Canberra Capers!

Howdy Moonbasers! We're visiting Canberra for a miniatures exhibition here in Australia.

Check out The Green Shed, a funky combination of Op shop and 2nd Hand Collectables.

A basket full of HW cars at 50p each? Check!

A basket of 12 inch figures for £2.50? Check!

 Can you spot the late model Action Man hiding beneath the Jedi Knights?

Games, Pop! figures and cutlery all at never to be repeated prices!

One sad note, the place is going to be closed down real soon now...

Ah well, it's nice while it lasts. Choose wisely!

Looey

OZ Base

Tut Tut

 I had to look twice at this toy sarcophagus on Ebay.

I thought it was my beloved King Tut. It was described as being for pet burials!

King Tut was a magnetic novelty in the Seventies. This one's on eBay too

As a kid I bought King Tut and Restless Skeleton from Ellisdons  Mail Order in Liverpool. Both long gone and no doubt restless as ever.

I did see a restless skeleton toy on the much missed Cobwebbed Room website 

You can it's full entry here:

https://cobwebbedroom.blogspot.com/2011/10/skeleton-in-coffin-novelty.html?m=1

Long time blog reader Andy B kind sent me a boxed King Tut years ago. A lovely surprise.

Did you have a King Tut or Restless Skeleton?

POPPING INTO PONTEFRACT

 A recent visit to the 'Etsy' shop in Pontefract with a mate was interesting. Despite not purchasing anything I always enjoy checking out the various cabinets and shelves there.

This was a great selection of old TV die-casts. The battered FAB1 was £24, too dear for me. The Black Beauty was £12. I wuz tempted but the Bank Manager clamped my wallet!

High up in the Gods lurked this boxed Hood figure. I assume its from the 1990's revival.

Over the road in the old courts this big thingy on the yellow table caught my eye. New to me, its a plastic Fisher Price muscle car that opens up revealing a sort of Adventure People driver. Neat. Anyone know it?

All in all I found the prices too high today. I need car boot prices!

NASA Armoured Vehicles

Here is a video from Mark Felton Productions on the use of the M113 Armoured Personnel Carrier by NASA.

In the event that something went wrong on the launch tower, astronauts could leave their rocket or the Shuttle, get in to a metal cage, then descend down an escape line to a bunker 1200 feet away, jump in to a waiting APC, and drive away, protected by the armour of the vehicle.

Rescue crews also used the M113, and NASA had a small fleet of them. This was the standard US Army troop carrier at the time, and has seen action in countless wars.

The vehicles shown in the video are a light green, but I recall seeing photographs of all-white vehicles in a space magazine many years ago. That was the first time I had heard of NASA using armoured vehicles.

Being such a widely used vehicle, there are many kits of the M113 series, in various scales. So modelling one of these vehicles would be fairly straightforward.

There are some changes, such as the strictly military equipment being removed, like the folding bow plate at the front; and the fitting of extra lights. As far as I know there are no kits of the NASA vehicles, which seems really odd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH8IKG9cjU8

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Billy Blastoff's Jack Plug Telly

Can there be anything cooler than Billy Blastoff's little TV?

With it's neat jack plug seen on radio headphones and that fabulous rocket scene on the screen, Billy was the first kid I knew with his own colour telly.

I don't think Eldon called it a TV though. Something to do with the radar.

Did you have a Blastoff Television?

I've been Bugged!

 In February I changed upon this old Lunar Bug.

I loved my own as a kid so I thought I'd do it up for Junior this Easter.

It just needed some first aid: a lick of paint, a little chrome and a new back door.

Any good?

Did you have a Lunar Bug?

UFO Code 3 Truck

 I'm always intrigued by the choices Code 3 makers make.

I can completely imagine the excitement they must feel when the idea comes to fruition and the completed project sits in front of them.

This UFO truck and trailer I saw on eBay must have been great to see finished with it's long custom box.

It sits well with the other UFO vehicles in the true fleet in the auction picture.

I assume it's in the show. Is that right?

Aircraft in Raiders of the Lost Ark

I have just come across this You Tube video, which looks at the aircraft in the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Types covered are the Waco floatplane, Martin M-130 China Clipper and Short Solent flying boats; the Douglas DC-3 (the aircraft in the film is actually re-used footage from Lost Horizon), and the fictional German flying wing seen at the end of the movie.

See what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSk0QjkvB94

Paul Adams from New Zealand