King Marauder

I picked this lovely 1973 SpeedKing Marauder up today in a shop in Stamford, Lincolnshire. A very picturesque town and a superb car, which needs only a little sprucing up for its next test drive. Is it a car you had readers?

Keighley Capers

 A mooch round Keighley brought us face to face with Darth Vader!

He'd assembled a motley crew for his voyage round the junk pile.

In another shop we saw these not too old badges. Action Man and Thunderbirds Are Go. The modern reincarnations. Not for me.

This brought back scenty memories. My older brothers always got Tabac or Pagan Man at Xmas, when they were young men. Did you wear cologne readers?

This is Talc! Just noticed.

The big toy firms like Marx and Ideal liked to dabble in little cars. Here's an Ideal one. A Trans Am?

And there's always a bus when you don't need one!

You got one of these plastic souvenirs?

Boneshaker Joyride

 This motley crew heard a new bike was in town, the scratch built Boneshaker.

The Baroness had first dibs.

Helmethead had a go too

And his mate too.

Pink guy turned up.

But Top Hat claimed the Boneshaker as his own. It may be spurious. A bigger Hatter may emerge with handlebars to boot.

Pink guy nabbed the sidecar.

What do you think readers?

BAT LEGO

 

Brains' New Ride

SCALEXTRIC FAB 1

 

Although I do plan to do a fuller review of the new Scalextric Fab 1 at some point, for now here’s a few teaser photos I took a while back when I first got it.

Like all the Scalextric slot cars it’s 1.32 scale, and is a lot bigger than I’d imagined.

It comes in a clear plastic display case, which folds back, revealing the model in all it’s Penelope pink glory. A word of warning, though. The aerials look a little fragile so take care not to catch them. 

Inside the detailed cabin are seated figures of Parker and Lady Penelope.

Whether you buy it for racing round a track, or to simply display it or maybe both, it’s a great addition to the collection.

CHEERS FOR THE BIRTHDAY WISHES

Many thanks for the birthday wishes,  Woodsy and co. m

eans a lot.

I'm now officially a pensioner, although I don't intend to fully retire just yet,  but I'll hopefully make more time for some blogging. 

Cheers guys!

LIKE A LEGEND HOVERING OVER THE MOON BASE

 We don't often feature Hover's window boxed Moon Base sets on MC nowadays, largely because they so seldom appear anywhere else. Google image search doesn't recognise them either. A Goggle text search brings you to ... Moonbase Central and that's it! [apart from the 'borrowed' [hmmm] posts of mine on Planet Diecast back then].

A shame, they appear to be lovely sets straight from the space race.

For a while, over a decade ago, we enjoyed a feast of Hover. Click on the Hover label below.

So, I was excited when I clocked these two boxes a while back and kept the snaps. They could well have appeared before so I apologise if so.

Space Adventure features a fabulous ship with a ball in the middle. I've often wondered if it rolls. It recalls the overall look of Marine Boy's simple sub, with its central dome and narwhal spike. Maybe even the Jetsons flyabout. Anyone got one?

The Space Tank set includes a fabulous scramble bug toy, the so called 'tank'. I love the look of this toy but I've never seen one in the flesh. Incredibly Bill had one and the last remaining orange wheel he gave me years ago!

I assume all these Hover sets - there are more - were inspired by LP's output of Hong Kong space plastic.

There's also a small blue Hover Lunar Rover as part of the series, which Bill owned too.

Having searched the blog it's clear that the packaging of the Lunar Rover hasn't ever appeared here and I've never seen it anywhere else. You?

I might as well ask, has anyone got any of these Hover sets?