Tomorrow the everyday of the new year starts again. Our New Year holiday on the coast is over and our guests leave for the continent this afternoon after we drop them at the Station. Christmas is well and truly done.
Tomorrow I'll start to catch up on emails, comments and posts. If I haven't got back to you yet then I will soon. Sorry for any delay. I blame Father Christmas and Old Father Time!
In the meantime, Happy New Year everyone,
Woodsy
At Christmas I received a fabulous gift of Hot Wheels from my good friend Paul V in Belgium.
A complete surprise here are some of the old die-casts kindly Paul sent me including some Redlines no less!
And so, as the last candles of Christmas finally fade into the New Year my thoughts are turning towards cleaning up these old beauties as best I can, with a cup of tea and a forgotten mince pie.
Although I’ve covered this in the past, here’s some photos I’ve recently taken of the Sixteen 12 ‘Infernal Machine’ Episode set, which was released in 2021, and has a limited production run of 1500.
Before we start I’m aware that the set raises some consternation with some collectors, as it doesn’t include a model of ‘Gwent’, the actual ‘Infernal Machine’ in the episode title. To be honest, while the story is fine, that ship isn’t one of my favourite designs from the series. It was apparently a pain to film too, and I can understand the frustration that visual effects director, Nick Allder had with the thing, as, once filming had finished, he apparently picked up the larger of the two models used, and destroyed it by throwing it across the studio floor.
The set contains a standard Transport Eagle with detachable pod.
As with all Sixteen 12 12 inch Eagles, the detail is excellent, a lot better than the recent Anderson Entertainment releases, which we now know are actually Eaglemoss models with a few tweaks.
Here's my review of the Anderson Entertainment Eagle:
https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-look-at-rescue-eagle-from-anderson.html
It’s fair to add though, that the Anderson Entertainment 10 inch Eagles are currently on sale for £125, while the Sixteen 12 set, which is still available on the Sixteen 12 website, retails at £230.
The Sixteen 12 Eagle features the familiar machine turned and hand finished engine bells, which helps in giving it’s authentic look.
There’s the usual Alpha Moon Buggy and a grey loading platform display plinth included.
The set comes with two of the three Alpha Tanks, as seen in the episode. The third, with the bubble cockpit cover was included with the Sixteen 12 ‘Breakaway – Part 2’ Episode set, which is now sold out (The same tank, minus a driver was part of the Product Enterprise Deluxe Eagle set)
The Alpha Laser Tank with the Eagle type cockpit. The fan speculation about the Laser Tanks is they are converted lunar construction vehicles, adapted for defence at some point following the Moon’s breakaway from Earth.
Although they aren’t actually named individually in the episode, this is generally referred to as the flat bed Alpha Laser Tank. Although the models in the Sixteen 12 set are scaled to the 12 inch Eagle, the actual three filming prop tanks were built using the chassis of 1/25 scale Tamiya Chieftain tank kits
I'm reading reports that prolific comic artist, John M. Burns sadly passed away on December 29th.
Born in 1938, John began working as an illustrator in the early sixties.
Anderson comic fans will remember his distinctive artwork in Lady Penelope illustrating the Space Family Robinson strip.
He worked on several strips in TV Century 21, including Catch or Kill and Front Page.
Many will recall his work in Countdown comic on the titular Countdown strip, which used spaceship and spacesuit designs from the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey .
When Countdown became TV Action, John worked on the UFO strip.
In Look In, John drew the SPACE: 1999 strip
Other notable works for me are the Tomorrow People Strip in Look -In, and a Dan Dare strip in the New Eagle comic, although, ironically by his own admission Burns didn't enjoy working on Science Fiction, in particular Judge Dredd, which he worked on during the nineties.
He announced his retirement in October, 2023.
Our sincere condolences to his family and friends.
