PUT A CORK IN IT! SPACE ROBOT AND SPACE BATTLE TARGET GAMES

As we've seen with Space Ace, those pop guns get everywhere in space. They pop up on auctions constantly.

The 80's was awash with target sets like this Space Robot set with a cork gun.

You could get it in different colours and with small plastic red pellets too.

Not sure if the rather snazzy card art is lifted from an arcade game. You?

Here's a more infantile illustration on more or less the same set too.

For larger ammo you could move up to ping pong balls and a particularly chunky see-through pistol.

Here's one boxed called Space Battle, which has some really great box art, some clearly 'inspired' by Star Wars but some not. I love the circular space station and the big ship up top; where are they from?

Here's another boxed Space battle target game. You can see the toothed rings on the pistols, which recall those on the Force toy gun we saw on MC last week.

This particular specimen is from the V&A collection no less, where the Star Wars riffing hasn't gone unnoticed!

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1371498/space-battle-target-game-target-game-unknown/

SPACE ACE: THERE'S MORE RECYCLED TOYS!

 I was right about the recycled Palitoy rifles!

And there's lots more Space Ace recycled toys here on this fabulous webpage by Scottstoys.

Have a butchers Space Acers.

https://www.scottstoys.co.uk/space-ace-arcade-game/

Is it a game that you played readers?

Space Ace Weapons Mystery

 As soon as I saw this I knew I'd seen those 1984 Space Ace rifles before. But where!

Bingo! They're the Action Man Space Ranger rifles aka Space Arms! 

But why?

Christmas Drinkies

Christmas in the Sixties and Seventies meant drinks iny parents house. Lots of festive drinks.

As a kid I stuck to my usual beverages: Tizer, dandelion and burdock, sarsaparilla and lemonade float. Some cola too, preferably Pepsi even though Santa seemed to promote Coke.

The adults, my parents and their friends, on the other hand, imbibed in all things Yule. This was the great generation who fought World War Two. They'd lost their youth over those dark five years and needed to party.

Beer was served from small metal barrels with taps hammered in. Watneys Party Four was a favourite. Bottled beers too, with scre in tops, in wooden crates: Mackison, Pale Ale, bitter, Newcastle Brown and Guinness. I don't recall lager back then.

For the ladies was a whole bar full of bottled delights: Sandemans Sherry for the daytime tipples, Cherry B and Babycham ( in labelled glasses) for the early evening and then came the snowballs.

Snowballs were either mixed by hand using Warnings advocat and lemonade or straight from a small green bottle. I think we had labelled Snowball glasses too for the occasion. It's a festive treat I like myself nowadays.

Hard liquor like Bells Whisky, Gordons Gin and Brandy came out later. Mixers where Canada Dry and Schweppes Tonic Water in small bottles. I adored Canada Dry and grabbed a bottle off the drinks table whenever I could! 

I don't recall wine being drunk at all but that maybe just my memory playing up. There must have been wine in the UK in the Sixties.

Whatever the case, for my folks, having just turned 40, Christmas 1960 onwards was a decade for making merry. Everyone had a job, the kids were OK, the big family was round and Santa's sack was bulging. 

What more could you want.

Which festive drinks do you recall readers? 

L I T T L E B I G M A N

 In the summer Wotan Bill donated some fine and memorable items to Moonbase from the Bradgate Little Big Man range.

Little Big Man was basically a smaller version of Action Man and had tons of clothes and uniforms just like his big brother. I really liked him back in the 1960's.

Not owning an original figure anymore, I deployed a similar sized Hornby Elm Elf*

Everything here is original LBM except for the grey rifle [I don't think] and the red top.

I don't know what the green ring is for.

This little Mountie is ready for some action and perhaps .... some shoes!

Did you have Little Big Man readers?

*

* the destiny of the Elf lies elfwhere - watch this space!

The Final Article: our Custom Lincoln Victim Carded Figure

 Finally I'm pleased to present our finished custom Lincoln Monsters Victim figure.

The dressed doll and the card have been ready for a while.

The delay was in finding the best blister for the card, a Lidl macaron box.

The superb card art was by Wotan Bill.

The brilliant tailoring was by Franzi E.

The sourcing of the doll, cloth and blister and final assembly by Woodsy

The Moonbase International Victim. Hope its been worth the wait.

Ed's Hungarian Christmas Wall-Hanging

While posted in Tazar Hungary during later part of '97, I picked up a bunch of souvenirs, among which was this handmade Advent's calendar. 

Little numbered pouches are sewn to the background to accept whatever treats one wanted to put in them. I hang it up on the wall every year, however we just leave the pouches empty.

From Vegas Base

ED

What's hanging on your wall this Christmas readers?

MASH-UP MASTERS: LARAMI AND TIARRI DRAGON MASTER SETS

Here's a classic mash-up: Dragon Master.

The 'fantasy monsters' are our old friends the LP aliens - these one's suckered - and here being recycled as part of the sword and sorcery craze. I saw it on auction so saved the snaps a while back.

And its a Larami toy and not LP!

There's a bar code over the word Master, so its relatively modern as LP aliens go.

Do you like it?

 

Larami developed the line into proper dragons and warriors like this one.

and a sub-set of pocket puzzles.

Here's the same 'LP' set shown first - now called Fantasy Figures - released by someone else, Tiarri Management Services of N.S.W - New South Wales? Was this for the Australian market?

Tiarri were busy too: here's their dinosaur mash-up - are they Imperial's - with two unknown dragons at the top.

and what appear to be robot orcs and goblins. Are these from another line?