ONCE IN A BLUE MOON

I love plastic moonscape dioramas. Ever since I saw one with the Spacex Superset and the Johnny Astro toys, I was smitten. It was so much easier to imagine that the little plastic toys  from LP and Tri-ang were landing on the lunar surface, when there was an otherworldly terrain to aim for.

JOHNNY ASTRO BASEPLATE

SPACEX SUPERSET

However, I am mystefied as to why almost all of the available moonscapes are all painted blue! I got a set of four Dekkertoys vacform moonscapes from the early 80's and shaded them in blue tones, to match the two main ones.

DEKKERTOYS

I picked up a small vacform battlefield diorama, only about 8 inches long and after a quick wash of blues and lilacs, It made for a nice base for some of the very small toys.

BATTLEFIELD DIORAMA

AIRFIX LEM BASEPLATE

 

The Tri-ang Luna-Cy game goes a step further and gives you a whole moon hemisphere to play with too! You could attach this to the back of the door and blast spring powered rockets in to it!

TRIANG LUNA-CY GAME

TOYS FROM A LOST CONTINENT

Following the Disney animated film 'Atlantis: The Lost Empire' in 2001, Mattel released some really cool toys and models based on the designs in the film.

Production design for the creatures and a lot of the architecture was by Mike Mignola of 'Hellboy' fame and his arcane influence is clearly visible.

There's a good steampunk vibe to the submarines and land vehicles and the Atlantean craft all have a biomechanical look to them, with the natives riding huge sharks and fish. The Mattel submarines and vehicles have a number of interchangeable parts and a range of small figures, about an inch high, very similar to the Hot Wheels/Matchbox Megarig line.

 In a similar biomechanical vein, the Tomy Zoids line also features two great mechanical fish - the Hammerhead shark and a Coelocanth-like one too, both with clockwork motors that can send them swimming in water, thanks to floats hidden in the bodies.

Easy Rider

 I picked up this nice Hot Wheels Rrrumblers today at a German Flohmarkt.

It's the Centurion, the one with the Lion's head from 1973. It's just missing the fragile handlebars, which I replace.

It's actually my first Rrrumblers. I never had any as a kid. Lots of Redlines but none of these bikes, so I was thrilled to bag it for 2 Euros.

Seeing it immediately reminded of the later Lion Rider in the Galaxy Riders line by Silverlit in the 1980's.

Clearly a Masters of the Universe rip-off with He-Man at the controls, there's a Rrrumblers vibe going on too. I've never found any of the Galaxy Riders at car boot sales.

I'm just happy with my Rrrumbler today though. Have you got any or Galaxy Riders?

NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART..

 Paul Vreede supplied me with this article, following his exploits dealing with a little model he recently completed. An R2D2 kit in etched steel from the Metal Earth series by Fascinations out of Seattle. Standing 85mm tall when finished, R2 consists of well over 100 parts, many of them tiny. Which took a magnifying glass next to nail clippers to cut loose the parts and various round shapes (like chopsticks) to curl parts round.

Images show the two sheets of parts (already half-empty) and various components in mid-construction. And the finished result, which looks most convincing!

I have to agree Paul - it does look great! I was given the X-Wing model, which when finished would be under 3" long, but it has so far defeated me as ruthlessly as Darth Vader himself, due to the almost microscopic parts and the scalpel like edges of the metal!  Bill

Now, Voyager

Kevin Davies wonderful metal kit of the Voyager probe. My fingers are bleeding just looking at that intricacy!

 

ASKING FOR THE MOON

  

I've had a fascination with our nearest neighbour from an early age, but as I grew older and began to appreciate the significance of the Moon and its features, I started to invest in maps and quite recently a large moon globe. The globe was an ebay purchase, sold loose, with little in the way of information, although the seller did remark - as I collected it in person at Preston railway station!- that her Dad had owned it and it originally had a stand, which was now lost. Taking possession of it, in a large plastic shopping bag, I found it was blow moulded plastic, quite heavy, with surface relief details, hand painted decoration and decals applied. Luckily, its previous owner had also varnished it, so everything was still intact, including the little stickers showing the moon landing sites.

As it was loose, I had no idea of what it was, or who had made it, but during a recent ebay trawl for a more conventional globe, I found another identical one, listed as a 'Wightman Moon Globe' from 1970. The seller suggested that it was supplied as an unpainted kit form, which the owner could paint and apply the decals to.

This example had suffered over the years and lost some of the paint and stickers and also the original stand. It does look very similar to my own version, so I assume there would have been painting guides and instructions and possibly specific paints provided. So, armed with this new information, I did a quick internet search and found that the Royal Museum at Greenwich have a copy of the globe in their archival collections, which also includes the original box, stand and instruction sheet.

https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-388811

Reproduced courtesy of RMG

Its safe to assume that the Wightman Lunaglobe would have been a premium item, intended for specialists rather than children and would probably have been quite expensive. The record also shows the original stand, so now I can set about making a suitable stand for my own model.

Above is a print of the moon rock, brought back from Apollo 11, which was on display in Liverpool Museum at around the same time the Wightman globes would have been available and one of the things which started me down the path of all things lunar.

A RAY OF SUNSHINE

Terranova - a long time Dan Dare fan, sent me this nifty raygun toy. He writes:

"This is a twenty year old copy of a toy I had as a kid in the 50's. It was then sold as a Dan Dare gun, the best you could hope for was hitting someone two feet away with a roll of paper.

Frankly throwing a roll of toilet paper would have been a more offensive weapon. No Treen could have survived such treatment."

 

Space Junk

 Like Woodsy, the devil will often make work for idle hands and if I am at a bit of a loose end, I enjoy nothing better than a delve in the scrap box and knocking up a quick model or customisation from junk. Sometimes the idea arrives first and its a question of finding the parts to fit, whilst other times I will come across something that immediately suggests a shape or a model.

I've always been a big a big fan of gumball capsules and similar plastic domes, so last xmas i came across clear plastic baubles that you could fill yourself to make decorations. Straight away, I saw a use for them as a space station, with a Spacex theme, so a quick wash of orange and lime green paint and some bits from the box and voila!

Another use of an xmas decoration was one of the silver baubles, instantly reminded me of the second Soviet moon probe, Lunik. So once more the superglue came out and some parts. This in turn inspired a run of probes and satellites, so I churned out a few more with various kit spares and bottle tops!

Finding a toy golf ball holder sent me off on a mission to build a Von Braun Mars Cruiser next, like the wonderful designs in George PAL's 'Conquest of Space'.

https://youtu.be/qlyHw3mNfmA