RAISING THE ROOF: MACHINE COP GETS UGLY

 

Ah, Machine Cop! Perhaps the ugliest space toy ever made! Half car half robot, its got everything going from Planet Cheapo.

Is it something you'd want under the tree readers?

Tracks in the Snow

Seeing Ed's cardboard fireplace and Wills deformed coach, I thought I would post a couple of pics of part of the xmas decorations I have been putting up at home.

I always try and make a simple tableau somewhere in the house, using bottlebrush trees, small wooden figures and other accessories, but this year I decided to include a kind of Polar Express theme, with a small train running along the mantel.

Supported on my Hot Wheels Sizzlers Track Bridges, is a small tinplate clockwork streamliner by French manufacturer JEP. The Aerodynamique, as I think it's called, brings to mind the fabulous art deco style engines built for speed and power. This little beauty, given to me last Xmas by Paul V, is a clockwork engine with a detachable tender, a litho printed coach and a mail coach at the rear. The set comes with a simple tin tunnel, a tiny station and a water tank flat. The gorgeous wooden Signal Box is a different brand, but was kindly included by Paul to complete the set.

 The little plastic houses are German and courtesy of Woodsy's car boot foraging and the trees are standard Xmas decorations, but made in the classic ‘bottlebrush’ style, so common in the sixties.

Using the fairy lights around the walls and some crepe paper, I tried to make quick tabletop diorama with a Northern Lights feel, but alas my head cold is draining any enthusiasm I have and it’s not worked as well as it might.

Here are some pics of the Aerodynamique, its rolling stock and my other Japanese battery tinplates.

The brown Brick wagon with load is a Hornby Dublo wagon, the blue Gondola is Triang and the stake car with logs is an unknown brand. Some of the Bandai models have had the bogies swapped out for plastic OO/HO ones, so they will run on standard track, but I’ve so far been unable to find any originals to replace them.

The yellow Shell tanker is an odd Trix model that I won in a larger set, but decided to resell.

The Bandai Caboose is almost identical to the B&O one, but smaller and simpler.

THE VAULT OF HORROR AND A HOT LEMON PLEASE

 I caught the Vault of Horror the other sleepless night.

Another Amicus anthology and possibly less well known than Tales from the Crypt.

There are some stand-out performances by really great actors here. My favourite segments, three of the five, are:

Midnight Mess: the one where the brother murders the sister but falls foul of the 'locals' in the restaurant that night. I wont spoil it, suffice to say, the the final scene of the protagonist upside down was one I saw pictured as a young monster nut in my copies of Dennis Gifford's and Alan Frank's horror film guides, an image that's stayed with me my whole life! I understand that that scene was deleted from certain showings, with a still of it shown instead!

The restaurant in this section was in Richmond, London and the site Reel Streets depicts this and other locations in the film then and now, which is fascinating and I appreciate how much work it must have taken.

https://www.reelstreets.com/films/vault-of-horror-the/#:~:text=The%20Vineyard.&text=When%20his%20sister%20doesn't,The%20Vineyard%2C%20Richmond.

The Neat Job; Glynis Johns and Terry-Thomas do such a 'neat job' of this section too, its a fabulously compact and complete world in itself and revolves around, yes, obsessive neatness. 

The house used is once more a portal into my Parents' home in the early 1970's and I love to notice the ornaments and artefacts: the big lamps, the magazine rack, the enormous flower clock, the thick impasto paintings and the records - I think we even had the classical one Glynis Johns returns to its sleeve. Its a startlingly good section and the domestic tension rises to fever pitch before ... bam! I adore the crazed woman's insane wide-eyed stair and the mad cackle at the end. 

This Trick' ll Kill Ya: my final fave segment of this Amicus pick 'n' mix stars Curt Jürgens and Dawn Addams as a married magic act searching for a new trick in India, a trick they are prepared to use extreme prejudice to get. 

The most alarming scene, certainly when I was a nipper first seeing it, was the sudden disappearance of the wife near the ceiling and the resultant slowly- slicking blood patch. Yuk!

The remaining two sections are fine, just less memorable for me, although the appearance of two young stars from TV's Doctor in the House is a plus. I so remember that series and similar young shows like Man about the House, The Lovers, Please Sir and the Fenn Street Gang. Do you? Happy days!

Do you like Vault of Horror? Have you a favourite bit?

Will's Rovex Model Electric Train

Hi Woodsy, 

I bought this original Rovex train set the other day.

 It's long been known that the original cellulose acetate used was prone to distortion, but I'd never seen one as wonderfully bad as this one! 

You?

 Will O

UK

Ed's Christmas Cardboard Fireplace 1964

Woodsy,

Were cardboard fireplaces a thing in the UK? 

The attached photo is from 1963 and shows the cardboard fireplace my mom bought!

Even though the house I grew up in was bult around 1900, there were no fireplaces, and these cardboard ones were a way to provide a little old-fashioned ambience (apparently, they're still being made but I think I'll pass on buying one for the house!).

From Vegas Base

Ed

LOOEY'S CHRISTMAS STRIP 2024

Drawn by Looey,

Oz Base!

Enjoy!

FLASH BACK: NASTA'S FLASH GORDON RANGE

 

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?

MY AIRFIX STINGRAY

 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, 21^st 1965 until September 4^th 1965 prior to the offer finishing on October 31^st 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.

P.W.O.R.