LOST TOY SHOPS

 These are in my foto archive. I must have saved them ages ago from somewhere online.

This old toy shop is Jeans in Lowestoft.

and this is an old Woolworths window display.

See anything you recognise?

Christmas Sweets: An Early Nibble

Back in the Sixties and early Seventies, Christmas meant sweets in the UK.

Lots and lots of sweets.

Some of my favourites, mostly chocolate, were often clubbed together in that most fabulous of all human inventions, the Selection Box.

As much a part of the festive season as  dodgy socks and dried stuffing, the Selection box was good to go at any time, whether it be part of the general manoeuvres through the whole of December or as a treat on the Big Day.

The best medleys included a Crunchie, a Curly Whirly, a bag of Fruit pastels, a Fudge and a Ripple. To be honest , it didn't matter what was in them. Even Caramac!

Far more important than any titchy chocs to be had in those flimsy Advent Calendars, Selection Boxes were essential gritty supplies to power you through the more boring rituals of the season.

Other sweets of note were sugared jellies or jellied fruits. Not my favourite at the time, a more sedate tid-bit to be found hiding on small coffee tables, the staple of visiting Aunties and my Mum's big-hatted friends.

Much more to my taste were Chocolate Brazils.

 Always the same make, I forget the name, these rock-hard delights came in a flat box, with each nut nestled in a pleated paper cup. The chocolate around them was so thick you just had to eat it off like a fevered beaver.

A far more adult confection were chocolate liqueurs. I'm not sure I liked them that much back then, the injection of cognac or Tia Maria into my mouth a completely alien experience as a kid. I would eat them now though, no worries!

My final guilty pleasure has to coffee creams. Or is it cremes? 

You know the ones, whether left behind in the chocolate box because nobody liked them or found in an entire box of cremes, this strange treat had a bad rep.

 Less popular than the more suave peppermint variety or those pompous After Eights, the lowly coffee creme was an outcast in it's own munchbox. 

I on the other hand adored them as a kid and to my good fortune, often found stragglers languishing in shame round the house at Christmas. Like a festive magpie I'd gobble them up before downing half a bottle of Tizer, that russet fuel of champions. 

Ah yes, sweets at Christmas. Which were and are your faves readers? 

Mystery Cool Radar Car

Seen on Ebay this year this neat lunar radar rover caught my eye. It looks familiar sort of. Described as 6 inches long with a Home made dish.

Any ideas as to what it is readers? 

TERRANOVA47: WORKING WITH ARTISTS

Having been in art school with future illustrators and having commissioned work over the years as a Graphic Designer for various projects I had to think about your question: what is it like to work with an artist?

In the case of the Godzilla art and story I storyboarded from a rough draft of the plot, where I wanted spot illustrations of a talking head and where I wanted a full page illustration. 

With artist Carmen Cerra it was nice that he worked in traditional materials. He liked to do both loose line art with a pen and tight drawings with pen and wash. He would also do brush and ink illustrations. Each style was a different rate as the calculation is on the time it takes. A brush and ink drawing might take just minutes, a detailed drawing an hour or more.

For reference Carmen was familiar with the Wind in the Willows characters, I sent him recent photos of Miles as he was nearly three years older than in the first book and photos of a Thames Skiff which he would not be familiar with.

Things are so much faster than when I was working, email has eliminated weeks of production time wasted waiting for snail mail. Carmen sent scans of pencil layouts for approval, then created the finished art. He scanned them, emailed them and mailed the original art to me. Having worked freelance myself the delay in receiving a cheque after 30 days or more was always a hassle. Now I can send instant PAYPAL payment, something I was never the beneficiary of.

Carmen as unusual in that he is an American familiar with British story books and artists. He recently illustrated a sequel to Winnie the Poo in the original style once the original copyright to the character had expired.

For the first Mileosaurus story I wanted a Beano style illustrator so went to PeoplePerHour.com which is mostly British artists available to hire Freelance. The rates are very competitive and the artists very talented. They are also young and have grown up drawing with computer programs rather than pen and ink. For me it was a new learning experience as colours and size could quickly be altered which in the past would be expensive changes to make as new art had to be drawn.

You blogged the first story I did for Spaceship Away [2023] with Dan Dare and Dennis the Menace. 

A second story was just published in the latest issue, 64.

Artist Dave Windett was found through PeoplePerHour in the UK. I again story boarded the page, sent dialog and reference pictures to Dave and he did the rest. The editor made many changes in colours which would have been prohibitive in traditional art but simple in software based drawings.

This story is for fans of the original Dan Dare stories from 1950-59. The punchline is in knowing the reference of who the Deputy Prime Minister is.

I quote from the HAYNES Space Fleet Operations Manual for the Deputy's father:

Dr Blasco. A brilliant scientist who discovered a way to stabilise and use monatomic hydrogen as a rocket fuel. He designed the Valiant battlecraft for the run to Saturn, but had his own power agenda. Secretly in league with Rootha forces on Saturn, on his return he planned to take over the Earth. Foiled at the last moment, he lost his life when his space helmet came off in a struggle aboard the Kroopak command craft.

So the Deputy Prime Minister is the son of a megalomaniac that wanted to enslave Earth but whose plans were thwarted by Dan Dare..

Terranova47

NYC

NOT MY DING-A-LING!

I saw this beautiful artwork online for the Ding-a-Ling mobile.

I never had a Ding-a-Ling [unlike Chuck Berry!]but thought immediately that rover has the same wheels as my old beloved Firebolt Laser Cannon.

Here's Wotan Bill's as an example.

Did you have a Ding-a-Ling readers?

Its Wild! The Aurora Black Fury All Plastic Assembly Kit by Paul A

The Aurora Black Fury All Plastic Assembly Kit came up this year, so I thought it was time for a quick look at all the different versions. Between 1959 and 1968 Aurora released three horse kits, and two of these were used as the equine half of several mounted figures.

Black Fury - King of the Wild Horses was the first of these. It was also the largest, at 1/8th scale, and was 11 inches long, and 9 1/4 inches tall.

Although I can not see a copyright date on the parts, the earliest box design is dated 1958, and Thomas Graham in Aurora Model Kits gives a release date of 1959. It looks like Aurora planned to issue this kit with and without a rider from the outset, and all the kits appeared at much the same time.

The address on the side of the box is Aurora Plastics Corp. (later Aurora Products Corp.), West Hempstead, L.I., N.Y. - which is Long Island, New York state. Much later the ZIP postal code 11552 was added.

The kit contained only 12 parts (left and right body halves; four inner leg sections; left and right tail halves; and four horse shoes, which were not needed for the wild Black Fury, or the Apache Warrior on Horse. There was no base.

The various mounted kits also included saddles, reins, etc. Some of the horses were also moulded in different colours to the usual black.

Woodsy asked about the significance of the name Black Fury. Charlton Comics had launched a comic in 1955, called Black Fury, which lasted until 1966.

It was about a wild horse, and his adventures in the Old West. He had his own herd, and humans tangled with him at their peril.

There was also a TV series called Fury (1955-60) about a boy and his horse. Fury - King of the Wild Stallions, is also black, but the series was set in the present day West.

There is no mention of the comic book or the TV series on the Aurora Black Fury box or instruction sheet, but surely the name and the western setting can not be a coincidence ?

The Black Fury kit was initially included in the Famous Fighters series, before being moved to the Wild Life series in the 1962 catalogue. It was last seen in the 1975 Aurora catalogue.

It seems that the solo Black Fury kit has not been available in decades. However, the Gold Knight and Confederate Raider have been re-issued by other companies, with the horse being moulded in different colours.

400 Black Fury - horse kit

Also included in the Apache Warrior, Confederate Raider, Gold Knight of Nice, and Knights in Shining Armour King Arthur mounted kits. Twelve parts in black plastic. Three different box designs.

The earliest box, copyright date 1958, shows Black Fury protecting his herd of horses against a hungry mountain lion (barely visible, to the left of the picture). There are two versions of the Aurora logo - with either Famous Fighters or Educational Kits on the blue outer ring.

The second has him rearing up on his hind legs. This also has a 1958 copyright date on the box, although Scalemates says 1963.

The last box has Black Fury against a purple and orange sky, mane and tail flying. The kit is moulded with the right foreleg raised, but this style of box shows the left foreleg raised instead.

There are two variations of the box - either undated (the earlier version, 1969 according to Scalemates), or dated 1972 with a list of Aurora branches in various countries. This box has the Aurora name on a large letter A.

The instruction sheet was the same in each version, and is dated 1958. The back of the sheet promoted various other Aurora kits and product lines, and changed over the years.

The kit number remained 400, but the suffix changed as the price increased over the years, from 400-98 (98 cents) to 400-130 ($1.30), before the suffix was dropped entirely. Obviously, the mounted kits were more expensive.

401 Apache Warrior on Horse - included the Black Fury kit in brown plastic. Not re-issued.

Number later re-used for the White Stallion.

402 Confederate Raider - included the Black Fury kit in black or brown plastic. Re-issued by Moebius with the horse in tan.

Number later re-used for the American Buffalo.

K-5 Gold Knight of Nice - included the Black Fury kit in black plastic.

Also 475 new box, 885 Chrome-plated King Arthur (released in Britain by Aurora Plastics (U.K.) Ltd). The horse parts were not plated, only King Arthur and the accessories; and the horse was still moulded in black.

Re-issued by Monogram, with everything moulded in light grey.

Ten photographs from Worthpoint

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Test Shot Monster Dolls

Intrigued by Wotan Bill's idea of further female monsters in the Lincoln International style of the Girl Victim posted yesterday, I had a mess around this afternoon.

Here are basic ideas for the Mummy, the Bride and the Daughter/ Queen.

Dolls simply to hand were used for convenience so sizes vary. It would be a Mod Miss in the final thing.

All up in the air and yet to settle in the cauldron.

See what you think. Ideas welcomed. 

*

backgrounds; a Frozen poster and this great book.

OUR MOST POPULAR POST: WHY THE SPIKE?

Sometimes I look at the blog's stats.

For those interested in numbers, our most popular post since 2008 is one about Star wars blue milk I posted ten years ago in 2014. Its had just over 9,000 views.

Strangely, most of these were last year with over 7,000 views in one day, the 1st October 2023 [I can see the date at my end], which I can't explain. You can see the spike in the graph below.

Can anyone think why?