I think this is new to me, this little space car by Nasta of NYC dated 1976.
I saw this online a while back.
Its part of this wider Flash Gordon range by Nasta, which is featured on Flickr.
We just need to find the other two now!
Anyone?
Some photos I’ve taken of my Airfix/Lyons Maid Stingray build.
This fabled kit was only available for a short time during 1965 exclusively as a mail-away.
Stingray fans of a certain age will remember seeing the advert for the offer which appeared in several UK comics at the time. I’ve seen the ad in TV Comic, and Valiant, and most notably TV Century 21 which carried the advert every week, from issues dated July, 21st 1965 until September 4th 1965 prior to the offer finishing on October 31st 1965.
I do remember sending away for one at the time, or rather my parents did. All that was required was three Sea Jet ice lolly wrappers, and a 6/- postal order.
I can still remember assembling and attempting to paint it. At the time I thought it was a perfect representation of the WASP super sub! However, thinking about it now, it would have probably been covered in finger marks from an over use of plastic kit cement, and the paint job would have owed more to abstract rather than accuracy!
Unsurprisingly, it’s considered a fairly rare sought after item of vintage Stingray merchandise by collectors. However, it spite of that assumption and the fact the model appeared fleetingly nearly sixty years ago a fair number appear to have survived over the time albeit in varying degrees of condition.
I managed to get my hands on a reasonable example from a friend and fellow collector. It had been carefully de-assembled at some point and had an unspoilt, unpainted hull. It came with a replica cabin and an original display stand.
I set to work putting it together, and was pleased to find that in spite of it’s age, the kit fitted together quite well in the main, although it did need a little filler and sanding to cover the joint lines.
To anyone who’s painted any Stingray model will be well aware that it’s not a simple operation and needs some planning and a lot of masking tape!
When it comes to selecting the colours I chose the same paint scheme I used for my resin copy of the Airfix kit which I built a while back which are readily available at my local Hobbycraft. Colours I used were Revell matt yellow, matt blue, a can of Hycote Rover Pageant mid blue, and a Halfords silver.
Unlike my resin version, I’ve decided to leave this kit un-weathered for the time being.
The ‘Stingray’ and white flat top ‘3’ decals are spares I had from an old Comet Miniatures Stingray kit. They’re not perfect and are definitely showing some signs of age, but that’s probably in keeping with the kit. The original decals that would have come with the kit had the flat top 3 in black rather than white on the cabin fins. There’s no lettering for the base of the hull. Watching the show, this appears to be consistent with filming prop the kit is based on.
Although it has a slightly flatter shape compared to the other model miniatures used, the Airfix model is actually based on the original Reg Hill prototype which was also used in the series, and is easily identified as having a grey, fixed ratemaster propeller. It is usually seen travelling down the launch tube and leaving or entering the ocean door.
Back in the day the kit would have arrived in a small brown cardboard box with a sticker showing a painted illustration of Stingray (the same illustration that appeared on the Lyons Maid adverting leaflets)
The instructions, and a photo of the leaflet. Sadly I don’t have decent scans of each of these, but I thought I’d add them for illustrative purposes.
Addendum: My grateful thanks to reader, Jim Connolly, who kindly provide me with some excellent scans of the instructions and leaflet. He tells me that as far as he knows the leaflet only came with the kit.
Finally a couple of Lyons Maid Seajet and Super Seajet adverts.
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With my circadian clock clogged with up snot I'm not sleeping when I should. Hence I was up late last night nursing my cold, drinking more hot tea and watching more old films, horror films; Amicus anthologies to be exact, those Seventies-set competitors to Hammer's more gothic output.
The first I watched, Tales from the Crypt, is one I associate totally with my older brothers when they were teenagers in the early 1970's. Advertised in the newspaper at the time, along with all the other films on, they saw it at one of the three cinemas in Preston town centre at the time: ABC, Odeon or Ritz. I was a mere boy of 10 when Amicus released Tales from the Crypt in 1971, a classic 'X' for 18's only.
An earlier American generation, nearly twenty years earlier, would have enjoyed the original EC comic it was based on but I don't think I knew about EC then. Creepy and Eerie were the US imports of note at the time. Maybe my older brothers had heard of EC, I don't know. Nowadays, I'm pleased to say I have a few EC reprints keeping my Warren's company.
Amicus's Tales from the Crypt is that wonderful thing and perfect Christmas fayre; a selection box with something for everyone: Joan Collin's raving Santa, the monkey's paw-styled Death on a motorcycle, Ian Hendry's late crash victim, the amazing Blind Institute story and of course Grimsdyke the binman's story is simply fabulous and so well made.
But my personal favourite is And All Through the House, the first story and the one set on Christmas Eve. I adore this nostalgic tale starring Joan Collins and the ubiquitous Chloe Franks. The contemporary 1970's set reminds me so much of my parents' house; the Xmas tree, the cards, the decorations and the Seventies décor such as the big radio playing carols, the huge chunky nail-art style pictures and of course the massive transparent cigarette lighter that needed two hands! Its so evocative I can almost touch my past and step right into it, which is indeed a storyline in another portmanteau!
I won't spoil it, although I imagine everyone reading MC will have seen Tales from the Crypt. Needless to say, as in the original EC comics, cardinal sinners, especially the greedy ones, are punished ruthlessly and their just desserts dished out with a very large hammer indeed ... or a spade ... or a sword!
I will say that watching And All Through the House was the start of this year's Christmas for me last night, such is its nostalgic power every year.
I couldn't locate Crypt's Amicus stablemate Vault of Horror immediately but eventually found it for free on You Tube, but therein lies another tale ..., five!
Do you like Tales from the Crypt? What's your favourite segment? Do you have any EC comics?
This is weird.
A plastic bug ina really basic header bag I saw online.
The Wizardbug by HMC.
It says its patented.
Ever come across one readers?
I'm currently laid up with a dreadful cold. I just can't stop sneezing. I spent the night on the sofa with a box of kleenex watching Grizzly the horror movie. At some point I must have dozed, breathing solely through my mouth - not pleasant is it! - and got in bed at 5.15am. I woke to say ta-ra to the Missus, who was standing at a village Christmas fair and have been sneezing and watching films in bed until now. Warm duvets, sci-fi and horror films, a tried and tested cure for the common cold! Oh, and hot tea too.
Grizzly is one of those movies I can watch over and over. There's something relaxing about square-jawed wardens, vast American wilderness and wildlife on the rampage. The Snow Beast is the same. Nothing too taxing and lots of gorgeous unspoiled landscapes. Grizzly actually spawned a toy rubber bear, which we've covered before on MC.
This morning I began a trio of space vamp movies: Queen of Blood, Devil Girl from Mars and Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Queen of Blood I hadn't seen before but I've always loved the early Sixties psychedelic poster. I adored the strange title art ( the artist's name escapes me), the sets, the models, the cosmic colours and the music. Really startling. The Martian vampiress plot could have been a bit tenser but overall I enjoyed it, predating as it does Alien and and the very similar Lifeforce by decades. I understand that some imagery was borrowed from earlier films that Roger Corman owned. All in all, a great job by John Saxon (star of the great Black Christmas) et al. Do you like it readers?
Next up, Devil Girl from Mars, with one Gerald Anderson as sound editor! The oldest film of the three - a black and white from the Fifties - and sadly the least enjoyable. I found the pub setting a bit tedious but I did like Nyah the Martian trafficker. The spaceship was a bit clunky but the fireworks and smokey landing could have been from Thunderbirds, still a whole decade away. Is this one you like readers?
Last but by no means least, Plan 9 from Outer Space by the great Ed Wood. Often branded as the worst film ever made, I'm enjoying it the most of the three and I'm only half way through ( tea break! ). It's a fabulous colourized version. The plot is the best one - aliens raising the human dead to do their bidding. The cast is amazing: Vampira is hypnotic, Bela Lugosi is basically Dracula cloaking the whole time and Tor Johnson, he's just class - the scene where he rises from the grave is stunning.
Vampira is a fascinating actress, who previously hosted a horror show - she was the first such host - and was mates with Jimmy Dean no less. An American - Finn, her Finnish heritage famously questioned, the character Vampira is genius, what with the black garb and the claw hand walk, very much in the vein of Morticia but one that holds her own. Half of the movie to go. Are you a Plan 9'er?
One observation: the chrome airliners at the start of Queen of Blood and Plan 9 look to be the same!
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