Driller Thriller

I've always loved this driller mole design. I saw this one on eBay so saved the pic. 

I remember seeing one like it as part of the Echo Cars range, the Moguras.

Do you have anything like these readers?

 

Scooby Doo Toy Train Sets

When I was looking in to the big and expensive Lionel Scooby Doo train set models, I discovered a couple of other sets. All plastic, these look to be much simpler and cheaper. They also look to be a lot more fun, and have a good selection of accessories.

What does Scooby Doo have to do with railways ? Well, they probably appeared in a few episodes, which is enough of a link for most toy companies.

Boley - Where the action is !

The Cartoon Network - Scooby Doo ! Train Set came in '2 Assorted Styles - Collect Them Both !'. '18 Piece Playset - Wind-up Action'. Made in China. Copyright date on the box 1999. Since both sets use the same box, they have the same catalogue number - No.51103.

These were clearly aimed at younger children. The box says 'For Ages 5 and Up'. The front of the large window-box showed off the contents, while both sets were shown set-up on the back, along with a list of contents:

1 Mini Wind-up Train (it is a locomotive - two different styles - wind-up knob on the left side)

1 detachable trailer (they mean wagon or carriage, although car would be the American term - one is a small passenger carriage, the other looks to be a mine wagon - perfect for an old haunted gold mine)

6 piece self-assembled train track (4 curves, and 2 straights)

4 playscene accessories (plastic buildings)

2 paper accessories

6 figures - Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, Velma, and (I think) Scrappy Doo.

If you count the 'paper accessories' that is actually 20 pieces.

These were clearly not aimed at serious model railway enthusiasts, with wind-up engines, and plastic tracks. The accessories are great, and include the essential Haunted Mansion, Windmill, Water Mill, fountain with cherub, food stall, Railway station with clock tower, level crossing, and a single tunnel mouth, spread across the two sets.

The figures, tracks, and paper accessories are common to both sets. The trains and buildings are different. The colour schemes are a suitably spooky black and purple, with a little ghostly ectoplasm green.

All Four photographs from Worthpoint.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Shot Gun Heading

 

I love a hotch-potch of card art! This Cap Gun has all good stuff.

Who is the bespectacled blond holding the pistol? Is she stood next to a motorbike? And is that Carrie Fisher kneeling by her rifle?

I like it! You?

*

SOLVED!

Two anonymous readers have ID'd the card art. It's lifted from this book cover by Jerry Ahern:

Looey's Trip to Mid Mountains Vintage

Hello Moonbasers! 

I thought I'd chip in another Antique store adventure for you to enjoy.

This is Mid Mountains Vintage, literally five minutes up the road from our house!

It's not great shakes as far as old toys goes during this visit, although my wife found a Triang Dolls House in good condition and at a good price last year.

(In reverse order)

1) The frontage on the Great Western Highway at Woodford.

2) Welcome Foolish Mortals (I hope you brought your money with you...)

3) Tell 'em they're dreaming at this don't bother to repeat price!

4) A wide selection of mint tea towels, including this 1979 calendar with original Coles price tag of 50 cents.

Coles Stores have since devolved into grocery markets that are half of Australia's proud sypermarket duopoly. (Proud for the share holders, anyway!)

5) Anyone familiar with Super City construction kits? I'd never seen them before, but that illustrated logo is grouse! Available only at Coles Stores... hmmm, where have I heard that name before?

Anyway, apart from some overpriced Afghanistan Peace Keeper soldier figures (who seemed to be suffering from PVC PTSD) there was no-one to stop me marching out with my pocket money still intact!

If I think about it, there are several other Antique shops in our beautiful Blue Mountains that probably fit the Moonbase vibe.

I'll go visit them sometime soon, just for the sake of you lucky people!

Hoo Roo for now, Looey, 

Oz Base

Ed's Batmobiles

Woodsy,

Here's a composite shot of my Batmobiles.

From Vegas Bat Cave

Ed

Moonbase Morsels

 Been to a few places this week, an emporium in Rotherham and a boot sale in Fitzwilliam. Both great fun in Spring sunshine.

Here are my purchases.

LtoR: All about Cars by Century 21/ Corgi £2, KO Action Man (I think) 50p, two Lanard GI Joes £1 each, Kirk 50p, Dalek bubble bath £8 and a 2003 long robot vehicle £2. No idea what it is, I just loved it! 

I also picked up a Beastmaster pre-cert big box VHS for £1. Not pictured.

Anything you like readers?

Memories of 2023's Collectors Fair

At the 2023 Auckland collector's fair, I picked up seven kits, and a box of bits (but it was a really lovely box). A mix of modern and vintage kits.

Of course, the vintage kits will not be built. They are rare and precious treasures, to be preserved, still pristine in their boxes.

In the 1960s and 1970s Airfix kits were sold in the USA, usually in different packaging to those sold in Britain (and New Zealand). The Series 1 kits came in cardboard boxes, while in Britain they were still being sold in plastic bags in to the early 1970s.

The artwork on this 1960s Hawker Typhoon is amazing. The colour scheme is bizarre, and nothing like the scheme actually worn by RAF Typhoons.

I have never seen a US Airfix kit in New Zealand before, so I grabbed this one. Inside the box is a normal Airfix Typhoon, in silver-grey plastic.

The Hawk Convair C-131 light transport is really old - the copyright date on the early style box is 1959. This kit too is in silver-grey plastic.

There are 28 parts, including the one-piece wings (rather than the usual upper and lower halves). There are no clear parts for the cockpit or cabin windows.

This Revell Lockheed P2V (later P-2) Neptune box was full of various aircraft parts, mainly fuel tanks. But I bought it for the wonderful box art - an Operation Deepfreeze aircraft on skies taking off in Antarctica.

There is a small note in the lower left hand corner, which says ' Made in New Zealand by Lincoln Industries Ltd, Auckland', along with a Made in New Zealand Kiwi logo. It probably dates from the 1970s.

The French company Heller produced a lot of obscure French aircraft types, including the Mureaux 117 reconnaissance aircraft. This looks to be an original, 1967 kit.

The North American F-107A, was an experimental US jet fighter, first flown in 1956. Only three were built - its most unusual feature was the air intake above the fuselage.

There are not many models of the type. This being a modern Trumpeter kit.

A modern Revell Chance Vought F4U Corsair naval fighter of WW2. This one is destined to receive RNZAF markings.

I also found a 1/72nd scale Monogram P-51B Mustang, which will be covered separately, and a Heller P-39 Airacobra fighter. This had been re-packed in a plastic bag, not its original box.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

The Gun of the Golden Agent: Moonbase Mock-Up

 When we were young 'uns my older brothers and me had stuff lying all over the house. One of these things, not mine, was a die-cast golden cap revolver.

It was probably bought by my older brother mail-order from Ellisdons of Liverpool.

I've never forgotten that golden toy cap gun.

Back Round 1992 I got a copy of Bill Breugman's amazing Toys of the Sixties. And bingo! There inside was what I think that toy was, the Gun of the Golden Agent by Hubley.

You can see it in the book, bottom left, here in a video I did 10 years ago, around the 5.18 minutes mark.

https://youtu.be/OtG-TGgCJFI?feature=shared

Further images online are scant to say the least, a search today revealing only these Hubley 1965 trade catalogue shots.

There is another toy gun that looks a lot like the Gun of the Golden Agent, the Matt Helm SCE By Pilen of Spain.

And one more I found, the Golden Sniper by Crescent, with James Bondish box art.

With the Golden Agent in mind and a wave of nostalgia descending, I thought I'd have a crack at making something like it.

With a Farm Shop plastic revolver, plastic pipes and a few bits, here's my memory lane golden special.

It was spytastic fun. Hope you like it.