At the Car Squash

 Over the past few years I've amassed tons of die-casts. It was great fun to do - they're just so plentiful and cheap at car boots -  and many I spent hours touching-up with Sharpies and paint pens in my fave armchair, a really relaxing activity I first discovered with a Batmobile.

Alas, my cabinet is bursting with die-casts now, squashed on top of each other and my Hot Wheels and good Superfast stuff are waiting in the wings for shelf space.

I've decided to thin out the herd and heeding my old collector friend Casinelli's advice to "keep your best Woodsy" I've boxed up only those models which I can live without. Quite a few as it turns out.

I'll be sorry to see them all go but I'm looking forward to displaying my other stuff.

I'm sure there'll be a few you recognise. They include mostly Corgi, some Dinky, the odd Majorette, two Yatming, some SIKU and one Lone Star. Oh and a Blue Box.  

Have you a lot of die casts? Have you had to thin out your collection?

A Motorbike Clearly

I just love the design of this Takara motorbike bot. The whole thing is one! Reminds me of the old Tetsuo films, man melded with machine! There's a Capsela feel to it too. I love how the helmet is a fairing! Looks like a Sea Devil!  

Is it Microman? Micronauts?

Like it?

June Lockhart 1925-2025 RIP

Hi

I expect many of you have already heard this sad news, but actress June Lockhart has recently died, aged 100. She was born on 25th June 1925, and passed away on 23rd October 2025, after a long career in films and television.

I remember her as the Mother of the boy in one of the many TV versions of Lassie in the 1960s; and then as Doctor Maureen Robinson in Lost in Space (1965-68). She was also in the horror movie She-Wolf of London (1946), one of the few classic horror movies with a female lead.

In Troll (1986) she played a witch, who transforms in to a younger version of herself – played by her real-life daughter Anne Lockhart, who had been in Battlestar Galactica.

There have been many tributes to her. Rest in Peace.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Kevin's TB1 Landing

Hi,

Just did a quick shot of my TB1 landing. 

Cheers, 

Kevin

Aerion Dream

If the Century 21 Moonship had wings it would look something like this I reckon!

There's a dash of Fireflash too! 

It's 3D rendering of the Aerion Supersonic Mach 1.4 AS2. What a plane! 

Alas, Aerion went bust and the plane remained a model.

 https://share.google/RVpNzkqRfknbl98wu

What's your fave supersonic jet?

William Stout?

 

Looking for something else I came across these Lost World cards.

All new to me, who is William Stout? 

Galaxy Fifties and Seventies

 

These Galaxy covers are ace.

 I'm sure the top spacecraft 2 is a model kit as well.

22 years later another great ship, this time transporting asteroid chunks being drilled by the photonic blaster. I love the little dog ship fetching the chunks!

Do these grab you too?

The price went up in these 22 years! 

Teenage Karimata

 As a young teenager I was obsessed with Samurai weapons.

One of my faves were the Karimata or braid cutting arrows. 

Recent I saw this set of hangers in a DIY shop and it all came flooding back, how I used the Y shaped ones to make my own Karimata, shoving the screw end into a bamboo stick and inserting card fletches at the other end. 

With my massively long bow they flew perfectly. 

Here's a sketch gallery of arrows including Karimata.

And here are the real thing with their tangs, minus the arrow bodies.

It's hard to put into words just how passionately obsessed I was with samurai and all things Martial Arts back when I was around 12 or 13 in the early 1970's. They were such gloriously happy days.

Here's a very grainy pic I took back then on an instamatic of my Kung Fu cellar in our house. You can just about make out a couple of bows far left on the back wall and at least one whistling arrow, but sadly no Karimata.

We're you into samurai or martial arts?