Filmed in Cinerenovation with Looey

It's been over ten years since my wife's dad Alan died and we turned his bike shed into a home cinema named in his honour.

However the elements haven't been kind to our original marquee, made from laser cut MDF (cardboard)

I was passing a defunct Japanese restaurant and I salvaged a signboard made of rigid PVC foam which will be much more weatherproof.

I hand cut new lettering, using a craft knife, then sculpted a bas relief of Alan on his BSA in Kleenclay, scanned it and 3D printed a mirrored pair.

He's never looked better!

During a clean up, I came across some papers in Marilyn's studio. It was a vintage Robert Burton Australian Daybill, for Seventh Voyage of Sinbad.

It was personally signed by Ray Harryhausen back in 2000 and there were two photographs of him doing it!

So I bought a big frame and a sheet of matte board and finally mounted them for display, along with the front cover of the book he is signing!

Do you have any treasures you'd almost forgotten about, but finally dusted off and put on display, Moonbasers?

Looey, 

Oz Base

AUCKLAND TOY FAIR NOVEMBER 2024: THE KITS

The last Auckland toy fair of 2024 was held recently, and here is my report on the kits. Not too many vintage models this time, but I did get some more modern kits that I intend to build.

Hobby Boss kits are fairly simple, with a one-piece wing, and one-piece fuselage, along with various detail parts, and some really interesting decal options. The Dragon Ta-152H and Airfix Hurricane are more normal kits.

The vintage kits were an Airfix Fokker Friendship airliner in Irish Aer Lingus markings, but unfortunately the box is damaged at one end. Along with four railway wagon kits in 1960s boxes – a Brake Van, two Cattle Wagons, and a Refrigerator Van.

The William Brothers kit of the Martin B-10 bomber from the 1930s. The Airfix Beachead Playset contains a Gun Emplacement from the Playfort range, and two sets of soft plastic figures – the original version of the WW2 German Infantry, and the British Paratroopers.

Plus one HO scale model railway building by Tyco. I have already started work on the Hobby Boss FW-190D-9.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

POST SUGAR CRISP LINCOLN B-58 MAIL-AWAY

Hi Woodsy,

I found a You Tube channel called Classic Airliners & Vintage Pop Culture, devoted to airliners, and toys related to airliners.

One video includes an old TV ad for Post breakfast cereals, and a mail-away offer for a Convair B-58 Hustler Supersonic Bomber kit, and SAC Wings.

Post Sugar Crisp and Raisin Bran cereals carried the offer. The B-58 kit was yours for a box top, and 50 cents.

The video says the model is the Lindberg B-58 kit. A number of cereal companies offered various plastic kits as part of such a mail-away promotion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M64Ai4I9-as

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Kevin's Scratchbuilt Space 1999 Spectro X Scanner

Hi,

I've made a scratchbuild of the scanner that Bergman uses in the Space 1999 episode 'Earthbound '. I managed to find the same model of Braun hairdryer that they used to make the original prop.

Cheers,

Kevin

Ed's Vegas 2024 Christmas Train Layout - 1st Version

 Woodsy,

While I'm not that big into decorating, I have managed to pull together a few Christmas train layouts over the years - always simple affairs but nice. The granddaughter wanted me to start early this year, so I was dragging stuff out of The Cave by mid-November. 

My first iteration of the layout used a really cheap battery-operated Hogwarts Express for which I've attached photos here. Since then, the layout has changed and now I'm running an early version of Lionel's 'Polar Express' ('early version' means the cars don't have the simulated snow on the roofs), and I've moved the buildings around some. 

I need to take photos of the final layout after which I'll send some more pics.

From The North Pole Vegas Annex

Ed

PROBING THE DEPTHS: PROJECT SWORD PF3 FAMILY TREE

 My best guess as to the steps that were taken before Project SWORD's plastic friction Probe Force 3 appeared in 1967.

(* The Green Monster was a real rocket car]

Have you got anything like this?

The Ghoul: Tyburn's Terrifier

 I caught The Ghoul the other night.

Made by Tyburn [not to be confused with the much more successful Tigon] it was one of only three films the company released.

The Ghoul [not a word you hear now really] is essentially a slasher film spiced up with Indian Zitars and a large country house. Set in the Charleston age, the protagonists are two young couples from the English elite in a car race to Land's End. Two of them break down, the woman ending up at the hands of John Hurt's mad gamekeeper and then in the clutches of the Peter Cushing's even madder country gent and his Indian housekeeper. There's more madder things yet but I won't spoil it.

John Hurt's cruel gamekeeper is a great performance, as are the two beleaguered ladies. Cushing's performance as the tormented gent is OK, as is his housekeeper, but for me the most interesting character is the posh Army Officer.

Despite being in his civvies he displays all the spit and polish of his class and positively out-poshes everyone on his way to the truth. When pitted against John Hurt's fabulously deranged yokel on the treacherous bog we have the best bit of the film.

Not one of the best horrors you'll ever see but still Tyburn did a decent job, biting at the ankles of the mighty Hammer. I watch the Ghoul at least every other year.

Have you seen the Ghoul?

CREPE AND SATELLITES

How I remember these from Christmasses in the Sixties and Seventies. They were both on old auction sites.

Crepe streamers, those crinkly bandages that bedecked the walls and plastic satellite star hung on the tree. That clover of foil inside is like a portal to the past.

Do you remember these?

What decs did your family have?