All I've got to offer is this. A scratchbuild I made of a scanner used by the sixth Doctor. I made it from a Mettoy walkie talkie toy. Presumably the original was made from one too.
Over and out,
Kevin
UK
Wednesday, 15 January 2025
TELLY BOX TALK
Further TV watching this last week:
X-Files: me and Missus are ploughing on with our big watch; all of the X-Files episodes, one or two a night. We started last year and broke for Christmas and New Year, resuming this week .
We skipped the infamously gruesome episode 'Home' about the Peacock 'family', as I knew the Missus would find it a hard and upsetting watch.
Carrying on, We got to Season 4 episode 5 last night - " The Field Where I died". Its about Mulder's previous life in the American Civil War, as well as modern day cult with a member who was also in Mulder's old life. The poem in the field is quite moving.
https://youtu.be/5WsqCuuV_IE?feature=shared
Civil War; I watched this modern American flick late one night on my own. And what a harrowing and wholly depressing carry-on it was too. Parts of the South verses the President's North if I understood it correctly. Kirsten Dunst's dour face said it all - could things really get this bad? It reminded me of the National Guard being mean in Earthquake [1974] but dialled up to Lethal: in the modern movie soldiers were simply killing fellow citizens at random. Could it really get this bad?
Longlegs: the name intrigued me so I thought it might be a sort of slender man horror. No. This wasn't really a horror film, more like a dark thriller in the vein of Se7en or Silence of the Lambs. A socially awkward FBI agent is tasked with finding a cold case killer called Longlegs, who has got up and started stretching his legs again, which is apparently never good for the town. SPOILER ALERT! The killer himself is really odd, a sort of flour-dusted hippy with red lips and a high-pitched voice who loves to sing instead of speak. I found it all a bit slow and boring. He didn't even have long legs!
Have you seen any of these readers? What are you watching?
Toy Fu 2
I've done a more accurate draft mock-up of my custom Kung Fu Target Set with suitably sized panels like the original by Multiple Toymakers.
Hope you like it.
I picked up a small cowboy gun from the farm shop, shortened the barrel, painted it and glued on a new white grip trim.
The card target holders are old fuse covers painted yellow.
I like the horse and rider the most.
I cut up an old Leeds Film Festival programme for the two mock pictures and title.
The wild boar panel is from Razorback for our Looey, who worked on the film!
Here's a plastic bag over it.
Bill will kindly fettle the card art later this month I'm hoping and then, hi ya!
I seek not to know all the answers but to understand the questions!
KEEP ON TRUCKIN'
My only purchases on Saturday in Harrogate were these.
The old necklace stand just spoke to me. It said Action Man in some way, I'm just not sure what! Rugby posts?
The wooden truck is for a friend's little son. It just needs some wooden poles to stack at the back, like Lincoln logs.
The little American Football helmet on a keyring was just cool.
Airfix Kits for 2025!
Hi Woodsy
Airfix have just announced their 2025 kit range. A few new kits, and several re-issues, some of kits we have not seen in a long time.
There is going to be a SLS Artemis rocket in 1/144th scale, with paints, cement, and brushes, for £49.99. Just the rocket it seems – no launch tower.
There are new aircraft in 1/72nd and 1/48th scales, and a number of re-issues in the Vintage Classics line. Including the Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat, and the WW1 Sopwith Pup fighter (I remember building this when it came out in the 1970s).
New military vehicles in 1/35th, 1/48th, and re-issues in 1/76th scale. Fans of the amphibious Stalwart truck have a new kit in 1/35th to look forward to, with 211 parts.
The 1/72nd scale torpedo boat line is also coming back.
A video of the range launch, showing the colour schemes.
See anything you like?
Paul Adams
New Zealand
WILL'S JOHNNY SEVEN MICROHELMET PHONE SET
Hi Woodsy, You would have loved this back in the day to go with your Johnny 7 gun! The helmet set! Works up to one mile! (with additional wire!) .
Yeah, right!
Will O
UK
Did anyone have one?
The Zython Figure in Mattel's 1977 German Catalogue
Cor! Here's Arto's original Mattel Zython figure, as it first appeared on the Catacombs website, stood in front of two fabulous Star Maidens dolls.
Here's the image link.
and Arto's recent happy development and very lucky for the blog - after years and years of being stashed away, he managed to locate his rare Mattel 1977 German Spielzeug dealer catalogue, showing Mattel's Space 1999 action figures including the elusive Zython.
Enjoy these special photos.
[two above images: courtesy of Arto H.]
Tuesday, 14 January 2025
The Airfix High Chaparral Set
The High Chaparral was an American Western TV series. It ran for four seasons (1967-71), and 98 episodes.
Big John Cannon has just bought a ranch in Arizona, which his brother Buck (an ex-Confederate soldier) is looking after. He arrives with his wife and son, Blue Boy. His wife just has time to name the ranch the High Chaparral, after a local plant, before being killed in an Apache attack. The Indians also steal all his cattle.
He goes to Mexican rancher Don Sabastian Montoya to buy replacements. Don Sabastian agrees, but only if Big John will marry his daughter Victoria, whom he wants to get rid of, and no one else will marry her (very similar to The Onedin Line, where James could only buy the ship he wanted to start his own shipping line, if he also married an unwanted daughter). Big John needs the cattle, and agrees. Victoria's brother, Manolito, is sent along to keep an eye on things.
The series tended to centre around the mis-adventures of Manolito, Uncle Buck, and Blue Boy. It seemed to do well internationally, and certainly screened in Britain and New Zealand. There was a fair amount of merchandising for the show.
One of these items was a set of small HO & OO, or 1/76th, scale soft plastic figures by Airfix. Actually, this was their existing Cowboys set (S7, with 42 pieces) from 1961, with some of the original figures deleted, and replaced with the five main characters from the TV series.
The title of this set is The High Chaparral, number S38. The box art is very good, and shows John Cannon on horseback, with a rifle. Manolito, also on a horse, is aiming a pistol. Uncle Buck is standing, about to draw his revolver. None of these actually match what is in the box.
The back of the end-opening box does correctly show the figures, and names them. It also says From the BBC:TV series, although this was merely the British TV station that played the series, not the original maker of the show. There is also a copyright notice in the lower right hand corner for Xanadu Production Inc.
The set was first shown in the 7th Edition Airfix Catalogue (1970). The artwork was clearly only a mock-up, as it featured a photograph from the show, not the usual Airfix painting. It was also listed under the number S7, which was the same as the original Cowboys set.
Oddly, the Catalogues always described the set as High Chaparral Cowboys, but the boxes always used the TV series title The High Chaparral.
The 8th Edition Catalogue showed the real box, and the new number S38, which was also used in the 9th Catalogue. The 10th Edition Catalogue (printed January 1973) changed the number yet again, to 01738-1. The set was last shown in the 12th Edition (printed January 1975).
From MOS6510 Models, a look at the 7th Edition Catalogue.
The set was briefly mentioned in the News From Airfix section of Airfix Magazine, January 1971, which would have been published in late 1970. The retail price of the set on its release was 2/11 (two shillings and eleven pence - I am not sure exactly what that was in New Pence, about 15p ?).
This is not a set I had when I was a boy. In fact, I never saw this set in New Zealand, only in the Airfix Catalogue. I picked this box up, second-hand, in the 1990s, for $2 NZ.
Big John Cannon is holding a rifle, and has his arm around his wife Victoria (he obviously does not want to lose another wife) - this being a double figure; her brother Manolito; John's son Blue Boy; and his brother, known as Uncle Buck. The rest of the figures are generic cowboys and outlaws in various poses, both on foot and mounted.
The boxes say 42 Scale Pieces, which includes human figures, horses, and their bases. My set is moulded in a reddish-brown colour, but it was also made in cream, and a much darker chocolate brown.
Most references refer to early boxes saying 42 pieces, and later boxes saying 41 pieces. Most boxes I found on Worthpoint show 42 Scale Pieces, with the old Airfix banner logo, and the number S38 - this is the box I have. The boxes that have 41 Scale Pieces all seem to have the early Airfix logo on the box top, with the later, circular Airfix logo on the sides and rear, and the number 01738-1.
Plastic Soldier Review is a site devoted to small scale plastic figures, including the Airfix High Chaparral set. Their example is moulded in cream coloured plastic.
Four photographs, all mine.
Did you like the High Chaparral?
Paul Adams from New Zealand
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