It's Alive! My Overnight Remco Mini Monsterizer

 Last year I rescued some trash from Aldi, a bunch of plastic toothbrush displays.

Considering what to do with them I toyed with perhaps some Action Man raft crates or maybe a Corgi lion cage.

But then I saw this!

The Remco Mini Monster Monsterizer!

Yes!

So, overnight I've whittled and spittled and fettled my own monster machine using one of those toothbrush racks.

It's been fun and Baron Frankenstein lent a hand (and a foot and a head!)!

Oven-ready, a willing creature, old Burger King Frankie, stepped up to test it out.

Dr. Bones threw the switch.

Monsterizing in progress! 

And the final stage ...

Hope you like this home-made, quick and easy Monsteriser folks.

I've got to go. Villagers are mobbing with pitchforks at the door! 

Sweet Sensations: Texan, Tiffin and Aztec

 More chocolate gnashing down memory lane!

I can almost taste them again!

A couple I enjoyed in New York 2001:

 the delicious Butterfinger!

And the equally scrummy Oh Henry!

Do you like these American readers? Sadly only available in specialist sweet shops in the UK.

Back in the days of Blightyful yore there was Tiffin. This is the early Fry's version. I ate the later orange wrapper bar. Not sure who it was by. But, what a treat! fruit and biscuit and chocolate. Yum! Only Kendal Mint Cake equals it's adventuring spirit and ability to kick start quests.

Texan was a Seventies favourite. A proper filling puller if I recall. Delicious nougat smothered in choc. The big chew with a great wild west TV ad.

A personal favourite, Ruffle, a bar so delightful I would get one wherever I saw them. I still do. They're still around! Essential Raspberry goodness!

And maybe the best I've saved for last, Aztec! Now lost in the fickle skip of whims, Aztec was simply and utterly fabulous. A fluffy superised Mars Bar infused with instant bliss. If only they would bring those Aztecs back!

Which chocs or sweets would you resurrect readers? 

UFO Invaders

 This is a complete boxed Ramtex UFO Invaders game from the early 1980's.

I picked up a loose unboxed one in April.

Is it a game you know readers?

Keaton's Batman: it's Gothic Best

 With streaming a dear do and nearly everything I want to watch on NOW, which we don't have or needing to be rented on Prime or Netflix, despite paying for them already, I've bought my first DVDs in years.

Second hand in a charity shop, £2 for a boxed set of the initial four Batman films 1989 to 1997. Basically, Keaton to Clooney.

Having watched the Bale era trilogy, Nolans Dark Knight saga, last month, I've gone back to the beginning,nowhere the bat first flew again on the big screen.

Tim Burton's late-1980's Batman was an important moment for me, a knight of passage. I was 28, a young Dad, in very reflective mood and all the childhood nostalgia I held was welling up inside me and seeking some outlet.

Batman provided it.

This one film gave a name to my new obsession: 

toys!

The shops were full of Keaton's gadgets and gizmos. The plastic batarang, the grapple hook, the batmobile. It was the Sixtie's Adam West all over again, only better!

I wuz amazed and slowly began to remember all the toys I'd had as a kid. It was a revelation and the springboard to a lifetime of collecting, selling, reading about and ultimately blogging madly over ..., toys!

I re-watched Batman last night. 

Me, Michael, Jack and Kim.

It's simply divine film-making, Burton's gothic milestone, which will never be beaten. 

So, as the leaves fly as the Batcar zooms by, next up is .... Returns!

Did you like the 1989 Batman movie?

Rebel Yell: My custom Johnny Yuma Toy Scattergun

 In 1993 I bought the brilliant American toy reference book, Toys of the Sixties, by the great Bill Breugman.

Among it's many many treasures that made an immediate impression on me was the Johnny Yuma Rebel Scattergun by Kilgore from around 1961.

A double-barrelled cap pistol with a distinct shape, it came in at least two dark shades, all of which appear to be very collectable.

It emulated the scattergun prop used by Nick Adams in the popular TV show The Rebel. Anyone know it? Here's Dell's comic version.

Here it is as well advertised top right complete with toy cap, belt and revolver.

 Always intrigued by it's design I thought I'd have a bash at a custom job.

I first took this cheap fancy dress toy flintlock to start with.

After some sawing and stripping, I added two barrels, a new silver panel and a Fimo stock. I then, opting for a darker look, painted the whole thing black.

See what you think.

Weekend, Five Boys and Bar Six Chocolate

I adored Weekend chocolates as a kid. Sadly no longer with us but we can drool over old ads and pictures like this.

Did you Weekend?

 

I don't recall Five Boys but it looks delicious! Five big words too!

Do you remember it?

Bar Six! Ah! A real favourite of mine back in the day. Delicious wafer covered in choc. Six snap-off chunks!

Mmmm!

Did you Bar Six?

What were your long lost choccy faves?

Corgi Tarzan Gift Set 36: The Origins

In 1976 Corgi released Gift Set 36 Tarzan, one of the most magnificent they ever produced. The Set re-used a number of existing Corgi models, but in new colour schemes.

Having already looked at the Tarzan Set on MC in February, I thought this time we would see where the various items came from. Most details are from The Great Book of Corgi, by Corgi Chief Designer Marcel R. Van Cleemput.

Corgi had first released a Long Wheel Base Land Rover in 1957 (the year after the range was launched), but this was to 1/46th scale. In 1976 a new model appeared, in 1/36th scale, which was much larger than before.

It came as part of Gift Set 31 Safari Land Rover and Animal Trailer (with lion) in April 1976. The model had an opening rear door; and a hardtop roof, with a hatch in it, and a Game Warden looking out.

It was painted white, with black zebra stripes, and red Game Warden labels on each side. The Tarzan model was metallic green with sand-yellow stripes, and a solid roof.

The two-wheeled trailer had a plastic ramp at the rear, and a white plastic cage top. It was painted to match the Land Rover.

A plastic lion, standing on a base, with one paw raised, was the load. All these items were included in the Tarzan set, except for the Game Warden figure.

The boat and trailer came from Gift Set 28, released in August 1975. This comprised a 1/36th scale Mazda B1600 pick-up truck (already available on its own), rubber dinghy in red and yellow, and a scuba-diver in full gear to pilot the boat.

The Tarzan set dropped the pick-up, changed the diver to a White Hunter, and moulded the dinghy in different colours. I am not sure if any other items were re-used, but the change-over in scales around this time would have made it difficult to use any existing Corgi models, since they would appear under-sized next to the newer 1/36th scale items.

Do you have any of these toys?

Four photographs from Worthpoint

Paul Adams from New Zealand

CHILD LIFE 1979

 

I've never heard of this magazine before, Child Life. You?

I saw it on auction last year I think and saved the snaps for MC. This 1979 edition features Battlestar Galactica on the cover and inside.