the body of a previously released action figure based on real life private investigator , J.J. Armes.

Archie Goodwin, went on to write Marvel's official Star Wars comic, while George Lucas attempted to sue Ideal  for ripping off his film at the time. Sadly for poor George, the court found in favour of Ideal and the  knock offs  were saved - hurrah!

Moral of this tale, don't take on The Mighty Zeroids!

N.B, S.T.A.R. stands for Space Travel and Reconnaissance, as if you didn't know!

The original  Zeroid Z.E.M. XXI  from 1970.

Some of my previous S.T.A.R. Team posts:

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2017/02/focus-on-star-team.html

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2013/07/star-team-star-hawk.html

THE AUCKLAND HAUL

The latest fair in Auckland, NZ, for collectors was packed, with both people and goodies. I managed to bag several treasures.

Four books, two of them 1970s vintage Aircam books by Osprey, on the North American P-51D Mustang in US service, and the Avro Lancaster bomber. You do not often see these any more.

The Augsburg Eagle, on the Messerschmitt Bf 109, with lots of excellent colour profiles. Finally, a 1962 space book by Collins. This one is worthy of a write-up of its own.

My die-cast haul included a Lledo Days Gone Vanguards boxed set of three models. Then seven loose models, six Matchbox from the 1950s and 1960s, and a single Road-Master Flyers Super Car - the red Volvo 1800S. This is just a little larger than a Matchbox model, and has opening bonnet with engine detail, opening doors, and boot. Made by Lone Star. I do not recall ever seeing these in NZ, but I am sure they were expensive.

The aircraft kits were all in 1/72nd scale. A North American FJ-1 Fury naval fighter by Siga Model, a firm I have never heard of before. Made in Ukraine.

A Kovozavody Prostejov (usually just called KP) MiG-21Bis, NATO code-name Fishbed. This has four sets of markings, for Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Croatia. Made in the Czech Republic.

Sikorsky HH-3E Jolly Green Giant helicopter by Revell. These were used to rescue downed aircrew during the Vietnam War. This example has © 1969 on the box, and Made in Great Britain by Revell (Great Britain) Ltd. A vintage treasure.

Lastly, the Takom Jagdpanther Late Production version. This was the tank destroyer version of the WW2 German Panther tank. The kit has full interior detail - suspension, fighting compartment (the 88mm gun was very large), and engine.

I could not resist all that interior detail, even though 1/35th is not my usual scale. The box is a massive 15 x 10 inches, and 5 inches deep. It is absolutely packed with parts.

I did a rough count - 1331 in grey polystyrene, plus a small photo-etch sheet, and a length of cord for the tow cable. That was not a typo - over thirteen hundred parts.

Granted, some of those are for use on other versions of the kit, the early or mid-production variants. But that is still a lot of plastic.

The tracks are made up of both individual links, and longer lengths. Each link has two track guides which have to be cemented in to place - there are 384 of these in total. I almost fainted.

The teeth are moulded in sections, with a frame across the top. The teeth are therefore cemented to the tracks in sections while still on the sprue, then the frame is cut away. At least you are not faced with 384 separate teeth.

The last photo shows the track links and the guides. The guides fit in to the depressions just inside the holes for the drive sprocket teeth. Each link is 19 x 5 mm.

If the kit is built as intended a lot of the detail is going to be hidden completely, or in corners too dark to see. It really does need to be made as a cut-away model.

Beautiful, but terrifying.

There were plenty of other goodies on offer, many of them outside my price range. Far more board games than usual.

One table had some vintage Dan Dare items, which you rarely see in NZ. The Dan Dare Spaceship Builder set, boxed, was $800. Wow. I have never seen one of these before.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

I'VE OPENED UP HARRY!*

 Way back in the Autumn of 2005, after 20 years, I gladly ended my first office 'career' and took the plunge into selling old toys full time on Ebay.

I traded as Mad About Monsters. It was great fun and my office was in the attic, repleat with old dial telephone, colour TV and laptop. 

After 3 years of solid Ebaying on top of a part-time school job [ and clocking up thousands of sales, I finally closed the books and the attic door in the autumn of 2008. Mad About Monsters was sadly over.

Well, today, as part of my retirement from School, I once again opened up Harry*

I have been in the attic many times since 2008 but not with Ebay on my mind.

I have kept a gangway clear throughout though!

and tried to keep some sort of order.

Boxes are decently stacked ...

Part of my own collection has shelving up there too.

But there's too much other gear generally! leftovers from Ebaying and clutter from our house.

With a corner for our daughter's old stuff too!

And so, with a smile on my older face and sweeping aside a few dead wasps from my old Ebaying desk, I set up the 'office' once more!

The Velux view over the fields hasn't changed, which is really great.

.... but my old analogue miniature TV, as always, was just snow.

It was really exciting to get back up there and list on Ebay again, albeit no longer as Mad About Monsters and being far less serious about it than I was back then.

I'm really looking forward to listing all the old toys and games that are surplus to requirements in the attic and maybe even make room for more of my own collections stored in my bedroom!

Retirement has well and truly begun!

I'll keep you posted.

*

* I call the attic Harry after the tunnels in the movie The Great Escape: Tom, Dick and Harry. Tom was discovered and Harry was then opened up. Dick was never used.

FOCUS ON THE WHITE HAWK MK IX BY SIXTEEN 12

 Some photos I took a while back of the highly detailed White Hawk produced in 2021 by Sixteen 12 Collectables. 

This special edition model appears as it was originally delivered to the studio for the filming  of the Space: 1999 episode, Wargames in 1975.

As it was decided that it's all white look was too much like the Eagle Transporter, it was decided  to paint sections of it orange to differentiate it. 

In my first three photos I scratch- built what I imagined a hangar in the Orbiting Space Dock might look like, with the White Hawk on it's launch cradle.

The actual model itself,  which is limited to 1500 units comes with  it's own  'In -Flight' display stand.