8 Wheels to Tomy

 A stalwart of Tomy's space stable, it's 8 wheeled climber was a design classic. There are a number of variants and I'm unsure if this is the origin but it's a great example in that cool photo box. The blue rocket behind is another Tomy toy I think.

Do you have an 8 wheeler?

Chuck Norris RIP: More than Just a Meme

 I was truly saddened to hear of Chuck Norris's passing this week.

Like David Bowie and many other long-established stars, Chuck meant different things to different people. 

My 'Chuck' was his earlier Karate champion self, gracing the covers and pages of Sixties and early Seventies Karate magazines and eventually culminating in his pivotal screen role as the karateka famously fighting Bruce Lee in the Coliseum in the  Way of the Dragon, one of the most iconic martial arts battles ever put on film.

Bruce's other film, the definitive Kung Fu flick Enter the Dragon, changed the course of my childhood and I became immersed entirely in the the early 1970's Kung Fu craze. 

Chuck was always there too and after Bruce's untimely death it's fair to say Chuck wore his illustrious crown for a while.

All this is before his Missing in Action/ Lone Wolf McQuade/ Texas Walker career, which I have to be honest, I missed out on and have never really checked in on it since, but I know they're important to later generations of Chuck fans.

Perhaps the strangest facet of Chuck's later career were the internet memes. The only one I ever really came across was the early Google reply to Where's Chuck Norris? The witty response came back as you don't look for Chuck Norris, Chuck finds you. I was always amazed that Chuck's massive persona was able to sway an entire machine like Google to give a memed reply.

Maybe the memes are his legacy. A Meme machine.

But he's more than just a meme. 

For me, his legacy is the hard yards he put in as a Sixties American Karate champion, his pioneering presence when Eastern martial arts were just dawning in the West and his fabulous work with Bruce.

How I would have loved to have been that cat watching him scrap with Lee in the Coliseum!

RIP, Chuck.

Arto's Muovo Traffic Game

Hello Woodsy

As a quick response to your Exitoy Moto Cross post, here's something I acquired just a few weeks ago, an early 1960's remote control Traffic Game by plastics manufacturer Muovo. 

The player steers the minute cars and cyclists with a joystick which moves the magnet under the board, which depicts the Helsinki city center. One of the finest Finnish games in my collection.

Arto

Helsinki Base

Terranova47's 1951 Beano

My copy of Beano is older than your copy of Beano Woodsy!

Terranova47

NYC

Len Deighton, Novelist, RIP

Hi Woodsy

I expect you have already seen this, but I just spotted a news item on the death of writer Len Deighton (18th February 1929- 15th March 2026), aged 97. You have mentioned him so often, and I even have his cookbook, as well as a couple of the films based on his novels.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

*

Woodsy adds:

Thanks Paul, It's a great shame. I associate Len Deighton with my late Dad really, so it feels doubly sad, as it was his taste in novels. Deighton stood in his bookcase alongside Sixties writers Alistair McClean, John le Carre and Jack Higgins. My Dad was in the Navy in WWII and enjoyed his post-war spies in particular, which rubbed off on me during the Sixties spy craze and I still have the spy bug.

I haven't read any of Len Deighton's books myself, which I ought to rectify, if anything, to see what my Dad liked so much. The titles are part of spy book culture now, like Funeral in Berlin.

Several became famous Michael Caine movies, him playing the tough bespectacled Harry Palmer in Billion Dollar Brain, Funeral in Berlin and The Ipcress File, perhaps the most well-known. 

Here's Funeral in Berlin on VHS, given the Caine cover treatment.

The Ipcress File even made it to the toy factory and became a Milton Bradley board game. Now as collectable as Harry Palmers specs it's one I've never seen in the flesh ( not to be confused with the Odessa File game, which I have owned).

Have you any Len Deighton or Harry Palmer books and things?

Moonbase Mailbag

The Moonbase Mailbag has been unusually full this month, but, what with my Grandparenting duties and the subsequent rotten cold, I been distracted I'm afraid.

I shall empty the bag forthwith and post it's contents on MC this weekend.

Woodsy

The Post Room 📬

Saturday Morning Boxing Club: The Moonship Tester

 I've often lamented the fact that my three Moonships remain unboxed:

The white C21 Moonship, The blue Ahi Super Rocket Plane and the tinplate Chinese Moonship.

They have remained without properly-made boxes for decades, so I thought maybe it's time to sort it out, Moonbase style.

Having tried before to make boxes for two of them back in 2009, I remembered that the source material is crucial. The better the source the better the box.

There is no better Moonship box source than our friend Arto in Helsinki Base. With a collection second to none Arto kindly agreed to photograph all the sides of the C21 and Chinese ships and send them to the project's art department, namely Wotan Bill.

The Ahi ship is still the elusive box of the three, still the only known picture being a tiny one in a book and only part of it. Thankfully it's in colour, but more on that later.

Once the art dept had worked his magic the copies were then sent to me at MoonBase on both thin paper and thin card for cutting and construction.

Setting to yesterday I attempted a first dry run of the Century 21 box using the thin card graphics. 

I learnt a lot doing this test piece. The card needs to be much thicker, the joints pr-scored, better glue and a thicker window film that creases.

So here's test run box 1, the Century 21 Toys Moonship.

A joint effort (thanks Arto and Bill), we hope you like it.

Watch this space - ship!

Hot Wheels Optimus Prime

Hi Woodsy

In 2024 Hot Wheels released a model of Optimus Prime from Transformers in a series called Mattel Creations Collaboratory. One of their premium lines.

In 2025 Optimus Prime appeared in the Mainline Screen Time sub-series. This being much cheaper than the previous model.

Red metal cab, blue plastic chassis, and chromed underside and grille. Black plastic exhausts, silver stripes, and opaque windows.

The model was part of the 2025 range, but the copyright date is 2024. A model for Transformers fans to look out for.

Paul Adams from New Zealand