Dan Dare on the Radio

Hello Woodsy

As a follow up to Serial Thrillers,

Yes it's interesting that early radio series in the UK were either detective/adventure or Science Fiction in the late 40's/50's. After WW2 listeners wanted to escape reality and rationing.

Dan Dare was on Luxembourg because he was a popular item and Luxembourg was commercial and considered buying the rights worthwhile. The BBC owned it's properties.

The stories of Dan Dare were adapted from the comic's stories, new material wasn't needed from the creative team.

Attached is Dan viewing a paperback. He's not impressed as he doesn't read Science Fiction!

Terranova47

USA

PS. Anyone recall Dan on the radio?

Corgi OO7 Little Nellie

Hi Woodsy,

In the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967), Bond flies a Wallis Autogyro, which is delivered to him in kit-set form in several large cases. The Autogyro was real, but the cases and their contents were props made for the movie.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2025/10/in-case-youre-007.html#comment-form

Following your post on the appearance of these prop cases on a recent episode of the Antiques Roadshow on TV, I thought you might like to see some rather more affordable examples of Little Nellie. Back in the 1960s, Corgi only did the Toyota 2000GT car from the film, but not Little Nellie (were they mad ?).

At the time, Airfix did a 1/24th scale plastic kit of Little Nellie, which has been re-issued a couple of times. This was in-scale with their 1/24th scale Aston Martin DB5 and Toyota 2000GT car kits.

Many years later Corgi released a range of mid-sized Bond models, from various films. They were available individually, or eight of them were available in a 'boxed' set which came in a round tin that resembled a film canister.

Here is my example from the Film Canister set. Little Nellie sits in the centre.

In the film poster Bond is wearing a suit, but on screen he is wearing a white, short-sleeved shirt and crash helmet. Corgi have him wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt, without a helmet.

There was also a die-cast model of Little Nellie in the Eaglemoss part-work The James Bond Car Collection. But I am not sure where mine is at the moment – in a box somewhere.

Anyone else got a Nellie?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Serie Moon

 These are neat and new to me, Series Moon by Giodi of Italy 

They look like moon construction vehicles. Don't think Matchbox had this series.

What do you think?

Yes, Minister!

 I saw an auction toy car listed as Minister. I thought it was the boxed black rolls at the top but it's actually the boxed red tinplate (I think) roadster bottom left. Is there a real car actually called the Minister?

It's a Dream: the Mattel 80th Anniversary Model

Hi Woodsy,

         The American toy company Mattel was founded in 1945, and 2025 is their 80th Anniversary. To celebrate, they have produced special Anniversary editions of various toys.

The first toy car ever made by Mattel was a large, friction-powered plastic Dream Car. This appeared in 1953, and was a 1950s version of what the cars of the future might look like.

To celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Mattel in 2020, a die-cast version of the Dream Car, now called the Mattel Dream Mobile, was released in the Hot Wheels range.

At first, this came in colours that matched the original, 1950s toy – red, blue, and green, all with silver trim. The Hot Wheels version is about a quarter the size of the original toy.

In later years the model was included in the Color Shifters and Color Reveal ranges. Color Shifters change colour when dipped in hot or cold water; while the Color Reveal models have an additional coat of paint over the top, which washes off when first dipped in water.

This 80th Anniversary model is in two-tone metallic red. The areas that are dark metallic red were silver on previous releases. The model has the word MATTEL inside the number 80 below the windscreen, and the date 1945 at the rear.

The interior appears to be grey, with smoke-tinted windows; and a chromed base, which includes the bumpers. Copyright date is 2019.

This Anniversary model is included in the HW Celebration Racers series for 2025, which usually covers things like Valentine's Day or Halloween. The Mattel 80 logo appears in the upper left hand corner of the card.

The Long Card style of packaging is the most commonly seen style in New Zealand, but Woolworths (previously Countdown) supermarkets have the Short Card versions. I managed to find both, which have slightly different graphics.

Do you like Dream cars?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

The Story of the Rings

My Granddaughter has made some gorgeous rings from plastic clicky rocks.

The top picture shows one ring, the bottom one shows off all of the rings. 

The end of each ring has a ships steering wheel.

They're called Rainbow Rings Special.

Hope you like them.

Brighton Toy Museum Video

Hi Woodsy,

I just discovered this interesting video on the Brighton Toy and Model Museum. It mainly consists of interviews with the people in charge.

You do get to see some of the toys – among them a Teddy Bear which belonged to the Father of the Museum founder; and a model he made of the ship on which he served in the Navy.

Most of the Museum exhibits cover the late 19 Century, up to the 1950s. The materials are mainly wood, metal, and fabric, rather than plastic.

The Museum is currently being refurbished, and there is some information on this. The Museum also has some very useful material on their website, such as old advertising and catalogue pages.

The Museum must be a great place to visit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjt0aAzRVis

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Just Visiting

This Argentinian Knockoff toy pistol caught my eye.

Two reasons: it says V on the grip sticker along with a small spacecraft from the show, a TV show I did watch and enjoy. Did you?

The card art may not be from V at all. Does anyone know?