STEADY HANDS REQUIRED!

 

I adored this isotope image as a kid. Its from a thick book of facts from the Sixties called What do You Know.

There was just something about it - the inherent danger of messing with something dreadful -  that made me recreate it years later on a poster. One of my mates' Mums said 'I'm worried about you Woodsy' after seeing it! ha ha!

Did you make posters as a kid or fiddle with chemicals?

ACRO MERCHANT

I saw this online. I'm not a Micronauts collector but I assume this is a knockoff.

Its called Mecha Acro Year.

Its not a bad-looking toy. What do you think?

The Men from Planet X

There's something poignant about this cover art. I like the way the alien has its eyes half-closed looking down, perhaps lost in thought. The few strokes to create the spaceship have been done well too and I think it looks great.

The alien is clearly influenced by the Man from Planet X movie poster art ( a film I've yet to see. Have you seen it?)

This is one of many of these posters for the film but I'll be honest, I prefer the Spanish rendition above.

The great Mel Birnkrant took his spark from the same movie for his own Man from Pluto, Electron+, one of the fabulous Colourforms Outerspacemen, which I had as a kid circa 1967..

Here's Mel's own mint carded Electron+.

Those Colorforms backing cards where a thing of beauty, perhaps the best backing cards of all time I would say!

Still, there's always room for more Planet X Men.

Here's Geometric Designs limited edition resin kit.

Have you any men from X readers? 

A Galaxy of Candy: Space Fleet 2000

 A reader sent me these pics over the summer.

A full box of Swizzles Space Fleet 2000. 

Such clever marketing, they all slot together to form ever bigger spacecraft and stations!

Don't they look fabulous in that box: from a time when space and sci-fi was still cool for kids ( or cool once more) in the late 70's/ early 80's. 

They always make me think of 2000AD comics and Space Raider snacks, all part of that rusty, weathered, industrial, baddie-filled universe that came after Star Wars and ALIEN hit our screens.

Have you got anything like this readers?

E-Z Space Station

Hello Woodsy

Saw this set at ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain

What do you think?

Terranova47

UNPLEASANT PLAYTHING OF THE WEEK: TRI-PLAY BREAK-A-BULL TOYS

Further to the January posts on Tri-Play Toys, and Bull Fighting toys, here is a closer look at the Tri-Play Break-A-Bull game. 'The excitement and thrill of the bullring in your own home - Destroy the charging bull with the aim of the sword'.

It is pretty bizarre, even for the time! My guess would be 1950s.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2024/01/have-you-heard-of-tri-play-toys.html#comment-form

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2024/01/seeing-red.html#comment-form

It is described on the back of the card as 'A spine tingling action game ! Shoot bull out - aim sword as he returns automatically. Hit the mark and he blows apart. Easy to put together again'.

The front of the card has the Item No.882, and a US Patent number Pat No.2,881,864. The back of the card shows this and other toys that were available from Tri-Play.

The address is Tri-Play Toys Inc., 4757 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago 40, Illinois. Other toys carry a different address - 1325 West Belden Avenue, Chicago 14, Illinois.

The bull is either moulded in black plastic, with the rest of the toy in red plastic; or red, with gold. The bull standards on a plastic box, containing the wheels and steel spring.

The photographs I could find of this toy are not that clear, but these appear to be the directions printed along the sides of the card. More instructions are printed under the parts.

1 Send out the bull with automatic sword launcher

2 Bull charges back toward you automatically

3 Aim sword tip toward target under bull's head - If you hit it bull will blow apart before your eyes

4 Quickly reassemble bull and start again.

Presumably, if you miss, the bull gores you to death ?

It looks as though Tri-Play was active around the 1950s/1960s. The lack of a five-digit ZIP postal code (introduced in 1963, although it took a while for them to be widely adopted) suggests an early date. Tri-Play Toys ... A Quality Toy ... For Greater Joy.

Art Linkletter was an American radio and television personality of the time, and he endorsed many toys, including some by Tri-Play. His image appears in one corner of the card.

The Break-A-Bull is marked $1.29. There are not very many listings for this toy on-line, so it was probably not a big seller at the time.

Four photographs from Worthpoint

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Did you Fall Asleep During Night sleeper?

 Me and the Missus are watching the Beeb's new train drama, Night sleeper. It's a hack-jacking, a new word on me.

It reminded me of other train dramas, always a difficult job to pull off for any TV or film maker I bet.

There's Speed of course, the runaway train starring Tom Cruise Control. Or is it Keanu Neo Reeves? I forget. It went too fast.

Then there are things I've not seen like the zombie ride Train to Busan and the sci-fier Snowpiercer.

My favourite train-based efforts are all horror flicks: Death Line, set in the London Tube; Creep,not dissimilar to Death Line and my number one, Horror Express, with Kojak himself, Telly Savalas. A great film about a regenerating monster aboard a trans-Siberian express.

An honorable mention has to go to Quatermass and the Pit too, set as it is on the London Underground.

And so to Night Sleeper. Episode 1 wasn't great to be honest. It seemed as if adults were talking and behaving like teenagers. It felt juvenile, clunky and probably worst of all for a disaster film, tensionless. Did you see it?

What's your favourite - or worst - train related TV or movie readers? 

Ekranoplans of the 1950s

Here is a short fantasy video I came across on You Tube. It shows some bizarre aircraft/airship/ekranoplan type craft in regular commercial service in a period 'newsreel' style.

The setting seems to be the 1950s. Perhaps such craft really do exist, in an alternative universe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwcDyIy9p1w

Paul Adams from New Zealand