MOONBASE CENTRAL

Saturday, 23 December 2023

Merry Birthday Woodsy!

This time of year, there are 3 things I am certain of:

1) Christmas is coming

2) Woodsy has a birthday

3) Zilla will eat a rocket

MANY HAPPY RETURNS!

Brian F

Monster Base

USA

OVER THE MOON

A Christmas or so back my friend and fellow SpaceX fan Paul Vreede kindly sent me a wonderful gift, his take on the Project SWORD Moon Crawler.

Paul used an old SpaceX Surveyor as the basis and what a fantastic job he did!

Friday, 22 December 2023

ED'S IDEAL GLOBEMASTER

Woodsy,

I was gonna send these photos last week, but Terranova's awesome C-119 post prompted me to get off my keester and get 'er done!

As happens so often, this toy was marketed as one kind of plane when actually it is another kind (in caricature) entirely. Ideal marketed this plane as a Globemaster.

The real Globemaster was made by Douglas Aircraft and designated the C-124 Globemaster II and was produced from 1950-55. Ideal's version came out around 1963-64. Below is a photo of the real Globemaster. I think you'll agree the two are not at all similar.

There were two actual planes made similar in appearance to Ideal's which are more appropriate to the way the toy looks. The first is the Fairchild C-82 Packet Plane shown below. The C-82 was produced from 1945-48 and first flew with the U.S. Army Air Forces and later the U.S. Air Force.

The C-82 is considered an early developmental stage for the more familiar C-119 Flying Boxcar which first flew in 1947 with production ending in 1955. It remained in service with active duty Air Force units until 1962. You'll notice that neither the real C-82 or C-119 had cargo doors in the front of the aircraft. Both of them had their cargo bay doors to the rear of the aircraft.

The toy measures 17 1/4" (40cm) L x 21 3/4" (55.24cm) wingspan x 5 3/8" (13.65cm) H (to tip of rear vertical stabilizer's) and is a hybrid plastic/tin-litho piece. The set included a nice array and some very boring figures.

The airplane in these photos I actually sold off years ago because I still have one in the original box! (which I just haven't gotten around to photographing yet).

From Vegas Air Field

USA

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SCOOP

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR., FOLKS

Best wishes and I should add, my sincere thanks go to those Moonbasers who took the trouble over the year to comment on my posts. Some of you chose the anonymous moniker, so whoever you were, cheers!

A special mention to those happy band who's name regularly appears , especially Arto, Ed, Lewis. Kevin, Mish, Zigg, Dave C, Terra, and of course , Woodsy.

To anyone I might have missed, apologies but thanks again for looking in.

Yes, it's all turned out very well!