PETE'S BEARS

Our final AirBnB accommodation in Kingsbridge was indeed a rare find.

An extended and converted garage transformed into a lovely compact studio, we loved it.

Over three days, we really enjoyed this private pad's sunny space. We never made it up the ladder into the mezzanine but we adored the owner Pete's own art scattered round the place.

Wanting to share the paintings, I snapped them for the blog. Hope you like them too.

This bear and girl had us mesmerised. It reminded me of John Schoenherr's bears.

I was really taken with this thoughtful astronaut.

The biggest piece on display, this stag and forest was so fabulously striking.

High up on a shelf was this second and bigger bear, a beautiful portrait.

You can read more about Peter's art and his fascination with bears and other wildlife on his own page.

https://peteodonnellart.weebly.com/about.html

Operation Blues and Royals: A Plume with a View

 I've made some post-holiday progress on the Blues and Royals.

After scalping a miniature Barbie, a complete misfire, I raided the house brush and plucked a few tufts, which I hope will form a decent top helmet plume. More hair work to be done on this and they'll all need reddening.

The metal letter opener sword has been repainted silver and the hand grip has been whitened. A white 'leather' guard has been inserted inside the hilt.

The original scabbard and helmet have been re-chromed.

Bisecting a spare Palitoy belt the scabbard has been given new straps.

More to come including a critical action man head issue.

Coffee first!

BRUDER PARTY BOT

I like this Bruder party box from West Germany.

I saw this one on Ebay small ads.

There's a neat mini red robot in the corner. Is it a bot you know readers?

Accessories Assemble

 On returning to Moonbase I was chuffed to unwrap the handful of old bits I'd won on eBay to progress Operation Blues and Royals. All are original Action Man, except the metal sword.

They all need checking over and getting to something like Palitoy's final look.

I just need a cuppa and a digestive.

The Devonian Horde

I take it all back. Devon came up trumps in the end! Here's the full toy haul now safely back at Moonbase for sifting, sorting and fixing. Talk about Devon sent! 

The Greatest Catch of All Time

 I saw this fabulous framed print in a Kingsbridge charity shop this week. I wish I'd have got it now! 

I was immediately drawn to it because it reminded me of series of Aurora kits that fascinated me since first seeing them in Rick Polizzi's Classic Plastic book, Great Moments in Sport, the box art of which is simply stunning and includes boxing, football and baseball.

My favourite is Willie Mays

 Famous baseball Catch, a beautiful illustration.

I got to wondering if they they were the same artist of both the print and the box art?

After some digging, sadly they're not but they are both very well-known American artists in their own right.

The top framed print is by the late Frank McCarthy. I found the same image in an old fictional story, the Take-Charge Guy, from a May 1952 Colliers magazine online. Looks like they issued prints of it judging by what I saw in Kingsbridge. I don't know if the play shown is fictitious. Do you?

The Aurora box artist on the other hand was Mort Kunstler, who is still around and creating art. From what I can see online no prints of the Willie Mays painting are available, which is a shame.

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153593459825036&vanity=mortkunstler

Willie May's incredible move is known simply as The Catch and is widely seen as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, baseball catch of all time.

Here it is in real life, an amazing shot borrowed from Wikipedia, showing The Catch for the New York Giants, New York, 1954.

Have you got any baseball art or collectables or even the Aurora sports kits readers? 

SCREEN IF YOU WANT TO GO FASTER

 I've a few things on the boil at the mo.

Just finished this simple addition to my incomplete TB2 pod JR21 Land Rover, a neat plastic windscreen donated by Wotan Bill during lockdown.

Not an original part but it'll do nicely. At some point I'll paint it red.

Next up is a 1980's Transformers Galvatron spruce-up.

Broadway, Baskervilles and Goodbye to the Exe

Well, our hols are more or less over. We are en route to God's own county (Yorkshire!) but have broken the journey in half, overnighting in Broadway in the Cotswolds, half hour from the M5 motorway and the final two hour stretch home tomorrow.

Broadway is a long Cotswolds village, peppered with mansions and listed sandstones. James Martin has an old huge gastro pub here. It's an affluent place but we still found four charity shops, from which I sadly garnered nowt.

We stayed here one Winter years ago, twinkling with Christmas lights and decidedly quiet, where we visited Snowshill house.

Not so today. It's rammed to the Grade 1 rafters with tourists: big coaches of Japanese folks on a grand tour and fleets of slick black SUV's housing retired couples in loafers and pastel pullovers draped over svelte shoulders. The difference is startling. It's a honeypot of dosh.

Being retirees ourselves we have retired to our room in an old, modest, crooked inn, kaput and ready for our evening grub at 7pm. Hopefully we'll have scoffed and retired once more before the football starts on the pub telly when England take on Holland and things get tense.

In our cozy room is this old print hung on the wall. It immediately reminded me of one of my favourite Hammer horrors, the Hound of the Baskervilles and the opening scenes, where the jilted Baron, hell-bent on revenge, screams that immortal line,

'Release the hounds!'

Sherlock Holmes aka Peter Cushing eventually solves the case but only in the nick of time, the current Baron coming frighteningly close to the sulphurous maw of the Hell Hound.

It was a true shocker when I was a kid and only shown post-watershed after 9pm. These days I've watched it mid-afternoon on the telly!

I was always surprised there wasn't more merchandising made of the story. I can't recall any games, jigsaws or toys at all. It would have made a great Aurora model, especially the glow-in-the-dark feature, perfect for the beast's fiery jaws.

Maybe Sherlock Holmes licences were difficult for model and toy companies to acquire?

I do recall thinking about the Baskerville curse as we drove through Devon's darkling lands between the Exe and the Dart and in particular heeding the warning at its heart

'to forbear from crossing the moor in those dark hours when the powers of evil are exalted.'

Do you have a hellish hound near you?