ED'S HAMILTON INVADERS MOSQUITO JEEP #466-1

Woodsy and Fellow Moonbasers,

Unlike so many of the toys I've shared with you all, I actually had the Mosquito Jeep as a kid. 

It was my 11th birthday - sometime around 1885  (just kidding) - and to my recollection, my mother had gotten me two boxed Hamilton's Invaders playsets. 

I believe there were two sets, but maybe it was one of the bigger double sets - REMCO made quite a few. In any case, I ended up with the Mosquito Jeep, Hornet Helicopter, Horrible Hamilton (the big bug), one or two of the medium sized bugs, and a contingent of Invaders (soldiers). 

Fast forward a good many years and I am now an adult collector buying back my memories: in comes REMCO's Hamilton's Invaders! I started collecting these some years back but ever so slowly. From what I gather in the fb (Meta) groups is that these were very popular toys. 

Sooo many people have commented that they either had them or had friends or relatives that had them. This popularity is evident not only by the prices they command, but also by the overall poor condition generally present in the toys that are for sale. 

Nearly every single piece I own (except for the soldiers) has condition issues: broken/missing pieces, broken mechanism's, etc., but as my budget wouldn't allow for the high-quality goods, it's what I ended up with.

Now that I've finally taken these toys out for photography, I can see where the issues lie. For the most part, they display well and this Mosquito Jeep is no exception:

-The pull-string motor doesn't work, as is the case with most of these toys (imagine Junior yanking back on that string with all his might, plopping it down to have it crash into things, then picking it up and repeating over, and over, and over again! These toys weren't built for that kind of abuse).

-The plating is worn off

-The gun mount is loose such that it won't stay elevated

-The front wheel set is so loose it just falls off, necessitating careful handling

-There's a chunk of plastic broken off near the canopy hinge, allowing the canopy to fall off easily

-The driver is missing

-It was very dirty (although I cleaned it up a lot, it could use another round of cleaning).

...But other than that, it's fine! 

There were actually quite a few toys in this series and I didn't have them all as a kid, and I don't have them all now as a collector - but I'm working on it!

From Horrible Hamilton's Cave,

Ed

USA

Deep Sea Diver: At the Tailors

 Further progress on the helmet. All the shoulder plate 'rivets' are glued on. It's a bit front heavy. I'll wait till the whole outfit is done before I deal with that. Gold paint is on order to finish it next.

See what you think.

Some work has been done on the diver's suit. I used an old cotton shopping bag for material. Hmmm, could be a mistake.

I used double-sided tape to attach the two sides and then stitched round the edges. It's far too slim so I forcibly pulled the seams to make it baggier.

 

This dry run makes it clear that the rough suit is still not big enough. I will have to add a lot more bag.

Overall I'm about half way through the whole endeavour. 

Hopefully Action Man should be taking a bath by next weekend! 

My New Bran Bowl

My meagre but fun catch at the car boot, my first trip out in a week.

LtoR. Castle Bran bowl. Dr.Who mag free gift 2009. Silver ironing board cover. Modern Action Man.

The Bran bowl from Dracula's castle in Romania was a no brainer - or should that be branner! I was fascinated by comic ads for vials of Bran soil when I was a kid and now I have at least a bowl. You can guess what's going it in! And no, not bran!

Do you remember Dracula's soil in bottles?

The silver cover is for a future action man outfit. Can you guess?

The modern Action man will be my deep sea diver when I'm done. Those modern hands are WAY too big!

I also saw this Route 66 picture. What is that car? Anyone?

What are you up to today?

Stood By For Action!

I've just been in the garage looking for something completely unrelated and noticed these old magazines sat on top of a box. Engale Marketing's 'Action 21' magazine from 1988. A lavishly produced reprint of classic TV21 stories and additional material, in a recognisable TV21 format. I used to buy these everytime I saw them in my local comic shop and it's interesting to see the mention of Thinderbooks 2 opening in Preston (the main branch being Blackpool). David Nightingale ran Thunderbooks and Engale and were the premier source for all Anderson materials at the time.

Publication was as I recall, sporadic, but fairly regular and I have ten consecutive issues running up to October 1989. Did it carry on beyond that date? Am I missing further issues?

Diving Straight In: My New Action Man Project

 I loved my Action Man deep sea diver as a kid. He went on many a soapy adventure in the bath with me, grappling that pesky rubber shark. Did you have one readers?

I particularly loved the helmet and this morning, when I noticed what the Missus was using for making crocheted Xmas tree decorations I had to look twice!

Golden baubles! I had an instant idea! Yikes!

Let's have a bash at scratch-biulding that deep sea helmet my steroid* - addled brain cried out!

* GP prescribed! For Asthma. 

I started by getting the measure of Action Man's head using an egg cup. He loves like ROM! 

I then used a similar sized cap to mark out where the head should enter the helmet on a golden ball donated by the Missus for the as yet untitled project.

I did the same for the face portal using this honey cap as the template.

The cap then became the portal! I put a different one on the honey.

Side portals were added and a top valve. The face portal was prepped.

Going fully Jules Verne I went mad at the rear adding a doll's house lamp stand as the main air pipe tap ( please don't look at the reflection! It was a hot day!)

I then moved onto the shoulder brace. A large vending flexi half-dome fit the bill.

I added a collar to get the right neck hole on the shoulder brace. Oh, and a front tap.

The shoulder brace hole was cut.

The correct shape was cut for the shoulders and tested on my headless man.

The honey bottle cap portal was glued in position. Its a bit chunky but it actually opens!

Rubber band trims were added to the collar and shoulder brace, little extras were glued to the front and brace trim and a first attempt at a visor grate was made.

More later. I need a banana first!

CAPTAIN SCARLET: NEVER WIPE HIM OFF!

These are unusual so I saved the Ebay snaps.

Wipe Off colouring cards by Berwick from 1967.

and its Captain Scarlet!

Look at those ace line drawings of the characters and the vehicles!

Did you have anything that you wiped off?

Unusual Kit of the Month: St. Edward's Crown

Here is a very unusual, and obscure model - the Fujimi kit of St. Edward's Crown, kit number CR1-600. I found a review of it in the old British modelling magazine Scale Models, on the excellent Internet Archive site.

https://archive.org/details/scale-models-jul-70/mode/2up

The July 1970 issue contains a review of the kit, by the Japanese Fujimi company. A 1/3rd scale model of St. Edward's Crown, along with a sceptre, and base.

The completed model stands 133 mm tall, and has a width of 96 mm. There are 200 parts in total.

The review says the crown is painted gold, but in the few photographs I could find it looks to be chrome-plated ? The various jewels in the crown are clear coloured plastic, representing diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and pearls - I should think these would account for most of the parts.

The kit also came with purple velvet, and white fur (but you have to paint on the black ermine spots). It seems to be the only such kit that Fujimi ever issued.

The kit does get an entry on Scalemates, where it is described as a New Tool, and dated 1969.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/fujimi-cr1-600-st-edwards-crown--1475146

This seems like a very odd choice of subject for a Japanese kit company. It appears to have been very short-lived, and to have never been re-issued.

Two photographs from Worthpoint.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

SMEG! SMALLSPACE 11 TAKES PLACE TOMORROW

Fans of original props, models and the occasional special guests primarily from the world of TV & film sci-fi will be making their way to the picturesque village of Hanslope tomorrow, to the annual  Smallspace meet up.

I'll be there, camera in hand to catch up with some old mates, Facebook friends and maybe a meet up with one or two people who stop by at the blog!

This year Smallspace is showcasing Red Dwarf,, with the welcome return of three of the special effect crew, Mike, Alan and Nick

Although a highlights will a display of full size replicas of the Drones from Silent Running, the original SLOMO prop from Gerry Anderson's  Space Precinct 

Here's a few photos from last years event to whet your appetite.