JUST ADD WATER

I was talking with my better half yesterday about iconic Seventies foods: meals like Coq Au Vin and Moussaka, the very first pizzas [frozen and to eat on the the high street - Pizzaland?], Mateus Vino in the flared bottles and the deliciously sloppy Toast Toppers. But we agreed that the classic Seventies meal, at the vanguard of the convenience revolution, would be completely pre-packaged and fit for an astronaut:

Menu:

Starter - Rise and Shine Powered Orange Drink [sadly no longer available] - just add water

Main- Vesta Chow Mein - just add water and fry the crispy noodles [ still available!]

Sweet - Arctic Roll - just add people [yes, it's back!]

What would your Sixties, Seventies or Eighties meal look like like?

LIFE ON TITAN?

I am totally entralled by NASA's theorising that there maybe rudimentary life on Saturn's Moon, Titan, a form of acetalyne-feeding micro-organism. The thought of life on another world is entrancing and frightening at the same time. If confirmed, for me it would be the most important event in history.

CLASSIC RANA: A TRUE FROG

One for the Toad. A whopper too, the Giant American Bull Frog kit! Bet it needed a whole tube of glue! I first saw this in the 90's when I bought a brilliant book on vintage model kits called 'Classic Plastic', which I enjoy browsing though from time to time. Similarly pleasurable tomes on my shelf are Board Games, More Board Games, Spin Again [I like old Board game box art!], Aurora Models and Toys of the Sixties by the pioneering Bill Breugman and Collecting Monster Toys by the ever-rewarding John Marshall. What's on your bookshelves, collecting or otherwise?

VEXED BY SPACEX: THE QUIZ

Using this great SPACEX family portrait sent to me over 10 years ago from the WOTAN archive, I wonder if you spacexers can name the Tri-ang toys pictured?

MODERN DYNA-SOAR BOX WITH NASA ANIMATION

STAR FEATURE:

VIDEO CLIP

                                                                                     
I imagine modern SWORD toy boxes to have video pictures. There's a brilliant vintage NASA animation on YouTube of the Dyna-Soar, which would look great playing on the box top! My IT skills don't stretch that far so I've put the link just below the box. [Anyone actually know how to insert YouTube clips into images?]

SWORD OF THE DAY

A small fleet. Or is it a flotilla? Squadron?

SWORD ON FILM

To get us in the mood for the Summer of Sword starting on the 24th here's a YouTube film of an Anderson exhibition in Blackpool in the early 90's. It's a bit long but tune in around 6.24 minutes for loads of great toys including tons of SWORD! [any other SWORD/SPACEX video clips welcomed!]

DOES PINO DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?

I don't know what Wayne Rooney said at the end of the England Algeria debacle but I'm as dejected as my Pino all alone in the attic. I spent a while with Pino a couple of years ago but he mostly cried and made me feel guilty. So the batteries came out and he went in his box. I often wondered what fifty Pino's would do in one room [witty suggestions welcomed!]. One things for sure, they couldn't do any worse than England in the World Cup!

And what do you get when you merge a Hoover with ALIEN?

LittleDog!

Yikes! Creepy!