Rob's Movie Monsters

Woodsy,

Just inspired by your recent post on HR Giger to gather up pix of some of my favorite movie monsters.

As you can see, they tend towards the fanciful & fantastic. I've always gravitated towards the bizarre and unusual in creature design, and the stuff that came after Alien lost me entirely.

Anyways, a short list:

Godzilla (Showa-era ONLY!)

Rodan (Showa-era ONLY!)

Hedorah (Showa-era ONLY!)

The Trollenberg Terror

Rat-Bat-Spider (Angry Red Planet; I know Wotan HATES this movie!)

The Crab Monster

It Conquered the World

Alien from The Atomic Submarine

Gamera (Showa-era ONLY!)

Guilala (Showa-era ONLY!)

Behemoth, the Sea Monster

Metaluna Mutant!

Just so folks don't think I am beholden to all 50s and 60s monsters, I will say that I never cared for the Creature from

The Black Lagoon, or the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. Too "normal."

I like my monsters WEIRD.

Rob C

USA

HOT WATER

As I've said in the past I'm not even remotely a fan of Hot Wheels  , but  I will make an exception for this little beauty.

There's also a FAB 1 and an SPV in the set.

W E S T W O R L D

Having inadvertantly subscribed to NOW TV for a month I've been cramming in as much Westworld watching as I can late at night when everyone's in bed. 

I loved Yul Brynner's original Terminatoresque madbot gunslinger when I was a kid (never seen Futureworld though), so I was sad when I only saw a bit of HBO's epic series first time round. It went pay to view I think and vanished. 

This time I'm properly captivated and thoroughly enjoying it. 

Oddly, I adore the late Michael Crichton's view of the world, that large-scale man-made networks, in his particular case theme parks, will eventually screw up and break free. The very definition of SNAFU! 

I only need to consider BBC News coverage of Vogue's controversial debut use of a female AI supermodel in this month's mag to see how its starts, artificial perfection. But hey, maybe I'm just watching too much Westworld so ignore me! 

Anyways, the series is phenomenal and the slow collapse of the park's systems and the growing sentience of the liberated and vengeful cyborgs (is that what they are? Or are they androids?) is riveting. Like a town full of Terminators!

I'm currently at a point where the story arcs of pivotal characters, both robot and human, are coming to a head and intriguing new beginnings beckon. 

There's a whiff of a new park round the corner too, Samurai World!

I simply cannot wait!

Do you like Westworld readers? I wonder if there's ever been any toys or collectables?

UFO PAPERBACKS AND OTHERS

 The UFO paperbacks, U.K. and U.S. editions.  

Before the days of video, reading these, (the British ones in my case) the single UFO annual, Countdown comics and the occasional piece of ephemera  was the the only way to relive UFO when it wasn't on TV.

I loved reading the paperbacks, which were based on several of the episodes. They are dated 1971, and written by Robert Miall, one of the pen names of John Frederick Burke.. 

SID is shown at an unusual angle on #2. 

The American paperbacks are dated 1973. I wonder whether the OTT sub-titles helped sales?

Just like the UFO dot-to-dot book in my earlier activity book post, and the U.K. edition of the #2 paperback, the photo of SID isn't  how we saw it on TV . No up or down in space I suppose.

I wonder why the page designer used a photo of a UFO escape pod rather than an actual UFO on the cover of #1? Unfamiliar with the actual series, perhaps!

Countdown was a big deal when it first came out, and seen as a successor to the classic TV 21. Unsurprising, as most of the editorial staff were ex-TV21 employees.

The middle pages helped to introduce the main characters and the vehicles. 

The first time I saw any footage of UFO on TV was a advert for Countdown, which showed a clip of a SHADO Interceptor firing it’s missile.

I received the annual before I'd seen a single episode, and didn't know anything about the series' premise, apart from a brief mention in Joe 90: Top Secret comic. Apart from the much later Fanderson annual,  this was the only UFO annual produced at the time. 

The Countdown annual appeared after I'd finally watched the show, and  featured photos from the last batch of episodes that hadn't been screened on TV at that point.

(I believe the story behind those later episodes and reason for a delay in production was Ed Bishop had injured his leg, and filming was postponed for a while.  When filming re-commenced the MGM studio where the first batch of episodes had been shot had closed, so the series had to be relocated to Pinewood)

The second annual still had UFO as the lead story.

A nice publicity photo Look In cover from 1971. No real UFO content though, apart from a competition. 

TV Times Christmas Holiday Special with a feature on Unbeatable Fashion Opportunities. Another piece of ephemera  I got  prior to UFO being shown in my local TV region, Granada.

The fabulous Marine Hawk

 I noticed this beautiful box art online.

It's the Marine Hawk kit by MIDORI.

One of four fantastic plastic kits pictured on the box side.

Four more kits are pictured too including Stingray and the Terrafish.

It must look great built up. Anyone got one?

UFO ACTIVITY BOOKS

Who had these back in 1971. I remember seeing them all in my local WHSmith's at the time and didn't pick them up, preferring to buy the paperback UFO books instead

To be honest, I wasn't that enamoured with the activity books' underwhelming covers.

Nowadays, I'm still not impressed with the covers, but right now I'd  gladly add them to the collection!

Brian's Tudor Rose Men in Space

Woodsy

Here's another unusual Tudor Rose space toy: Men in Space Flying Platform. 

It's one of those spinner launcher toys, but it has a delightful twist: two small hard plastic Tudor Rose figures standing inside a basket affair.

 I think the Americans first came up with the idea - you can see spacemen attached to spinners on a couple of early space guns. 

If my childhood experience is anything to go by, the spinner would have lasted just a couple of hours before it landed on a neighbour's roof.

There's a Batman version of this toy that goes for silly money.

Cheers

Brian H

Cocktail Man

 Whenever I see cocktail swords I think of Action Man! 

Stuff like the gorgeous dress uniforms.

Will they fit in his hands? 

Have you any household items that would look good with Action Man or GI Joe readers?