SKEWERED! MY DIY 007 TOY HARPOON

 In 1965 James Bond made a big splash with Thunderball.

To cash-in on the underwater action Lone Star dived in at the deep end and released this fabulous plastic toy harpoon, which we've featured before on MC.

I never had one and ever since seeing one in TV Toy Zone's catalogue in the 1990's I've wanted one.

So, when I saw this litter grabber in Tedi, a discount chain in Germany, I snapped it up for 3 Euro and thought ..... James Bond!

After some serious spelunking with the grabber yesterday and today I came up with this, my DIY version of the Lone Star 007 Harpoon toy. More of an impression than a replica.

See what you think.

M.CHRISTIAN'S 3D THINGIVERSE 2

Thanks so much, Woodsy and HUGE thanks to all the great folks who enjoyed my Cosmos Corps Build-A-Rocket Kit pics - 

so here’s a bunch more, including how everything fits together, and even a couple of fun ephemera like a movie poster and magazine cover (all hail Hero Forge!)

Got a 3D printer? 

 Join in the fun by downloading my parts files over at Thingiverse!

M. Christian

H A U S

We had to say auf wiedersehen to this old dolls house in Germany.

We bought it about four years ago at a Diakonie charity warehouse. Alas due to its size we were never able to bring it home. It was bought largely on its great looks.

Clearly home made many years ago, each room was wallpapered, carpeted and tiled. There were doors and even electric lighting.

Priced at just 8 Euro, it came complete with tons of furniture, which we were able to bring home.

Despite asking friends and neighbours we couldn't re-home the house. I think it was the size more than anything.

It went with the house clearers in the end, along with most of this pictured below and much much more; the final remnants of my Wife's late parents' apartment of some 40 years.

Have you ever made a dolls house? Is it a lost art?

Horde of the Rings

I'm starting to collect plastic super hero rings. It's always been a thing with me. A ring thing.

As a kid I loved the Waverley ring that came with the Thrushbuster and my Bazooka Joe siren ring. Wonderful tokens from a simpler age.

When I had a vintage toy stall I bought in a few old Green Lantern rings for my customers. I sold them all but years later I found a more modern one. That's been the new spark.

I shall add to it my daughter's old Captain Planet ring 

and my dear Missus has bought me a fine Kenner Superman ring for my birthday at Christmas.

With time to kill I've been looking for a toy version of a ring I loved as a kid, from the TV cartoon Shazzan. You know the one, we're the two halves come together to reveal the genie.

Initial searches have found nothing. I'm amazed it wasn't merchandised but there's lots of rings to look at whilst I quest.

There are more gumballs and vending rings than you can shake a stick at online like this neat assortment,

Or these beauties.

 As with all collections I will have to be selective or else I'll drown in plastic. Old Super Heroes, comic heroes and radio heroes. They ring the bell! 

I'm Seeing Things

Being abroad always makes me see things in a different way, a sort of filofax of the stuff I love that colours what I come across.

With Flash and Buck on my mind, I was chuffed to see a restaurant named Wilma. Wilma Wunder i.e. Wilma Wonder!

 

At first glance. I thought these were cola cans but they're candles. Candles for graves. Keeping relatives graves in decent order for 25 years is mandatory in Germany, so millions of these are sold, especially for feast days and All Hallows.

As everywhere, Wednesday fever is rife and the Adams Family daughter merchandising machine is in full swing now Halloween looms. Here's some Kaugummi or chewing gum.

Somewhere I have the autograph of the original Wednesday from the 1960's on this big Adams game picture card. I got it to spice up my old vintage toy stall.

And as Halloween approaches we all need a quart of Kunst Blut or fake blood. That's a lot of mess right there!

In another shop I clocked these Fooßball players now turned into much less lively fridge magnets. A sort of suspended retirement!

In the same arty shop were these statues. For some reason I immediately thought of David Wies All the Madmen, the line Where the Thin Men Stalk the Streets and the Saints lay Underground coming to life!

Finally in this European medley I saw these small sofas.

. They reminded me of the prop sofa in The Secret Service I saw on an old props site.

http://www.gerryandersonprops.com/models.php

I wonder if the C21 team would have bought one - or all - of these off the shelf jobs and save time?

T48 Parcels: A Note of Caution

 As an Ebay seller I rely on the Post Office and Royal Mail [unsure of the difference these days!]. Its my choice I know so I have to accept the consequences.

One recent foible is the new T48 service. Its a two-day tracked post for parcels. The tracking kicks in when the parcel is delivered.

Normally it costs around £3.70' ish I think for a second class parcel. 

Alas, I got stung with its other add-on this week, the signature! I didn't know about the signature!

I hadn't realised I'd been charged over £5 for T48 because the sub-postie automatically bolted-on the Signature option!

This meant I lost money on the sale.

I only discovered it when I got home and checked the Proof of Postage.

Just one to to watch out for if you use T48 here in the UK!

Grrrr!

The Fading Pawprints of Halloween Night

I do love a good monster pawprint. There will be lots of them around this morning!

There are two that really had an impact on me as a nipper. Both from the 1950's and both seem invisible ..... at first.

The monster from the id stalking the ship in Forbidden Planet. Who can forget those one-toed footprints and those creepy boinging steps!

Is Forbidden Planet possibly the birthplace of modern science fiction films?

 

The Demon in Night of the Demon, that huge fire devil summoned by the runes. There is a classic scene where the monster pads its way along the forest floor.

I often conclude that this is the best monster movie ever made. You?

Have you got a fave footprint readers?

My I've Gotta Have that Klett Cotta Sauron Moment

Visiting my  girlfriend back in 1979, (now my Wife) in her home country of West Germany, I was fascinated, among other things, by her admirable bookcase.

An avid reader of hippyish paperbacks myself, I I was amazed to see these foreign versions of novels I knew and the many I didn't too. 

There was Mister God This is Anna, the Dharma Bums, Siddhartha, Solaris and Fata Morgana among the tomes.

But most alluring of all were the three books of Der Herr Der Ringe, Tolkien's incredible Lord of the Rings trilogy.

This 1977 German version comprised of three paperbacks published by the unusually - named Klett Cotta publishing house. The three books were green and nestling in a green card slipcase. Not only was the green colour striking, the cover art was to my eye, wunderbar. 

Simple and dark with an inexplicable slug-like mass writhing on two of them, all three brandishing Sauron's eye, I loved them.

Now long since gone, I've often thought about these memorable books many times since.

Coming right up to date, amazingly I recently saw a set in a German charity shop at a very reasonable price. 

Knowing that our car would already reel from everything we were taking home to Blighty I decided, sehr sehr foolishly, to pass up the chance of owning them again.

I couldn't think about anything else. Like a wasp buzzing in my head I eventually returned to the shop a week later and as is decreed by Sods Law, they were gone.

Next time I see them I shall heed the great Wizard Gandalf's words ' thou shalt not pass! '

Have you got any Lord of the Rings books?