Looey at Shizuoka Show

Well Moonbasers, for the donation of a semi-professional looking business card, ... a few days ago ... I got into this annual Trade Show for free!

Shizuoka is home not only to Tamiya models, but a host of other famous big name brands. It really is Plastic City and the civic signage often has a Sprue/Runner theme to it!

Thunderbirds is still big after all these years and all the 80's Giant Robot shows are making a comeback too!

A Battleship Yamato at a huge 1/144 scale and a re-entry glider for all you Moonbasers!

That is also an example of THE FUTURE OF MODELLING which was very evident at the show. 3D resin printing is starting to eclipse injection moulded styrene for detail and complexity.

I saw one piece Destroyer funnels, with all of the pipework and anti bomb cages as a single piece moulding!

Check out that 1/32 scale jet cockpit detail!

Pre coloured models are also taking a big step forward, as this bike kit shows. Multi-coloured castings, platings and what I assume is Tampo paint detailing.

There was a booth with live 3D scanning. The resulting photorealistic figures are being 3D printed in full colour at any size from 1/12 down to 1/150 scale with no loss of detail!

...and Scalectrix put in a good show with BTTF DeLoreans for Parts 2 & 3 and The Batman Batmobile. No prototypes of the upcoming Captain Scarlet range, though.

All up, an amazing day out. Already crammed into my skull, alongside my memories of Wonderfest 95!

...and now to calm down!

Looey

Japan

Cosmic Candy: Arto's Space Sweets Tube

Here's a brand new addition to Helsinki Base collection, a candy container tube from the 1950's adorned with space graphics. 

By rotating the tube, statistics of different planets in our solar system will appear in the line of slots.

Who said that Pluto is not a planet! (for me it will always be)

The tube measures 28 cm.

Have you anything like it?

Arto

Helsinki Base

Mooch Ado About Bedale

 A recent visit to the lovely North Yorkshire town of Bedale found me mooching in a toy shop.

This display of military action dolls and vehicles drew me in.

This Lookout Out Tower brought back happy memories of my Action Man assault tower.

I do like the look of these modern figures like these World Peacekeepers.

And this Combat Tank for the smaller soldiers appears to be the business! 

And speak of the devil, good old Action Man made an appearance too! A display of modern re-issues. I was SO tempted at £20 each but my gripping hands resisted! 

Would you have readers?

IT'S IN THE TREES!

 Last week the spring  sun was shining through the trees at the end of my garden, and I  thought it created a rather nice lighting effect, especially when I added a little mist from my smoke machine. 

So  I took the opportunity to take a few  photos of my 22" MPC Rescue Eagle kit  looking like it's coming in to land, amongst the leaves and bushes of some overgrown alien planet!

Mystery Moon Scout

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag0E6uHUphU

I saw the above clip a few months back and recognised the design of this toy straight away, but not the maker. Strangely enough, one appeared loose on eBay a few weeks later and I bought it.

I’m still unsure about the maker, as it’s just marked ‘JAPAN’ underneath. The design however is very familiar, as Lincoln International made a series of smaller clockwork toys in the late sixties, under the name Wind Up Mini Power.

I got one of these back in about 1968, followed by the army tank. In recent years, I discovered the Moon drill version, which Ed showed us recently. The range also includes a couple of jeeps, a loco, a bulldozer and possibly an armoured car.

As the red battery version, which is about 6” long compared to the 3” Lincoln models, came unboxed, I made a custom box for it and named it the Scout, as opposed to the Probe and Rover.

The moon models are window boxed, whereas all the others are enclosed in a small box with a key and a spare flint for the sparking action.

The last model I found before this was made by AOKI and is essentially the same as the green light tank, but with a quad gun mount for the AA battery.

The main body is cosmetically similar. The jeep versions include an army one with rear mounted 50 cal on a stand and a white police version.

Another Small Step

Some toys are just so unique, they are iconic. One such space toy is the Cherilea Space Pod. The body was originally used as a very limited run of Dr Who Mechanoids, to go with the Swoppet Dalek they made, but for some reason, they did not continue with the line and retooled the moulds slightly to make a small space capsule.

The pod usually came as a set of two, with three or four Swoppet Spacemen. I had a set back in the late sixties, but due to their swappable nature, they were gradually lost. Since then, I have found a couple more, almost complete. I just need a pair of ladders to make two full versions.

This week, I found a whole body and a lower body, along with a spaceman on ebay. The half body will hopefully get a new 3d printed upper hull, but the full sphere has been simply customised with some Lego retrorockets and new legs made out of sprue!

Its a little bit wobbly, but the lunar surface is unstable anyway!

Ed's Train Layout 'Building on Fire' Scene

Woodsy,

Here's a couple of shots of the 'Building on Fire' scene on my 3-rail O-gauge train layout which I call The Milwaukee North Western). The first photo was taken in August of last year. 

After a couple of years of placing that fire scene in different spots around my downtown area, I decided to put it in this corner. 

My goal was to get as many buildings as I could fit into my downtown to make a busy urban area, and this small space was perfect for shoehorning the building into it. The second photo was taken in January after a couple of buildings were added. 

The fire scene is a now bit harder to see on the one hand, on the other hand it still lends itself well to a busy, crowded city.

From The Milwaukee North Western,

Ed

A Case of Having To

 I bought a Ryan's World spy case for a squid.

It was empty and there was no way I could find the missing parts cheaply.

So I sprayed it black and set off on a mission!

Hope you don't recognise my new case!