HAVE ROVER WILL TRAVEL!

 Merry Christmas! I must have been good this year cos Santa brought me a Mars rover!. Hope I can build it before the Mysterons blow it up! 

Will O.

UK

Station to Festive Station

 There are plenty of old radios online to admire. Here's two spacey ones that caught my ear.

This satellite-like fellow has a clip-on alligator clip. Where does that go? and a classic ear plug. I know where that goes. Simple and beautiful. How do you tune it?

This solid state [what does that mean?] shuttle radio is just a gorgeous. All your favourite tunes from the shuttle cockpit!

Did/ do you have a spacey radio? Is it something you got at Christmas as a kid?

Paul V's Trains

Seeing as people are showing off trains, here's what I'm up to. A loose-lay Hornby clockwork oval with working Control System. I found I'd run out of metal wire of a certain thickness so I didn't fit the guides for same and improvised with leftover electric wire instead.

With oiling done (very important to remove friction for clockwork operation), I'm now debugging the track. Which after 85+ years is far from straight or level but I'm sorting out the kinks one by one.

Best

Paul V

Belgium

The Gift-Bringer's Kindliness

 A few of the fab gifts I was given this Christmas. They'll certainly keep me occupied this winter!

Books, The Art of Horror and Horror Tales, a collection of the famous horror comics of the same name.

Eighties horror paperbacks. Here's Locusts by the brilliant Guy N. Smith

And Carrion by Gary Brandner, author of the Howling.

A superb model-making set of tools 

And my daughter astounded me with this huge vintage Spanish toy, Rescate Especial, which I've yet to properly delve into. 

More to follow.

Santa was kind this year!

Batteries Not Included; Neither Were the Toys!

 

Over Christmas Moonbase Junior and I watched Batteries Not Included [1987]. We'd seen it before together about a year ago but he wanted to watch it again courtesy of Prime I think.

Batteries is one of the close classic slices of Spielbergian joy where aliens are always benign and make being human just that little bit more bearable. A bit like the idea of swimming with dolphins.

In this case the aliens are little fix-it robots, akin to the elves in the Elves and the Shoemaker tale. The tiny alien bots; Flotsam, Jetsam and Wheems and their parents, come to the rescue of a group of desperate tenants fighting the wrecking balls of a corrupt developer.

The bots constantly restore things to how they were; wiring, furniture, the lot, in an increasingly fraught situation until the glorious finale in which the little fellows literally build a wondrously happy ending.

The Grandson and I had tears in our eyes.

Despite it being a fabulous film there appear to be no toys associated with it. None that I could find anyway. You would have thought the three robots and the parents would have been ideal candidates for the toy shelf back in the 80's. All I could find were 3D printed moderns.

Its strange that such a life-affirming children's' flick didn't generate any toys and games, especially one called Batteries Not Included, the very essence of toy marketing catchphrases!

Do you know of any readers?

It's Still ChrISSmas!

Well, Christmas is still here but lingering like a sprout bouquet. The opened prezzies are in piles still with traces of torn wrapping peeking out from beneath. I wonder if you're sat down looking at one of them right now with a glass of Advocaat?

Well spare a thought for the crew of the International Space Station up there hanging in the heavens like a bright bauble.

This is what they are seeing when they look down this Christmas.

Would you like to be up there in the ISS?

Have you got a space station?

Signs of Santa

Here's credible evidence that Santa had visited indeed Moonbase on Christmas Morning.

Before ...

After!

And old classics could be found among the new. Lite Brite no less! The Grandkids loved it! Me too!

And so, that was Christmas proper. Xmas Lite prevails. Another glass of sherry methinks.

FOOD FUNNIES 2

Regarding Food Funnies, this New Zealand Dog Food beats all!

Happy, Healthy Holidays to all,

Terranova47

USA