MORE 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY CONCEPT ART

 Photos I took at the 2019 London Stanley Kubrick Exhibition of  more Roy Carnon pre-production art for 2001.

'Space Station'

'Aries' over Clavius Moonbase.

Dawn of Man: Note the Monolith.

'Discovery' over Saturn

Sweet Vehicles: Milk Duds Diecasts

Hi Woodsy

You recently mentioned an American chocolate called Milk Duds. So I thought you might be interested in this trio of Hot Wheels Milk Duds die-casts.

They were originally made by Hoffman and Company, of Chicago, in 1928. But are now made by Hershey.

Caramel pieces covered in milk chocolate (although the formula was changed, and it is no longer technically chocolate). Milk Duds have gone through several owners over the decades.

Haulers were a fairly short-lived line of Hot Wheels heavy trucks, released between 1997 and 2002. There were a limited number of cab types, fitted with various body styles.

This conventional-cab model has a white die-cast cab and chassis, with a yellow plastic body, and is from 1997. It was also available in a four-model Haulers Gift Pack.

On to 2010, and the Sweet Rides series of 20 models. These were from one of the premium lines, with metal bodies, metal base plates, and Real Rider wheels.

The Milk Duds model was a '49 Ford C.O.E. (Cab Over Engine) truck. This time in yellow and brown.

Haulin' Gas was a streamlined petrol/gasoline tanker, in yellow, with brown trim. It was part of a ten-model Hershey's series from 2011, and was again a premium model with metal body and metal baseplate.

Four photographs from Worthpoint

Paul Adams from New Zealand

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA HOT WHEELS

 As I've said in the past, I'm not a fan of the garish look of Hot Wheels cars, but, as I've also said there are exceptions.

Here's a couple of Battlestar Galactica 1978 contenders.

These were released by Mattel in 2013, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the original series,  and use commemorative blister-packs with backing cards that look like the original Mattel packaging from 1978.

 

Woodsy's Book News! American Friction

After five more years of research I've published a second volume on the less-well known Jack Rosenthal toys. 

Having hit the ground running it took half the time volume I took, a whole decade! 

This second volume covers JR toys released by other companies like Gordy International and also UK toys not covered in the first book. 

It's smaller than volume I, with fewer pages so Blurb print it for less. Photography is in part once again by our very own Bill.

It was great fun to do on Blurb and volume III is now also in the works.

This new volume II is called..

 American Friction.

 Details will remain in the side-bar. Should you be interested,  ask me about a discount code.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA LUNCH TIN

 Some photos of the Battlestar Galactica lunch tin, made by Aladdin Industries in 1978.

Another piece of spin off merchandise I'm pretty sure we never got in the U.K. This lovely example is currently on eBay.

Sarge Lives!

 As this round of our MoonBase International custom toys slowly comes to a close, our latest reincarnation is this 1960's Action Man knockoff.

This was Bill's childhood buddy and along with some of the original kit he totally deserves a new lease of life. The buddy that is, not Bill! 

With a good scrub-up and freshly cleaned clothes, Bill's buddy, via the Quartermasters Store, has been sent on one last mission before hanging up his dog tags:

To secure the back garden for the summer!

Mission Status: SNAFU!

After debriefing, The next step in buddy's reinstatement and immediate de-mobbing will be a new retirement package, which is currently in pre-production.

In the meantime our plastic chum is off down the NAAFI for some well-earned tiffin.

Said retirement package concept is pictured below, a full backing card designed by Bill with a baguette box blister I found in true rack toy style. 

Alas, Bill's old buddy proved just too buff for that blister, so a simpler demob package was offered, a basic baggy with this neat header card produced by Bill, his buddy now re-named The Sarge.

Fully bagged up, Sarge is now looking forward to some decent kip in the cabinet.

Hope you like it.

Conan's Back!

 Last week I dropped on a neat Hasbro Conan Thunder Battle Stallion from 1993, complete with armour for the horse and figure.

A full and glorious box set would look like this example online. Besides a Conan figure I'm also missing his original sword, sickle and the red horse crossbows.

Then finding a correct and bargain pull-string sickle-slashing Conan on eBay I've been able to further my Thunder set. 

I then re-coloured his locks, boots, wristband and shorts (I don't have the right brown tho!)

With a new DIY sword and fully armoured up, here's Conan and his horse ready to battle evil and sorcery again.

Hope you like it.

Addendum:

Conan Conundrum!

There appear to be two versions of the Hasbro Thunder set.

One is just Thunder and just the word Conan

One is Thunder Battle Stallion and Conan The Adventurer

The question is, if I have the shield, do I need the sickle or not?

SPACE:1999 CONCEPT ART

A couple of examples of preproduction art by Keith Wilson, showing Area 2 from 'Breakaway '.

Baron Greystoke was reminded of this image on the 2001:A Space Odyssey soundtrack album.