Parainen Nostalgia Museum, Finland

Recently we visited the Nostalgia Museum in Parainen, SW Finland. 

A young lad had amassed an impressive variety of vintage items for his private collection on all fields of life, toys included.

 A grand day out!

Arto

Helsinki Base

Eko's of Spain

I love these little half-dome pocket games from EKO of Spain. There's something very space age about setting a game in a dome.

Have you anything like this? 

American Memories

The passing of another American icon of our childhoods, Jim Lovell, has made me nostalgic for some of the other Americans later in my life.

 Having been collecting toys since 1989 some of the places I visited Stateside have also gone. Here are just a few threads of gossamer to a lost American world.

Alphaville

Alphaville was a vintage toys and collectables store I visited with my Missus in New York City way back in 2001 on my 40th birthday trip to the Big Apple.

The store was packed with fabulous mint and beautifully packaged toys and kitsch, a true Aladdin's cave. I was thrilled to be there having discovered them first as an online vintage toys shop, one of the earliest I can recall just as eBay was imported here from the States went live in the UK in 2000.

Remnants of Alphaville still exist online including the two gorgeous bits of artwork here, typical of the cool retro-lounge imagery of their website, a work of art in itself and a joy to browse. I really do miss Alphaville. It closed in 2010.

Toy Scouts Inc.

What can I say about Toy Scouts Inc? Only that their founder Bill Breugman single-handedly introduced me to a much wider world of vintage toys, than I hitherto knew about, in his fantastic  book from the early 1990's, Toys of the Sixties, which I bought in 1993.

Bill wrote the History of Aurora too, which I have, as well as publishing one of the seminal American vintage toy collecting magazines, Model and Toy Collector.

I used to subscribe to Bill's auction catalogue, the heart of Toy Scouts Inc., and the one or two copies I have are prized possessions, jam-packed as they are with delicious collectables years before eBay. I think Toy Scouts are sadly no more.

Midtown Comics

This was another place we visited in 2001 in NYC, a large and well-known comics shop. I was stunned by the amount of stock they had and came away with a beautiful modern Green Hornet lunchbox and repro Captain Action Green Hornet outfit, both items for my toy fair stall I had back then. 

I imagine, unlike the first two here, Midtown have gone from strength to strength given the popularity of comics and graphic novels.

Strand Bookstore

Again, in the January of 2001 the Missus and me spent a happy hour in this fabulous New York book shop, which I seem to recall being not too far from the business district of Wall Street and the ill-fated World Trade Center.

It was - and may well be still - a superb bookstore and the section on collecting toys a real treat. I was a fan of John Toyzilla Marshall back then so jumped at the chance of increasing my books by him, namely Comic Heros of the 1960's, a tome I still love to leaf through.

I hope the Strand has thrived and thrived.

Happy days

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Do you know any of these readers? 

Will, James and Jim Lovell

I was so sorry to hear about the passing of Jim Lovell.

When me and my boy James met him many years ago we found him to be a lovely man … very chatty and happy to pose for pictures and autographs.

He really did have "The right stuff!" 

Will O

UK

JIM LOVELL 1928-2025

 Sad to read that astronaut, Jim Lovell  has passed away at the age of 97.

Although he is best remembered as the commander of Apollo 13, to me I remember him more as one of the crew members of Apollo 8, the first manned spacecraft to reach, and orbit the Moon in December, 1968.

As a youngster, I still remember watching on television, the moment Apollo 8 capsule landed in the ocean.

Early the following year, I also remember  seeing an offer in TV21 from Crosse & Blackwell, and sending away for 4 colour prints  featuring moments, including the well remembered 'Earthrise' photo, taken by William Anders ,from the Apollo 8 mission.

Our sincere condolences to his family and friends. 

ATOM GUN with Spark

I rather like this Japanese Atom Gun with Spark.

It's a sort of sawn-off tinplate gangsters in space affair. I wonder if 73 is significant?

The little rocket on the box art has a hint of the little LP one, which a lot of us have.

By SY, do you like?

LAST ORDERS FOR CROMFORD 2024

 A few final reminder photos from last year's Cromford event, before I take some fresh ones on Sunday.

As there is always plenty of Anderson related models on show, this post is featuring some of the wonderful models and replica puppets on display.

Also, don't forget Fanderson will be there too, and this year you'll be able to join on the day and get an extra special goodie bag.

                                                                           See you there!

Telly Watching

TV update:

Westworld: I finished it, sort of. Seasons 1 and 2 were amazing. Alas, they left the park in 3 and 4 and it just couldn't hold my interest. I skipped a lot of 3, saw the end and went into season 4. The spark had gone and all I could manage was the finale, Qué Sera Sera. Still, seasons 1 and 2 were riveting TV.

Moebius: caught this lower ranking Marvel character in his own flick last week. I used to read Moebius, the Living Vampire as a kid. Despite good make-up as a vamp the story was thin and it looked like a side-step from the Underworld franchise.

War of the Worlds with Ice Cube. Not seen this but a 0% rating on Rotten Toms has me intrigued. Can it really be that bad?

The Sinners: my nephew recommended this. He's in his thirties so I have to add a pinch of millennial salt. There's odd and strange comments online about fake positive reviews. Anyone seen it?

What are you watching readers?