Ed's Space Rangers

Woodsy,

Further to Arto's post about Pyro's remarkable space fleet, over the years I've managed to pick up a few X-200 Space Rangers.

Bill Hanlon's Dimestore Dreams version was released in 2000 and is a bit odd in a couple of respects.

 First, they labeled it as the "Spaceship X-100" not the "X-200 Space Ranger".

 Secondly, it's considerably smaller than the original as seen in the comparison photo. It was released in silver HP only.

I've also managed to acquire a few color variations, although I'm still partial to silver spaceships.

From Vegas Base

Ed

Mystery Film

 Anyone know what this grim mystery cinema lobby card is from I saw on eBay?

Hot Wheels at the Hawkesbury Show

Here we are at a "Country" show, about an hour's drive from our house.

This display caught our eye and I thought of Paul A straight away!

A nice display of full sized HW vehicles!

Track displays you can actually walk through.

Children's t shirts on sale at $40?

"Tell 'em they're dreaming!"

Sadly the concept of "cost of living friendly" showbags hasn't dropped with Mattel yet. $40 showbags with about $15 worth of tat inside!

When I were a kid, Showbags were actually a bargain, offering discounted contents for the overall cost.

Ah well, great bargains for window shoppers everywhere!

Looey

Oz Base

In Praise of Beef Paste

As we are caravanning I've no access to toys so other things are filling my mind ...  Such as Beef Paste this morning for breakfast!

I saw it in Farmfoods and thought yes! I remember, I used to love beef paste butties as a kid. My Mum made them with thick white bread and butter, altho' it may have been marg - Stork?

Did you eat beef spread butties readers?

Beef paste or spread is basically potted beef of old sold in little handy pocket-sized glass jars. As a kid the biggest brand was Shippams. There was always a thin layer of hardened fat on top. That stuffs delicious!

They did chicken paste as well, which was equally fabtasticle.

My late Grandad, old Jack the postie, liked his beef dripping. Now I don't remember it exactly but I imagine a combination of beef and fat is essentially the same as beef paste or spread. Can anyone confirm this?

Even more nostalgic and the nub of a few jokes is the next spread on my Farmfoods shopping list, Sardine and Tomato paste! 

C'mon Mum, slap it on! 

Aye Jim Lad!

 I so remember this ciggy lighter we had at home in the Sixties. A pirate's flintlock on a wooden stand.

Yep, cigarettes were second only to the telly back then! Ash trays and fancy lighters everywhere!

Was that your experience? 

Yorkshire GRIT

 The Missus and me were discussing whether a paperboy would deliver a Saturday newspaper to our caravan. 

We concluded that they don't exist anymore. Paperboys. At least here in Yorkshire. They're all playing Minecraft. 

I was never a Paperboy or an Altar boy or any kind of boy as a kid but back in the Sixties lots of my fellow nippers were paperboys, zooming round the early morning streets on Choppers with a Satchel full of folded papers.

I don't think they were paid much. Do you?

We're you a paperboy readers? 

Did you you do any other work as a kid for pocket money? Stable hand? Wash cars?

I got Look In like this in the early Seventies, every week, my name scrAwled on the top corner and the house number, Woods 24! Always a great thrill when my Look In comic landed on the mat.

As a reader of American comics back then I'd stare at the back page where calls for GRIT deliverers were advertised along with a whole bonanza of gifts they could earn.

I had no idea what GRIT was. I thought maybe it was just that, grit, with kids lugging round sacks of it on their bikes, gritting the streets!

I realised it was some sort of newspaper but what I'm not sure. You?

I could only gawp at those amazing gifts they could earn.id never seen so much cool stuff on one page! Things like typewriters, baseball sets, bullworkers, radios and TVs. Can you imagine, your own TV in your bedroom in the Sixties! 

Did you have one as a kid readers? A TV in your room?

Did you deliver GRIT as a young 'un in America?

Eye Full Power!

 I love how this effect has been created using red plastic for Cyclops' eye blast. So cool! 

What do you think?

Sunshine on Reeth

 We're currently enjoying the rejuvenating Spring sunshine in glorious wild Swaledale in North Yorkshire. 

After a long winter it's great to be out. With the Swale wending through it, Swaledale is a gorgeous river valley, great for easy 60+ rambling and eating yummy ice cream in the dale's capital, Reeth.

The Swale is a spate river and rises very fast in heavy rain. Today it was low as there's been very little of the wet stuff this May here. I think a dry season is upon us.

Have you much rain readers? 

On the ramble I saw this sign for Grinton.

It reminded me of Grimpen, the fictional hamlet where The Hound of the Baskervilles is set. Beware the Grimpen Mire!

Is it a film you enjoy too?

The local woolly jumpers were taking easy. Very sheepish they were!

The Swale even has its own Golden Gate bridge, from where the Misses, me and a fellow rambler watched trout in the greenish water.

Drystone Walls were everywhere.

Sunshine on Reeth. A lovely little market down surrounded by fells. Here you can unwind, rest your bones and scoff a Brynmor ice.

You can sit on one of the many benches, watch the dale go by or read. I'm reading the Plague Pit from 1981. The early 1980's was a golden period for British pulp horror paperbacks, the double threats of looming nuclear war and unemployment firing a slew of young writers to pen such paranoic classics as the Devil's Coach Horse, Locusts and the Sucking Pit. Mark Ronson's The Plague Pit is typical and perfect reading on a sunny afternoon!

Do you like pulp horror stories?

I wasn't sure if my trainers would cope with our ramble but they proved to be fine footwear for the easy valley stroll.

Looking at them brings to mind Kyle Reese's iconic Nike Vandals in the Terminator! Wonder if you can still get them?

Bothies abound too, small sheep sheds made of the local stone, which sit snug on the slopes within the fretwork of walls

My own stone memento was this painted pebble from Reeth Market. I just liked it's colours and shapes.

The central apple core-like pattern brought back very happy memories of being a teenage fan of Rick Griffin and his hippy posters like this for the Grateful Dead containing gorgeous halved pears complete with pips!

Do you like Rick's style?

Have you been to the Yorkshire Dales?