KEVIN'S SATURNS

 Courtesy of Kevin

DAVID GRAHAM R.I.P.

 Sorry to hear that the wonderful David Graham has sadly passed away at the age of 99.

David, well known to Thunderbirds fans as  the voice of Parker, as well as providing his voice talents to many other Gerry & Sylvia Anderson productions voicing Dr Beaker, Prof Matthew Matic, Mitch the Monkey, Zoonie the Lazoon and  many .others.  He was also heard as one of the voices of the  Daleks..

He will be sadly missed. 

Our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

STRIKE A POSE BUCK!

 Ed's Archeresque parachutist reminded me of how much I like those old Buck Rogers book cover illustrations with similarly strange and endearing poses as those Archer figures.

My favourite Buck pose is this.

Arms and one knee bent, head looking down in a gas-powered ascent.

At once unreal yet oddly hypnotic, I wonder where this kind of art came from?

Another, even more awkward posture is this, as Buck grabs the top of a tree. It just looks so odd.

Archer Ajax figures are posed in similar ways, which is hard to describe. Is it Art Deco?

Here's Aqua I saw on Ebay.

Just what are these poses readers?

ED'S SPACE CHUTE

Woodsy & Fellow Moonbasers,

I liked the Star Warsy paratroop figure from Spain. I recently acquired this carded unbranded Space Paratroop set from Hong Kong with two Ajax knock-off spacemen. Definitely figures from an earlier era but the cheaply made parachute toy format appears to be ever popular.

From Vegas Base

Ed

LOVE AND THUNDER: BY GOD, IT'S A STRUGGLE!

 Tonight I had another go at watching the Marvel THOR movie Love and Thunder.

I had a go a while back and gave up. Tonight I persisted and after putting up with Zeus, romance and daft silliness, I ended up enjoying it.

Its not the best THOR film by a Mojlnir, but its OK.

The good points are Christian Bale. Christian Bale is probably the best thing in the film, his character the God Butcher is the most interesting. The opening five minutes could have been a prelude to completely different and grittier film.

The bad points are the schmaltz, schmaltz and schmaltz. Love and Thunder, the title, is probably a bad sign that this is the way it'll go but really; even Odin would have trouble wading through the romantic goo.

Still, I struggled but somehow, I enjoyed it!

Have you seen Love and Thunder?

HOME STAR: DO IT YOURSELF ROCKET GUN DONE

 My experiment with Papier Mache is complete and my DIY Dalek Rocket Gun is finished.

Not perfect by a long Dalek and I'm not sure I'll use Papier Mache again but it was fun to try. Its mixed results for sure - the grip looks like a lump of red meat! -  but it should look much better when its on a new backing card kindly being created by Bill. When the two things come together I'll post it here.

The good news is, the Dr. Who vintage arsenal will be back - with real toys this time!

WHAT'S ON TELLY?

A few things have passed across the Moonbase screens this week. Mostly Marvel films, namely the Fantastic Four movies. I like the Fantastics a lot but I still think there's room for a gritty remake like DC did with Batman films.

I wonder if the Fantastic 4 ever crossed over with the Avengers? I'd love to see a Thing Hulk stand-off! [just realised that the 2027 Secret Wars movie will bring some FF and Avengers together!]

Dr. Doom is an interesting character and reminds me of when I used to collect Secret Wars action figures, snapping them up loose wherever I found them. Very occasionally I got one of those flicker shields they came with too. 

Alas, I've sold all my Secret Wars ages ago, but I sill like those smooth figure lines.

Here's one  I saw online on Ebay.

Doom always reminds me of Kang the Conqueror, another megalomaniac with a suit and Secret Wars figure too, as seen above courtesy of Battle Grip.

Kang appears in Marvel's Quantumania and maybe feature in the upcoming Doomsday in 2026 [it was originally called the Kang Dynasty, but the lead has been convicted!].

Secret Wars itself gets the Hollywood treatment in 2027 with Dr. Doom being played by .... Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man died at the end of Endgame so he needs a new suit.

Another film me and the Missus started was Extinction. It started a lot like Battle Earth, a violent alien invasion, and stayed that way. We turned it off, although I'd like to know how it ended.

I had a dabble with WHAT IF on Marvel's Disney channel. Agent Carter became Captain America. It was intriguing but I can't take adult animation seriously enough to stay interested, a fault of mine!

That's it for now.

What are you watching?

LOOEY'S PROPS: ALIEN COVENANT SISTRUMS

Hi Woodsy! Your lovely Daleks Blaster project reminded me of a recent project I worked on.

As a bit of a Horror fan yourself, you might appreciate this too!

My swansong in the fillum industry was Alien:Covenant as an ailment made working in a standard movie studio impossible. I got to make a bunch of background musical instrument props for David's Laboratory, which I was able to do from the comfort of my Mountain Hideout. 

The brief was a final reckoning with what the role of Prop Maker has become in today's mechanised production process. I received a sheaf of photo-realistic full colour renderings of what was required. There was no collaboration required, so my only joy in the job was producing objects that were absolutely identical to the illustrations!

Sadly when seen on screen, my final efforts were just out of focus blobs!

Anyway, this is just back story to a much more interesting tale.

How I got to design a monster (and some water pistols!) for the TikTok Horror series Greystanes...

https://www.tiktok.com/@greystanesseries