A PARTY! GOTTA BE A BUDWEISER!

Hi, this is my all metal blimp money bank with opening Gondola to remove the coins.

Once blimps were popular in NYC for advertising or filming sporting events from the air.

I haven't seen one over Manhattan for many years, they used to film The US Open but I guess drones are cheaper to operate.

I had intended to repaint this one as I don't care for Budweiser but it turned out the scale is too small to use over my trains!

Terranova47

USA

BLOGGIVERSARY SPECIAL: ROB's MARUI ULTRA MACH NO.2 BIULD

Woodsy,

Happy Birthday!

Here is my latest vintage Japanese SF model, dating (I think) from the early 1970s. It’s the “Ultra Mach No #2” by MARUI, an obscure company that had a small line of weird SF kits back in the day, including the infamous “Ultramobile,” a blatant ripoff of the Captain Scarlet SPV.

Ultra Mach No #2 is your typical SF toy model of the time, a streamlined flying vehicle with a clockwork motor and giant wheels to make it zoom across the floor - the original kit had options for flying the vehicle on a zip line, but I left out those parts. As was usual for these kits, the finished model looks very little like the box art.

A small model, maybe 4” long when finished, but it evokes that old-school SF design style I always liked. I mixed my own metallic blue out of silver and blue paints, and I think it came out fairly well.

Most of the supplied decals didn’t fit on the model in any reasonable way, so I grabbed some misc ones from the leftovers box.

Scalemates has most of the MARUI Ultra Science models bunched together under one listing - understandable as the kits look remarkably similar upon first glance - but there were probably half a dozen different vehicles offered in this line. 

To make matters more confusing, MARUI liked to reissue the same kit every few years under a new name and with a different box art, so a definitive list of this line would be hard to compile. Most of these kits also came with a full-sized, missile-firing secret spy wristwatch, which I did not assemble.

Rob C

USA

RESCUE MISSION

 

RAPTOR BIRTHDAY

Hi Woodsy,

Thought you might like to see my Lindberg Velociraptor kit built-up.

This was a re- release of the Jurassic park mold, sold around 2010.

-BrianF 

Monster Base

 NJ USA

BEST WISHES FROM PAUL V

*

The image is from an album for images included with chocolate bars by the Jacques company, Belgium ca. 1963.

As a bloggiversary gift, a much larger version (minus text) of the X-15 image may be downloaded here: 

https://www.triangspacextoys.info/xOT/X-15-H.jpg

Best wishes 

-- Paul V

BIRTHDAY TRIFLE: THE ESTRELA RIFLE

 There are a few things that have only ever been seen once by us on Moonbase, as rare as the birthday cake you always wanted.

One of them is the beautiful Estrella tinplate space rifle, the Patrulha do Espaco, from 1969.

Seen once years ago online in Brazil courtesy of  the Brinquedos Raros sales site this old toy rifle is emblazoned with fabulous space art.

The graphics include the MEV2 on the rifle's stock, as featured on this blog's masthead!

..... together with a Booster Rocket on the box - both inspired or even lifted from Ed Valigursky's well-known space illustrations - along with Robbie the Robot and what looks like a Crater Critter maybe. 

I really like the box art and the central astronaut with the rifle is really well done. Overall its a gorgeous toy and box, the graphics used not dissimilar to one of Estrela's other space toys, Robocom, a tin TV robot, not quite as rare but almost, seen on Moonbase.

Searching for the rifle is made harder by the fact that a Brazilian rock band has the same name. I'm surprised they didn't use the box art for an album cover!

However, some new googling garnered some new pictures of this Brazilian!

From the seller's Facebook page, Brinquidos Raros, we can see more of this elusive gem!

What do you think?

Has anyone actually got one of these scarce treasures?

Happy 16th Birthday from Ed

Another wonderful year guyz and Many Thanx to you three for all you do! Moonbase is not only an inspiration but a deep dive into toy history and pop culture. I look forward to this year's posts!

From Vegas Base

Ed