Terranova's Minifig Marvelman

Hello Woodsy, in reply to Kevin's Minifigs, here is my Marvelman at play.

Terranova47, NYC

Are there any more out there?

Little Mister Marker...Looey's TV Commercial Japanese Street

Hello Woodsy,

You wanted a story about the model Japanese village I was building for a TVC (television commercial)...

First, the build reminded me of a l situation I was in in the 1980's. There, the builder had had a heart attack in his forties. He rethought his life, bought himself a Harley bike and a leather jacket with the tassels and vowed he was a new man. Then he took on the TVC from Hell, got back into the same old same old, and was dead soon after!

This time, my pal from Superman Returns called me up to say he was building a bunch of miniature set ups and could I help? I was budgeted for 10 days and my work was mostly assembling laser cut carcasses, detailing the surfaces and doing the painting and detailing.

The big rub was, it was being shot in 4K resolution -or maybe 8K...

The lines of communication on this gig were woeful and never improved.

We had to make our own decisions, to stay on schedule then days later, changes would be demanded...

For 4K, my skills amassed over 30 years in the trade would need a massive upgrade. In the old days, I'd squint to get an idea of what would hold up for film resolution.

 As I moved into video production, I had to be much subtler. Now, I have to weather objects to the human eye, as if they were museum grade models.

 I was working on a series of Japanese houses that had to look used, but not grubby. As such I ended up using the barest smudges, as can be seen below the diamond shaped attic window.

There were also twisty problems, like painting graphics and writing on a corrugated roller door.

I couldn't transfer a tracing onto the bumpy surface, so I had to copy everything by eye onto the tops of the ridges and then paint down onto the valleys! The next time I'll make decals!

Just after I'd finished this, we got a shipment of new acrylic paint brush pens from China.

They were a revelation! I started off drawing graffiti all over the New York set, but quickly found they were better for painting figures than traditional brushes that need to be washed out for each colour change. 

I dusted off Superman pre-painted figures for the street dressing. A mark of the changing times, was having to re colour the red trucker caps on some of the figures as they have a different meaning now!

The marker pens were great for hand painting Japanese characters onto 30mm high paper lanterns. I copied the designs from a photo in an eBay listing!

I did everything from turning shiny white Barbie furniture into rococo antiques, to carving two square metres of Japanese paving into foam sheets. Using only a pencil and a lump of rock to bash in the texture, I dry brushed the results for a winning finish!

I don't have any pics of the final set up, as that was beyond my budgeted time. But having been retired for ten years, it was difficult snapping back into 10 hour workdays. 

I managed it, but I was exhausted by each day's end. - at least I didn't have two hours travel time each way to Fox Studios, to worry about after all that work!

Having pandered to unrealistic and unworkable demands, from people who wouldn't listen to three veteran's combined 90 years of on-set experience, I'm glad to be out of the game again.

From now on, the only unrealistic and unworkable demands I'll be pandering to, will be my own!

Back to my puppets!

Looey

Oz

Sixty Years Ago Today!

 It was 60 years to the day that Thunderbirds first graced the telly in the UK.

Blimey!

A lifetime ago!

And I've just realized that I will have seen it in black and white, missing all those fabulous colours!

An incredible show, one of the most important things I ever watched and there's a direct link between me seeing Thunderbirds and creating this blog 42 years later. 

Dee Anderson was on the morning News this morning celebrating the 60 year anniversary of Thunderbirds. She'd brought an original Lady Penelope puppet, spoke about her partnership with Andrew Powell and the prospect of new products such as make-up. Dee handed the presenter a pink box, which I assume is Lady P style make-up set for adults.

The new Thunderbirds exhibition in London at the Museum of Brands was also on the news report. Apparently it's the biggest public display of Thunderbirds toys and collectables in the world including some very rare items, curated by superfan Malcolm Garrett, ex-Duran Duran album cover designer:

 Thunderbirds & Space: 1999 – Sci-Fi Toys & Collectables Exhibition | Museum of Brands

https://share.google/Zn0Llsab5BbmWOh3S

When did Thunderbirds appear in your life and what's your favourite vehicle or episode readers?

Tuk Tuk Tuk

Hello Woodsy

Here is the Tuk Tuk or as called in India CNG AUTO RICKSHAW an all plastic model with Pull Back Action.

Also pictured is a CNG AMBASSADOR with Pull Back Action.

MAHINDRA classic SPORT Jeep

PALIO SPORT Saloon car

All four models are of Indian made vehicles by CENTY TOYS who made all these models in India.

Terranova47

NYC

Snyder's DC Justice League: A Dark Compulsion

Image: Warner Bros.

 I've re-watched Zack Snyder's Justice League the last few nights, the director's incredible four hour cut.

I watch tons of Marvel Super Hero films - there's so many - but there's something more compelling about DC's movies.

DC's characters appear crestfallen, hurt and in hiding. Batman, The Flash, Aquaman, Wonder Woman Cyborg, even a black-caped Superman; they're all damaged individuals, often bearing overwhelming guilt for not helping their dead, disappointed or imprisoned parents enough in their dark pasts.

This seam of melancholy is different to Marvel's sunnier noisy bromances and yes, I would say that the DC movie-verse is tinged with sadness, the death of Superman being the essential tragedy at its broken heart. It's not news, it's just taken me awhile to figure it out.

The whole world grieves when Superman passes. Things are greyer, it rains more, the world is suffering the death of a deity ( sadly I'm pretty certain there's no-one like Superman in the real world for whom the entire planet would grieve in this way. Or?)

 Snyder's skill makes Clark's Mother's and Lois Lane's own private and dreadful mourning palpable to us all too. Lois's grief and Batman's guilt appear to be the film's driving force.

In Marvel it's the blip that ails the population's soul. Rather than a demi-god like Superman - Marvel doesn't have anyone supremely good like him really, other than Captain America - it's the 'blip', a universal event that instantly causes the loss of half the world's (and universe's) denizens - which brings about global confusion, apathy and mass hopelessness.

The music score of Snyder's Justice League is equally morose and fits the dark times perfectly, none moreso than in the almost-final bonus scene, Batman's apocalyptic future knightmare.

*Spoiler Alert!*

This dream offers no real hope either. The world is ravaged, reduced to a desert-like husk. Darkseid has won and even worse, a dark Superman is his ally, enraged with hatred by the death of his beloved Lois at Batman's hand.

The League looks beaten: Batman is weary, Aquaman is dead, the Flash looks nervous and when the cookie ultimately crumbles perhaps it is indeed only the Joker's insane laughter that makes any sense at all.

See what I mean! DC is compelling!

Japan SF Exhibition 2022

Hi Woodsy, in search of different results on the world wide Web, I tried different search queries.

I put "1960s Japanese SF illustration" into Google Translate and translated it into Japanese. Copying and pasting the resulting bunch of characters into Google and selecting Images, so I could see what the hits were, I found some very interesting results.

The following link (handily translated into English) is for an exhibition of artwork, including pictures by Shigeru Komatsuzaki that I'm unfamiliar with.

I hope you Moonbasers will enjoy it too....

https://www.showakan.go.jp/kikakuten/sf%E5%86%92%E9%99%BA%E3%83%AC%E3%83%88%E3%83%AD%E3%83%95%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AA%E3%83%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AF-%E6%8C%BF%E7%B5%B5%E7%94%BB%E5%AE%B6-%E6%A4%9B%E5%B3%B6/

Looey

Oz

Bear Facts: The Mystery of Arto's Granny Bear

A while ago Arto found a cute boxed plastic Finnish toy bear by Telex at Finland's Juthbacka fair:

This is it, Rukki ja Karhu.

One of a group of toys Arto owns, curiously, it also made reference to England's Palitoy-Vogue on the box side in a small boxed panel.

 Intrigued, Arto and I began to dig and attempt to unravel the mystery of his spinning Telex Granny with English roots in Palitoy.

First we found a small picture of Vogue toys on the far left here, an auctioned Palitoy Progress 1957 Retail Catalogue.

Further clues appeared on the cover of this auctioned Palitoy and Vogue / Cascelloid Export Catalogue 1959, which pictured a similar Granny Bear in her Rocking Chair top left!

And then we found this! A whole Vogue stock list from 1957:

https://share.google/9gZURBCa7jVSG33Uo 

Which lists ....

"Granny Bear Spinner no. P231"!

Yes! That's her! Arto's bear! 

Arto adds: 

"Checking this Vogue list further, the next item on the list, "P232 Rocking Dobbin", was marketed in Finland - and I have it mint boxed!"

Then we saw the section "Mechanical Toys" and P225, P229, P230, P231, P232 and P233!

Bingo!

There they all were! Granny Bear Spinner and her five clockwork friends!

Result!

To conclude, Arto sums up the fruits of our research on his elusive plastic bear: 

"Granny Bear Spinner is one of the five plastic mechanical toys "Made in Finland of original English Palitoy and Vogue parts", as it states on the Finnish box by Telex. The original English toys are included in the Vogue January 1957 export price list ....

.... The Telex ad in Helsingin Sanomat, November 6, 1956 promotes the toys as fresh novelties (Uutta! New!), so they arrived in Finnish shops in late 1956. The ad mentions Cascelloid along with Vogue as providers of the toy parts, which were then assembled in Finland. Pictured Granny Bear Rocking Toy and Granny Bear Spinner only, no mention of Cinder Sid here (nor Rocking Dobbin either, have to check later ads).

The story continues!"

This post compliments Tapani Suominen's Telex research on his Fintoys page:

https://www.fintoys.com/telbear2.html

And by the power of the internet and Arto's fabulous collection, here are photos of some of the six toys listed -

(Arto adds: "the Vogue Granny Bear I bought from Sweden. My Telex Granny Bear is missing her bonnet (pictured below, yellow chair). I also have the bear with the broom (Sweeper) and Rocking Dobbin too, but cannot locate them right now."

Enjoy!

*

Granny Bear Rocking Toy

P225

(Arto also owns a Finnish boxed Granny Bear in Her Rocking Chair or Keinu karhu kutoo)

Granny Bear Sweeper

P229

Baa Baa Black Sheep

P230

(Small catalogue picture)

Loose toy pictured below right with the sewing machine in the group of three 

(Arto's collection)

*

Granny Bear Spinner

P231

(Arto's Finnish Telex version shown above and below left. English original not found)

Rocking Dobbin

P232

Picture Not found

 ( But stored in Arto's collection: in Finnish, Keinuhevonen or Rocking Horse)

Cinder Sid

P233

(Small catalogue picture)

Picture of actual toy not found

( And the only one missing from Arto's collection!)

*

Re. Finland, Arto adds " This set of Telex toys was advertised here (Finland) in newspapers already in November 1956, suitably for the Christmas '56 market. I will check if Cinder Sid was mentioned in the ad."

*

And The Portuguese connection!

Similar toys made by Osul.

Granny Bear Sweeper

And the same bear with wheels! 

Anymore for anymore?

Get Out A Dodge!

 I picked up this shift-weary Polistil Dodge ambulance last week. I tend not to buy die-casts now as I went overboard the last few years -I've hundreds! - but this still had its plastic stretcher and for a squid I had a punt.

Missing a red siren, two small lamps, side lights and some orange trim, along with a few scratches, I set to and had a go at fixing it up.

With several bits from the bits box and a roll of site tape it came together quite well, ready for another big emergency in the city.

See what you think.