Godzy on The Loose!

In keeping with the latest Godzilla film, here's a pic from the archives (Bandai #91881 Godzilla 1954 and MPC vehicles)

Enjoy!

Ed

Vegas Base

JURASSIC PLASTIC

 I do like cheapo window boxed toys from the last few decades.

These Galaxy Giants from Argentina fit the bill and I borrowed the pics from an auction last year.

This fella is a weaponised Triceratops.

I really like the Star Wars inspired box art.

Here are further armoured dinos; a Stegosaurus and a Triceratops.

These two come from the similar Space Dinosaur Protector line

Do you like them?

Have you anything like them?

I'VE NEVER SEEN WORZEL GUMMIDGE!

I saw this in a Charity shop this week, a Worzel Gummidge four DVD Box Set so I took a snap. Jon Pertwee's face is instantly recognisable! 

It says twelve episodes on top of the box. I wonder how they picked just twelve from the 31 made, according to Wiki, as well as Christmas Specials and a series set in New Zealand? This set must be just a taster.

I never watched Worzel Gummidge and wondered why. I had to look up the dates, which explained it. 1979 to 1981. My true teenage years! I was 18 in 1979, out drinking, playing in a band and generally not being in my flat much at all. 1980 was pretty much the same  and then I left my home town that October, for good as it turned out, moving abroad in 1981. I just didn't watch TV during those years so Worzel is a mystery, although collectables like this box set always intrigue me as I know the series has a loyal following.

There's a lot of collectables on Ebay as we speak, including toys, rare pencil toppers and old books like these by the original author, Barbara Euphan Todd.

I had to look up the author, a name completely new to me. Amazingly she was born just 13 miles from Moonbase in a hamlet of Doncaster called Arksey, although its more likely to be the Home Counties countryside, where she grew up, that influenced Worzel.

Todd went on to write tons of Worzel radio plays, a 1953 TV series and Jackanory stories in the 60's, long before the late Seventies TV series.

Amazing!

Are you a Worzel fan readers?

THE BIGGEST POSTER IN THE WORLD

Wow, look what you could get on page 190 from Popular Mechanics magazine July 1967! I would have given away my spare Action Man for that Saturn V poster!

Did you get one?

THE BROOKLYN BRONTOSAURUS

To compliment Rob's ace ITC Brontosaurus post, Palmer Plastics of Brooklyn, New York, was an American toy company. They also made kits, but were not one of the major US model companies.

However, the Palmer Hobb-E-Kits line lasted from the 1950s in to the 1970s, so they clearly had a market. The kits were aimed at the lower end of the price scale, selling in dime stores and the like.

Palmer mostly made car kits, although they dabbled in other fields as well. This included a handful of educational kits, including a pair of prehistoric skeletons.

Kit No.110 was the Mastodon, and No.111 was the Brontosaurus. According to Scalemates, both kits date from 1959, but there do not appear to be any dates on the boxes or instruction sheets.

The Palmer Brontosaurus (Sauropod dinosaur) was kit number 111-1.00, meaning catalogue number 111, retail price $1.00. The kit contained 52 pieces, in bone-while plastic, including the base and name-plate.

No scale is given, but the model was 13 inches long. One side of the box has some information on the real Brontosaurus, which was 67 feet long.

The model is therefore around 1/62nd scale. Considerably smaller than the Mastodon.

The kit box is very similar in style to the Mastodon. There is a large painting of the skeleton, which was the model in the box; along with a smaller picture of a live Brontosaurus.

The box states 'All Plastic Scale Model Assembly Kit', and 'Scaled From American Museum Restorations'. The Palmer logo and address also appear.

One side of the box has details of the real creature, the other shows the Mastodon skeleton. The box ends carry a repeat of the main box art, with the kit number, price, and the number of pieces.

Many Palmer kits suffered horribly from flash - as can be seen in the photographs. This is surplus plastic that has seeped out from between the halves of the mould during the moulding process, forming a web of thin plastic around the parts.

It all had to be cleaned off before the pieces could be assembled. Given the odd shape of many parts, that would be a major job.

Scalemates do not mention any re-issue of this kit, but at some point it was also sold by a company called Natural Science Industries Limited, of Far Rockaway, New York.

Far Rockaway might sound like some isolated town, on a rocky coast, but it is actually a suburb in the borough of Queens, in New York City. Palmer Plastics were in the borough of Brooklyn, which is right next to Queens.

NSI mainly made educational toys and craft sets, and are still in business. They re-issued both the Palmer skeleton kits, along with the Dissecting Frog.

The NSI boxes are identical to the Palmer boxes, except for the changes to the company logo and address. The Brontosaurus retained its original catalogue number, but dropped the price suffix.

There are three variations of the Brontosaurus box:

Palmer logo and address.

Palmer logo with NSI address (this looks to be a sticker)

NSI logo and printed address

Once again, this kit has been out of production for many years. The original Palmer models seem to be more common than the NSI versions.

There are 11 photographs from Worthpoint.

Enjoy!

Paul Adams

New Zealand

GODZILLA MINUS ONE

I had the real pleasure of seeing Godzilla Minus One at the cinema. My mate Mark and me were super impressed with this Japanese language film [subtitled].

Its a real return to form for the cinema for us in general as this was a cracker of a movie; well made, authentic, sincere and dramatic. The monster itself is sensational and the action is compelling.

A distinctly Japanese storyline, fascinating in itself, its set against the emergence of Gojira a few years after the end of World War II.

If you like Godzilla and have enjoyed the Hollywood run of films then Japan's Minus One will be right up your titanic alley.

Have you seen it? Best hurry in the UK, its already been around 5 weeks.

Here's a trailer.

REDLINE RENDEZVOUS

 I got my three newly restored redlines together and took a few snaps.

I may look around for materials for windscreen and bubble to finish two of them off completely.

A BRONTOSAURUS BEFORE US

This will be my first model project for 2024 - a vintage Brontosaurus Skeleton! I bought this kit about twenty years ago from Nick Argento of Glencoe Models. 

This kit was originally manufactured by ITC (Ideal Toy Corp) and released circa 1964, and reissued in 1967 by Ringo. According to Argento, who reissued these sometime in the 90s, the molds were problematic and he didn’t run off too many of this kit, the T-Rex or the Stegosaurus. 

I got this one minus a box, which was fine by me, as the price was right (I think he was trying to get rid of remaining inventory). 

I’ll probably cheat and leave the bones in their ivory plastic color, but I’ll see what I can do with the base. There are so many weird bone parts - ugh! Stay tuned!

Did you have a kit like this?

Rob C

USA