SCHLEICH!

When it comes to toys, Germany, where we recently visited, is a land of Playmobil, Kinder and Schleich. These brands are massive there.

Always expanding and reaching out, the ever-heavy Schleich now do DC Batman and Joker figures, together with countless fantasy creatures and heroes.

They even have their own kids comic, which includes a collectable figure, like this bio-biollante-esque Dschungel-ungeheuer.

But it's one toy from the Neue Helden line that stopped me in my tracks at a fleamarket, the big white battle elephant.

Large and solid, Schleich's models are always top quality and they've even made an add-on for this one, an intricate Moorish battle platform.

Together they look superb!

Have you any Schleich?

M U T A N T : The Movie

As last night's TV was so mind-numbingly safe and utterly dire I have resorted to You Tube and an old Roger Corman Sci-Fi production called MUTANT, which I've never seen.

Released in 1982, it has to be the biggest pile of derivative tripe I've ever had the dubious pleasure of watching. Mixing ALIEN, Star Wars, The Thing from Another World, some 2001 Space Odyssey score and clumsy sex with the finesse of a Kenwood Chef, it slides along dreadfully like something that has missed the bin and oozes down the wall towards the floor.

The acting is awful, the effects are laughable and the Mutant itself is as scary as a bowl of Reddy Brek. Its only redeeming feature is allowing you to shout at the screen when you spot the brazen rip-offs of costumes and effects from Hollywood's Sci-Fi successes from previous decades.

We see their brand of Stormtrooper and Tuskan Raiders [pictured], ALIEN computer text reflection and many many more laundered parts.

I understand that MUTANT was also known as Forbidden World and Subject 20. It doesn't matter what its called, it's still dross. So much so, I have turned it off three-quarters of the way through! Any more and I may have mutated myself.

Am I being unduly harsh?

have you seen MUTANT readers?

*

Addendum:

Surprisingly, another interesting aspect of this flick particularly for video collectors like me are the various VHS covers for it. Here's a selection highlighting the different covers and names it tormented its hapless viewers with across the world back in the lawless Eighties. Do you recognise them?

and one for Arto, the Finnish cover!

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POSTSCRIPT:

I mentioned that I might have seen this image before. Well here it is, not quite the same at all! Its Gandalf and Balrog by the Brothers Hildebrandt from a book I had as a teenager.

*

his post was first published in 2016

The X-Files Second Movie: I want To Believe .... but I couldn't!

Recently I watched the first and last X-Files Movies with the Missus.

I've written about the first one already last week, a really brilliant film adaptation of the early series we adored.

The two films couldn't be more different if they tried. The second one was dire!

It's tired, old and bored, a lot like the two main characters, Mulder and Scully.

As far removed from the global alien conspiracy as you can get, this second movie focused on illegal organ transplants. I wouldn't have minded if they were for aliens but the transplanters appeared to be Russian. Is that really the best they could come up with?

Even poor old Billy Connolly looked non-plussed by the whole affair, tearing around on the ice looking for ex- limbs. 

I know early on the X-Files wavered between aliens and monsters and did so quite superbly as a series but this was neither. Not extraterrestrial or monstrous in any way, just deplorable human vice. OK, its a very nasty subject but its not the X-Files.

Admittedly I stopped watching the series about half way, several seasons in in the 90's and have a lot of catching up to do one day - for instance I didn't know that Mulder and Scully had a son called William - so maybe the original X concept had waned as the many seasons rolled on.

Is the second movie representative of later seasons of the X-Files?

I still want to believe!

ANT'S COUSIN, THE M O L A B

And speaking of cool lunar concepts that remained squarely on Earth, here's the ANT's cousin, the MOLAB, one of a number of mobile laboratory designs. 

Do you prefer this style of MOLAB to the one Triang opted for for their SpaceX range? 

The A N T

Check out this amazing old footage of a test run of the real NASA concept vehicle that the Project SWORD Annual called the ANT.

It looks great doesn't it!

What a Century 21 toy it would have made!

 https://youtu.be/44hApNzmS_Q?feature=shared

Paul's UNCLE Badge - Found!

Hi Woodsy,

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1964-68) was a very popular TV series, and there was a lot of merchandise tied-in with the show at the time. While I missed out on most of this, I did have a pair of Man From U.N.C.L.E. pyjamas.

These came with a plastic glow-in-the-dark badge, which clipped to the pocket. I had Number 11 (Napoleon Solo); there was also a Number 2 (Illya Kuryakin).

The badges were the same as those worn by the agents inside U.N.C.L.E. HQ. They were 80 mm wide, and 86 mm tall.

The glow-in-the-dark plastic was greenish, with the U.N.C.L.E. title and the number picked out in black. The lettering and number being slightly raised.

The back clip on mine, which slipped over the breast pocket, broke off decades ago. There is writing on the back, in two groups.

Two diamond shapes on the left have MODEL and LITTLE MODEL inside them. On the right is C 1965 MGM. INC. SAVADA BROS. INC. N.Y.C.

Savada Bros. Inc. was the name of the manufacturer of the pyjamas (my pair was probably made in NZ under licence by another company entirely). Model and Little Model were names used by the company.

Here is the earlier Moonbase Central post showing the Illya Kuryakin badge, and the fabric used to make the pyjamas – I had the blue version. Mine wore out many years ago, as I just about lived in them.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2023/10/pauls-man-from-uncle-pyjamas.html

I was really delighted to find my old badge recently. It is well over 50 years old, but still glows in the dark!

Paul Adams from New Zealand

SWATS THAT?

I'm seeing SWAT and Police Cars with Action dolls all over the place!

This is a Japanese Hema toy AMERICAN Alfa Romeo Police car I saw online on Ebay.

Maybe those figures are Action Team? Have these GI Joe Action Men got stockings on their heads? These fighting men get everywhere!

Have you found them in strange places readers?

and here's LJN's SWAT set from 1976 courtesy of RetroWaste. Are the HEMA guys SWAT too?

Those SWAT figures, here close-up and courtesy of MYMEGOLIKE, look like little Action Men! Anyone got any SWAT toys. Was it a TV show?

and here's LJN's similar Rookies too courtesy of Plaid Stallions. Was that a TV show?

Have you a Police Car with action dolls like these or Action Man/GI Joe readers?

STUFF I'VE WATCHED

Watched a few things of late. Have you seen any of them?

Impulse: a 1984 eco-shocker about chemical waste entering the water system of a small American town and .... sending the townsfolk barmy and homicidal. A decent attempt at a toxic quarantine along the lines of the Crazies and Andromeda Strain.

Rings of Power: I'm enjoying Prime's super-expensive retelling of Tolkien's early tales and seeing characters like Tom Bombadil brought to life. Just waiting for the next episode now in Season 2.

Werewolf by Night in Colour: I first saw this Marvel mini-film on Disney+ a coupla years ago in monochrome. This time they've added full colour. I really like this Marvel short because it lets one of its less-well known but fabulous characters, the marvellous Man-Thing get an airing. Please give us more Man-Thing Marvel!

The Crazies: the modern remake of the old Romero movie [which I've yet to see] starring Timothy Olyphant. He plays a great sheriff role in a small American town about chemical waste sending the townsfolk barmy and homicidal. Its a lot gorier than Impulse but taps into the same vein of state-run mass experiments on citizens.

Sting: an alien spider film. The first ten minutes were so tedious it was sacked off till a later date.

X-Files The Movie: the first and best of two film spin-offs from the famous and fantastic TV series that kept us glued to the telly in the 1990's. The film's got it all; Mulder, Scully, Cancer Man, the Four Horsemen, aliens, viruses, shadowy figures of power in a global conspiracy and lots of bees. Martin Landau makes a brilliant appearance as Dr. Kurtzweil. Yep, I love the X-Files.